blue green cyano?

[tonyg]

Hey guys, Ive been noticing these spots for some time. They seem to be slowly growing. They only seem to be on one rock. I plan on taking the rock out to try and clean them with a toothbrush as soon as my fuzzy chiton moves to another rock (which may take a while.) Any tips on dealing with this stuff? Is it cyano? It looks really slimy.

 

[little_fish]

Does it come off very easily?

 

[tonyg]

Dunno, haven't tried it yet. Was hopeing to get advice here first.

 

[little_fish]

That will help us tell what it is. Cyano will come off really easily, its a dark purple sponge it will be harder to get off, and if its a dark coralline it will be sure hard to come off.

 

[Bifferwine]

It looks like it could be some sort of red velvet algae as well, which also peels off quite easily.

 

[tonyg]

Stuck my hand in there today and found that the spots scrape off quite easily, but they wont peel or pull off. Looks like a stiff bristle brush will make really quick work of the gunk. Do you think its safe to do this with the rock in the tank? Or will I spread it if I don't take the rock out?

 

[tonyg]

Its been a week since removing the spots, It seems to have started to come back a bit. I'm not to worried about it now that I know manual removal was so easy.

For some reason i'm always very hesitant to try and scrape or scrub anything off of the rocks.