Furry Brown stuff on my live rock

[mena_fish]

Newbie here and we have been fighting this brown fuzzy/furry growth on our rocks. It peels away in whole pieces usually. The water tests perfect always...Could it be Cyanobacteria? (Read that article...) 8O

We got the tank from my brother -- 55 gallons with "bio-balls" (I am just repeating what he told me...sorry). We have a total of 6 fish - clown, sailfin, bi-colored angel, stripped cardinal and a lawnmower blenny, with an arrowhead crab, snails and red and blue legged hermits. Two weeks ago we added a hairy mushroom (which is growing like crazy).

So what do I do - peel it away, leave it, get something to try to eat it? :? And yes I tried to take a picture of it, but didn't have much luck, will have to try again.

Thanks for any help. Love the site!

 

[ChrisRD]

Hello and :welcome:

It could be cyano, but without a pic it's hard to say for sure. Can you syphon it off the rocks? Cyano can form slimy sheets that will peel/syphon off in pieces. It can also have a velvet looking appearance.

Cyano, as with many other nuisance algaes, is the result of excess nutrients and/or poor circulation in the tank. More aggressive circulation and nutrient export and/or reduce nutrient import is generally the solution.

We can make more specific recommendations if you go into more detail about the tank setup (age, filtration, etc.), your feeding/maintance routines, what you're using for source water, etc..

 

[Len]

If the tank is new and your doing proper control of nutrients (using RO water, good salts, protein skimming, water changes), the algae will probably go away on its own. It doesn't hurt to siphon it out though.

 

[JFDII]

I had something like you describe too. It started out as round brown spots on the rock and eventually grew into fuzzy-leafed clover like algae. It is Lobophora (not sure about the spelling). I've seen it called brown wafer algae. It will take over a tank. I wish I had scrubbed it off the rock with a wire brush when it was young and limited. Do a search, there are pictures on the web of it, and if it is what you have get rid of it now. Fox Face Lo are reputed to eat it (sometimes). Good luck.

 

[LA-Lawman]

any FYI...

in sprungs book on algae. he mentions not to do too many water changes during this portion of the cycle. you want to do the change when the algae is in it's die out phase as not to spark another bloom with the addition of nutirents.

hope this helps

 

[Anonymous]

another bloom?

What's a bloom? What does it look like?