mattinlasvegas
09/28/2011, 12:59 AM
Hey guys,
can anyone identify this:
http://www.egr.unlv.edu/~matt/f/p1.jpg
it started growing on my rock today (5th day after setting it all up) - it all developed in less than 12 hours while I was at work.
It looks like the fabric you find on a micro-fiber couch but it is fairly easy to rub off with a tooth brush and it does not smell bad at all when you get it out.
Notably, it has mainly collected on pieces of lichen that was on the rock (I know - I should probably have scrubbed that off, but the fish store guy didn't tell me and what did I know!). The rock is not 'live' it was just aquarium rock ($1.99 a pound) from the fish store; I rinsed it pretty good (or so I thought).
I postulate that it is a bacterial growth because of the lichen dying and decaying in the salt water, and I expect that it will go away once the tank has finished cycling and the biological matter from the dead lichen has been eaten, but if anyone can either refute my theory or back me up I would be real happy.
If it is a bad thing (who knows?) then what would you suggest I do .... again the tank is only 5 days old. 8.8 Ph, 300+ alkalinity, .25 ammonia, almost not nitrates or nitrites (I would assume that it would be too early to see that after just 5 days right?) btw, 100 Gallon with a 450 GpH Rena Xp4 filter. No skimmer yet (fish store guy said wait until everything is cycled) and no carbon filter either (fish store guy also said to wait until everything has cycled).
Thanks for helping a noob out ;-)
Matt
can anyone identify this:
http://www.egr.unlv.edu/~matt/f/p1.jpg
it started growing on my rock today (5th day after setting it all up) - it all developed in less than 12 hours while I was at work.
It looks like the fabric you find on a micro-fiber couch but it is fairly easy to rub off with a tooth brush and it does not smell bad at all when you get it out.
Notably, it has mainly collected on pieces of lichen that was on the rock (I know - I should probably have scrubbed that off, but the fish store guy didn't tell me and what did I know!). The rock is not 'live' it was just aquarium rock ($1.99 a pound) from the fish store; I rinsed it pretty good (or so I thought).
I postulate that it is a bacterial growth because of the lichen dying and decaying in the salt water, and I expect that it will go away once the tank has finished cycling and the biological matter from the dead lichen has been eaten, but if anyone can either refute my theory or back me up I would be real happy.
If it is a bad thing (who knows?) then what would you suggest I do .... again the tank is only 5 days old. 8.8 Ph, 300+ alkalinity, .25 ammonia, almost not nitrates or nitrites (I would assume that it would be too early to see that after just 5 days right?) btw, 100 Gallon with a 450 GpH Rena Xp4 filter. No skimmer yet (fish store guy said wait until everything is cycled) and no carbon filter either (fish store guy also said to wait until everything has cycled).
Thanks for helping a noob out ;-)
Matt