Mysterious White Fuzzy Stuff

Chamby112

Chamby112

Amphipod
M.A.S.C Club Member
#1
#1
Does anyone know what this is? My guess is it is some type of fungi. It is only in dark spots under my live rock. All my Params are stable. I am trying to figure out if it is something I should be concerned with or not. Any help is appreciated.

Tank: 6mo running
Ammonia: 0
Nitrites:0
Nitrates: 0
Alk: 8.2
Calc: 420
Mag: 1600
Sal: 1.023

View attachment 12702

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zombie

zombie

Dolphin
M.A.S.C Club Member
#2
#2
Looks like sponges to me, but hard to tell from low resolution slightly out of focus pic. That is normal, expected, and not a problem.

With that said, there are some secondary issues with your parameters unrelated to the sponges.

1. SG for a reef tank should be at NSW levels of 1.026 not 1.023, which is only advisable for FOWLR tanks. If you dont have a calibrated refractometer or conductivity probe, get one before slowly adjusting to reef parameters (the easiest way is to just do normal water changes at the correct salinity and it will slowly adjust on its own).

2. You should not be reading 0 on nitrates. If you are, you are either doing the test wrong or your test kit sucks and you need a more accurate one.

3. If you are growing corals, you should also be testing for phosphates.

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Last edited by a moderator:
Chamby112

Chamby112

Amphipod
M.A.S.C Club Member
#4
#4
Sorry the picture isn't better. I can't afford a better camera cause saltwater aquariums. Lol but, it doesn't seem slimy really. Its really airy and fluffy. So its hard to tell. I just noticed it in 3 spots. Ill watch if it grows more, but it doesn't seem photosynthetic.

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zombie

zombie

Dolphin
M.A.S.C Club Member
#5
#5
Chamby112 said:
Sorry the picture isn't better. I can't afford a better camera cause saltwater aquariums.
Click to expand...
You would be surprised the quality you can get from a phone pic. Just takes a bit of practice. The key is to use the "manual" or "pro" mode on the phone, keep it steady with a tripod or using the glass to help you stabilize it, use manual focus, turn down your blues a bit, and set the white balance as blue as the phone will go.

The first pic below is a shot in auto at normal lighting. The second pic is tweaking in the pro mode and turning the blues down a tad. Both shots taken from a galaxy S9, though I was getting similar results with an S5 back in the day.

View attachment 12703

View attachment 12704



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Chamby112

Chamby112

Amphipod
M.A.S.C Club Member
#6
#6
zombie said:
Looks like sponges to me, but hard to tell from low resolution slightly out of focus pic. That is normal, expected, and not a problem.

With that said, there are some secondary issues with your parameters unrelated to the sponges.

1. SG for a reef tank should be at NSW levels of 1.026 not 1.023, which is only advisable for FOWLR tanks. If you dont have a calibrated refractometer or conductivity probe, get one before slowly adjusting to reef parameters (the easiest way is to just do normal water changes at the correct salinity and it will slowly adjust on its own).

2. You should not be reading 0 on nitrates. If you are, you are either doing the test wrong or your test kit sucks and you need a more accurate one.

3. If you are growing corals, you should also be testing for phosphates.

Sent from my SM-G965U using MASC mobile app
Click to expand...
I normally maintain SG of 1.025 but had an ATO malfunction at the end of July and I've been slowly raising it back up. Also, I do weekly water changes and use a red sea test kit which comes back with 0 ppm on nitrates regularly. Is it abnormal to pull zeros? Finally, I do test for phosphates using a Hanna checker, though I have read getting an accurate test is difficult. I often run two test, one from the main water column, and one from the sand bed to try and get the most accurate read possible. Any recommendations are welcome! Thanks in advance.

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zombie

zombie

Dolphin
M.A.S.C Club Member
#7
#7
Chamby112 said:
I normally maintain SG of 1.025 but had an ATO malfunction at the end of July and I've been slowly raising it back up. Also, I do weekly water changes and use a red sea test kit which comes back with 0 ppm on nitrates regularly. Is it abnormal to pull zeros? Finally, I do test for phosphates using a Hanna checker, though I have read getting an accurate test is difficult. I often run two test, one from the main water column, and one from the sand bed to try and get the most accurate read possible. Any recommendations are welcome! Thanks in advance.

Sent from my VS501 using MASC mobile app
Click to expand...
Most "clean" SPS tanks tend to hover around 1-3ppm nitrates and 0.04-0.16 phosphates. The red sea is a good test, so it might be testing error. I have the same kit and it is very touchy if you don't follow the directions to the T. Particularly the step when you mix in the first solid, you need to mix it vigorously until the precipitate nearly disappears and the liquid warms back up nearly to room temp (that step of calibration is exothermic and is finished when it stops cooling the liquid), which takes a full minute of shaking the hell out of it.

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Chamby112

Chamby112

Amphipod
M.A.S.C Club Member
#9
#9
Thanks for the info guys. Ill keep an eye on it, and monitor my,testing more closely. Also sorry for,posting this in the for sale portion. Still getting familiar with the forum.

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