Ok. This may not be the best forum for this question but with such a smart and educated audience, I thought I'd ask.
I have a unique kind of bacteria in my tank that forms a thick base under a hairy fuzzy growth. It's black in color. It doesn't spread through the water very effectively. Instead, it encrusts sideways on the rock. It holds up to EXTREME flow and grows under direct light. It looks like mold but microscopic investigation confirmed that its bacteria holding on to bacteria. It actually looks to be several microbial organisms including cyano whose mucus seems to play a role in the base's adhesion to rock. We have photo and video surveillance of the pest:
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh...567904&page=23
I've been researching bacteria-eaters trying to handicap this growth (
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-01/eb/index.htm).
I've used chemiclean to break it up but it returns. I know that the sponges in my tank are good bacteria consumers but they can't go on the offensive against this encrusting offender.. can they?
I've thought of pulling out little pieces of sponge and blending them to "inoculate" the reef hoping to get them closer to the problem. But they'll come back in the cryptic shadows instead of the brightly lit high flow zone of this pest.
Note that my corals are still growing very fast and my tank is very healthy with no algae except in the fuge. But this growth actually pushes against the coral growth plate wherever they meet. Some coral even grows fast enough to go up and around it, but what a waste of energy.
It doesn't kill my coral, but it fights it. No fish or snails eat it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jason2459
And the vids. Will work on getting all the vids up to my youtube too.
 Black_Mat_Sample01_01 by Jason, on Flickr
 Black_Mat_Sample01_010 by Jason, on Flickr
 Black_Mat_Sample01_011 by Jason, on Flickr
 Black_Mat_Sample01_012 by Jason, on Flickr
 Black_Mat_Sample01_02 by Jason, on Flickr
 Black_Mat_Sample01_03 by Jason, on Flickr
 Black_Mat_Sample01_04 by Jason, on Flickr
 Black_Mat_Sample01_05 by Jason, on Flickr
 Black_Mat_Sample01_07 by Jason, on Flickr
 Black_Mat_Sample01_08 by Jason, on Flickr |
Ideas?