What's this white bubbly snotty stuff on my live rock?

[Oscarmk]

I've had my 75g for 18 ?months, I used all base rock, phosphates at .02 with measured with ultra low hanna checker, 0 nitrates, mag 1320, KH 8.4 Ca 390, 1.0245 SG. Initially I didn't have any of this white snotty stuff on my live rock, but lately its been very annoying, it is not an eye sore because its mostly transparent so you can't really see it unless you are up close, but sometimes it gets in between my zoas and corals. Originally I though it was dying Hair Algae, but it just appears without there being HA first, I do have some HA atm, but very minimal.It feels very snotty to the touch, and it doesn't pop if you touch it, but any light scrubbing immediately dislodges it. It seems to grow pretty fast and it only grows under lights, shaded areas have none. Here are some pics, including a tank shot:http://i68.tinypic.com/69expc.jpghttp://i66.tinypic.com/242adzl.jpghttp://i65.tinypic.com/11cb3py.jpghttp://i66.tinypic.com/24cy0p5.jpg

 

[jenkinscrew]

Looks like some kind of bacteria bloom maybe. Have you tried to blow it off or is it stuck pretty good?

 

[Oscarmk]

Some parts of it are loose enough to be blown away with a turkey baster, some are not. if you do any light scrubbing, it comes off really easy. I also though about bacterial bloom, it has lasted at least 6 months now.

 

[integra3g]

I have had the bacterial snotty bloom and this does not look the same. ?When you have the bacterial bloom, it will collect on any surface that meets the water line. ?It clogged up my ATO float valves and you could run your finger along the water line and collect a ton. ?This looks more like some type of sponge to me. ?Curious to know myself!

 

[Oscarmk]

This one definitely is only on the rocks, no problems with clogging, since it mostly stays on the rocks, ocassionally blown away by current. It does look like some kind of sponge, however it is only in lighted areas and sponges generally grow everywhere but specially in darker shaded areas. It also grows pretty fast, I hand scrubbed one of the rocks completely clean, it is not completely covered again, but in about 4 months it grew back whatever it is. It is also not on all rocks, the ones on the sides that get a little less light don't really have any. I have resorted to ?periodically hand scrubbing them which is quite easy but time consuming because of having to put the rocks back in place, ?atm only 4 rocks have it, but I can see others have small traces of it.This started appearing even before I added any corals to the tank, which I recently started doing, whatever it is, it somehow came from the base dry rock.

 

[integra3g]

Would you be able to pull it off the rocks with a strong siphon from a half inch hose? ?I used one to get hair algae out of my tank. ?I attached a toothbrush to the end and went to town on it. ?It worked really well as long as my tank flow was turned off.

 

[Oscarmk]

I have done that as well and it does work well with the toothbrush, but for some rocks I find it faster to take them out instead. Main problem is that it seems to keep coming back.

 

[jenkinscrew]

What do your phosphate and nitrate parameters look like?

 

[Mike R]

I'm with Eric, some sort of sponge.

 

[jenkinscrew]

I have a small sponge that is kind of that color but it doesn't grow everywhere like that, just in a ball. I wonder if trying to remove it will just spread it around and make it look like that.If it is sponge and you want to get rid of it, you need to pick it off the rock and remove it so it doesn't stay in your tank. I think scrubbing it, unless siphoning at the same time with no flow, is just going to spread it.

 

[Oscarmk]

Thanks, I have been removing rocks and scrubbing, its definitely better than before, I only do 3-4 rocks every other week, so there's always some left, maybe I need to be more agressive on it. I agree the only thing that matches is sponge, but this is one fast growing sponge that needs light, it never grows on shaded areas. I also purposely introduced pinneapple sponges for filtration and those grow mostly under the rocks or shaded areas, I don't have many of those in contrast to this other sponge.My nitrates are at zero and phosphates at .02

 

[integra3g]

I think I would just let it grow at this point and see what it does. ?I am curious to see if left alone, it starts to look more like a sponge.If you really just want it gone, try putting those rocks where the sun don't shine (sump?). ?Possibly in a bucket with a power head and heater.

 

[jenkinscrew]

Here is a pic of the sponge ball I was talling about earlier.View attachment 678

 

[Oscarmk]

I have let it grow for months now , it seems to always look the same, sometimes it becomes a little more brown like like if it was dirty. I might have to do the bucket. I have a eshopps rs-100 sump with divisions, and there isn't really space for much else at all, only for the marine pure plate, oversized skimmer for my tank, 2 pumps and filter sock. I wouldn't have space for a bigger sump anyway below my 75 cabinet since I also keep my ATO water in there and my reactors.?Chris, I actually had the exact same looking sponge on my biocube before for about 3 years, it never grew and always looked the same, I didn't keep anything from the biocube though and sold everything and started with all base rock, the weird thing is these sludge started appearing before anything at all was added to the tank except for fish.I am still not convinced it is a sponge, I think it is a weird type of algae judging by how fast it spreads and how it needs light to survive. I will continue scrubbing, it's getting better and my phosphates nitrates are always at .02 and 0, my base rock will stop leeching phosphates soon, and it will be gone I hope.

 

[jenkinscrew]

I wonder if a blackout period would have any effect, like do your cleaning and then a blackout to see if that beats it into submission.

 

[Oscarmk]

I haven't tried that, but I suspect it would help, since it only grows in lighted areas. It is getting a lot better but mostly because of my manual removal i think.

 

[jenkinscrew]

Glad to hear it is starting to go away!Do you ever see any clean up crew try to eat at it?