View Full Version : mold on soft corals
i havent had time to test my tank in awhile so not sure of paramiters, but ill do that, today ill have time n then post em n this thread. the tank has been set up since january i usualy keeep salinity at .025 higher than most ive seen but everything was thriving n multiplying untill i had a calcium drop n overcorrected it. it apears to be afecting some n not others. the ones its afecting are mostly my newer frags that juuuust started to multiply. they are all the little short button lookin ones in orange or green. whitch JUST happen to be the ones i like most..lol..my dumb luck...or dumb tank monitoring skills rofl. ive heard of a two minute freshwater dip but i cant do that without killin off my rock can i? the rocks i have these on are larger rock and have more than one kind of corals on them.
also another question...how long does RO water stay good n the jug? its not aerated or nothing jus sittin n the jug. Thanks!
Beaux
Amphiprion
09-10-2009, 12:49 PM
You'll need to describe the problem in more detail. You mention a mold-like substance in your title, but you didn't elaborate on that at all. A complete parameter list (as much as possible, anyway), tank/equipment description, and some pics would help out tremendously.
ok its a 45g with alot of live rock(30-40lbs) (curse this phone it wont ket me upload pictures!) ive got a emperor 350 hot and a protein skimmer on it pluss a powerhead 201 to help circulation. inhabitants are a small flame angel a coral banded shrimp 2 prego cleaner shrimp (woo i hope sum of em live!) and a sand sifting star, pluss the usual blue leg n red leg hermits 2 big snails n several smaller ones (like apple snail sized africans or something i forget) theres also one or two little flesh colored things n there im not exactly sure about they kind of look like a TINY sea hare thats fuzzy. the salinity is at .024 but i added some ro today b4 i added it it was up to about .025 n a half or so. the mold looks like a thin layer of black mold like gets on wet sheetrock after its gottten wet a few times. (sorry construction background..rofl) took all the readings today except for calcium i could. no need doin that one its about 500 or so im sure, twas a lil above 500 last week. ph was between 8.2 n 8.4 so id say twas 8.3 but i always have a hard time unless its drastic color changes deciding what it is...lol. amonia was 0 nitrite was 0 and nitrates were 10. i may have been n error on my all of my tests befor this one because i usualy test 1 at a time n was evrything right after but this time i sat here n left the vials sitting full while i did the others n it seems it takes the nitrates test a minute or two to show a propper reading and before, i never waited lol. i also have a colony of star polyps that has some blood red hairy stuff growin out of it im curious about lol. so many questions, such a tiny fone screen rofl. thanks ahead for any help er suggestions :-)
Beaux
Ken b
09-10-2009, 11:01 PM
Not sure about the mold looking stuff but the red hair sounds like a form of cyano bacteria,usually caused by phosphate or nitrate,and the levels don't need to be very high at all.
I would empty the media out of the HOT,the foam sleeve and carbon, and use it for circulation only. Mechanical filtration on a reef tank is a no-no. The trapped food and waste releases nitrate and phosphate back into your water.
Let the skimmer take care of that and add carbon to the HOT for a day every so often just to polish the water. You'll see the nitrate drop pretty quickly.
Amphiprion
09-10-2009, 11:09 PM
Hmm. Can't really envision what you are seeing. I'm going to need a pic on this one for sure.
dangit!...n several other more harsh words..rofl. i have a stupid touch diamond phone and it wont let me upload a pic to this site. ill try to get to the coffeeshop soon i took a bunch but cant seem to get em online. will work on this soon but it may be a few before i can get em here. ill go fast as i can..lol. thanks yall!
Beaux
Amphiprion
09-11-2009, 10:52 AM
My suggestion is to use a free photo hosting site, such as photobucket. You can upload them there and simply type in the URL between the tags to get it to show up on the page.
Beaux
09-13-2009, 11:35 AM
ALLRIGHTY N WOOHOO! rofl! i fiiiinaly found a site that works well with my htc diamond phone! its storemypic.com i think. loooks like ill haveto post them 1 per post unless i write the addys down but mebey someone will figure out for me if i could just post a url for ya to look at all of them. heres one of the alge on the corrals
http://www.storemypic.com/images/21coralfungus1.jpg (http://www.storemypic.com/view-21coralfungus1.jpg)
Beaux
09-13-2009, 11:36 AM
the ones not open are the ones with the bkack film on them, thanks!
Beaux
Amphiprion
09-13-2009, 1:24 PM
Try using a pipette or turkey baster to try and see if you can't gently blow it from the surface of the polyps.
i got pokey sticks..lol. bamboo skewers i use n the tanks to show folks tiny stuff and if i touch em itll blow off after i get it started. i kinda scratched it off of a couple of my bigger clusters and it appears to have done some goood because several of the edge polyps actualy came open today n i havent seen them at all in days. ill get a pic posted here n a second ive rearanged a few things n im gona clean the protein skimmer n filter bottoms out i can see alot of debris since i took out my filters. also i left the inserts in because they only have these lil ceramic cylinder things n them n theyre big so i haveto face em in the insert so water basicaly just passes thru em so its not gona catch too much detritus especialy if i shake them once a week or so do ya think? thanks!
Beaux
ok heres a pic of them after i dusted them off some came back out
http://www.storemypic.com/images/52IMAGE_174.jpg (http://www.storemypic.com/view.php?filename=52IMAGE_174.jpg)
Amphiprion
09-13-2009, 10:46 PM
I can't see the skewer making them terribly happy, either. Go to the store and get a plain, small turkey baster and use that to puff jets of water over them. It has a lot less potential for damage than the wood skewers you are using now.
I would have to say that a turkey baster is pretty much a "must have" reef tool. Any of the dollar stores sell respectable basters. A co-worker buys them from there for her field sampling, not so much because they are cheap, more because she's found they tend to work better than the ones found at the common department stores.