Nano Reef ( White looking algae)

[ALEX J HOUSTON]

Hey can someone help me out please. My tank as been setup since 3/10/24. I've been noticing this white film on my rocks, should I be concerned? It's hard to get a clear picture because it's almost translucent.
Stated with
dry rock
Live sand
MicroBactor start
I run UV for about 8hr a day
1.025
8 DKH
380 CA²
1350 MG
8.0 PH
.2 PO⁴ ³-
.0 NO³

 

[Naekuh]

Can you take a picture in white light?

The blue light makes things difficult to see, especially on how the camera displays blue colors.

 

[ALEX J HOUSTON]

Can you take a picture in white light?

The blue light makes things difficult to see, especially on how the camera displays blue colors.

 

[Naekuh]

It looks like the beginning of a sponge.

Someone more knowledgeable can probably add on.
But looking at your pictures, i think your tank is still young in term of age, and is probably going though one of those stages, where sponge growth is normal.

 

[JNalley]

Looks like a sponge to me, too. What all do you have in your tank? Livestock, Corals, etc.

 

[ALEX J HOUSTON]

Looks like a sponge to me, too. What all do you have in your tank? Livestock, Corals, etc.

Mushroom, caption J poly, sunset stylo, and acid wash nem. Two clowns. About 10lbs of dry rock, 10lbs of live sand, and 15 nano tech bio sphere

 

[ALEX J HOUSTON]

Also never seen any signs of the ugly stage. My guess is the pods are taking care of the diatom bloom. It's literally about 10k of then. They basically own the tank lol

 

[Naekuh]

Also never seen any signs of the ugly stage. My guess is the pods are taking care of the diatom bloom. It's literally about 10k of then. They basically own the tank lol

give it time... everyone always gets the ugly stage... its sort of unavoidable, unless your a guru, or your BRS, and do 100% water changes to do a new video every week or something.



The hard part is toughing it out almost 6-8months and not giving up, with a tank that looks like something from the movie swamp thing.

 

[JNalley]

Ok, so, it's entirely possible the sponge was introduced via a frag plug... I've never heard of a sponge coming out of nowhere and figured it was dry rock, so... probably a frag plug had a small amount on it and just spread in your tank.

 

[ALEX J HOUSTON]

give it time... everyone always gets the ugly stage... its sort of unavoidable, unless your a guru, or your BRS, and do 100% water changes to do a new video every week or something.



The hard part is toughing it out almost 6-8months and not giving up, with a tank that looks like something from the movie swamp thing.

to be 100% honest I was trying to do the "BRS" cycle. I don't do huge water changes. About 1/2 G a week. My no3 and po4 is always at 0 so I dose coral amino and KoralColor by brightwell to try and keep the corals happy. Hopefully everything works out. Maybe I'll have nano tank of the month in a year or two

 

[JNalley]

to be 100% honest I was trying to do the "BRS" cycle. I don't do huge water changes. About 1/2 G a week. My no3 and po4 is always at 0 so I dose coral amino and KoralColor by brightwell to try and keep the corals happy. Hopefully everything works out. Maybe I'll have nano tank of the month in a year or two

You really don't want those two at 0, even dosing Amino's. With them at 0, Dino's and Cyano are the real threat. Work on bringing Nitrates up to between 10 and 25, and Phosphates up to between 0.06 and 0.1.

(Before you go dosing, just make sure you're using ULR Phosphate test and a HR Nitrate test, if you are, proceed with dosing/heavier feeding)