newb wondering what these are with photos...

[monkiboy]

hi -

i'm a newb and wanted to know what these things were in my tank.

is this what they call "red slime"? is it harmful? it hasn't grown or spread in over a month and is easily removable - is that best?

what is this? it closes most of the days and as soon as i feed, it sprouts and opens attempting to catch whatever teeny particles it can. it's really cool to watch and i have no idea how it got there. does it grow on it's own or just came with some of my live rock?

why is some of my substrate or rubble turning a copper color? this is a first. all my levels are in check but i think in order to have the red slime i probably have high nitrates and lighting which i supposedly don't have.

lastly why do most on this forum only have a tiny bit of sand in their aquariums? i got a bag of crushed coral and rock from the LFS to add a bit of texture and a warmer feel to the tank, is this bad? i have all kinds of 1cm to 3cm creatures under the rocks in the sand creeping and crawling all over. normal?



thank you for all your guidance and help!

 

[fastrd400]

Wow, nice pics with these questions. Okay:
1) Cyano (red slime) adjust or add more flow into the effected area
2) Feather Duster, they are really cool
3) Unload that crushed coral, and get a nice aragonite sand. Also, you have what appears to be diatoms which is what is forming the "copper" color

 

[Smitty]

+1 Fast...

 

[little_fish]

+2 Fast

Crushed corals just works to trap crap, uneaten food, and other detritus leading to water quality issues.

 

[monkiboy]

thanks for the input! so powerheads which were already on the list are a definite!

in regards to the feather duster - was it likely just a worm that came on one of my rocks and until recently didn't decide to show it's crown?

in regards to the crushed coral and shells - i have about a one 1.5" bed, 1" of caribsea live sand that i purchased and then .5" of the shells/corals on top. what is your suggestion?

should i get rid of as much of it as possible (moving my live rock and getting under it, etc would be tough and stressful for the fish i think)? remove just the coral?

what is an ideal height for live sand? should i do aragonite on top of the live sand? what is the optimal solution given my substrate ad tank situation right now?

 

[little_fish]

I would slowly suck out a small section of the stuff you have now, over a few months, that way you dont stirr up too much crud causing a mini cycle. But I wouldnt go crazy about getting under the rocks. But on a side note, your rocks should be sitting directly on the bottom glass. The substrate can shift over time, which could lead to a devastating rock slide.

For the sand bed you just want to keep it under two inches, personally I like a 1 inch bed. Much deeper than 2 inches and you can get really nasty product of biproducts building up in your sand which if disturbed could easy crash your tank, and its also not deep enough for the benefits of a DSB.

And any sand you put in there will become live. All live means is that it has a population of bacteria living on it that can break down wastes into less toxic chemicals. So anything you put in your tank (rocks, sand, powerheads, any available surface) will become live with bacteria. So just put in the cheap dry aragonite sand in.

And the feather duster might have always been there, but much smaller so you didnt notice him.

 

[monkiboy]

i had no idea - glad you folks know your stuff.

i will begin tomorrow by sucking out sections of the sand and coral over a couple months.

i definitely have my live rock formation on top of my substrate. oops.

and yes, now i know i could have just bought rock and then "livened" it with a small piece of live rock.

for future pieces of rock, can i just get dry rock and add or does that cause a "cycle" to begin and problems? if i can stop buying live rock because my tank is already live and just buy cheaper dry without ill effects, that'd be great to know.

once most of the coral and rubble is out, i will get aragonite and keep it 0-1inch thick.

what is DSB?

thank you very much!

 

[little_fish]

DBS = deep sand bed

And ya, you can add dry rock directly to your tank with no ill effect.

This is my favorite place to get dry rock, you cant beat their prices and their rocks are amazing. Lots of good shapes, holes and very porous!
MarcoRocks Aquarium Products

 

[monkiboy]

ah, ok, great.

yeah i've seen a lot of folks love marco rocks. funny cause that's my name, haha. i just wish they were indeed all my rocks! yep - i'm a dork.

one last question, there are A LOT of lil squirmy looking worms, -pede looking creatures (1cm to 1inch) in my substrate and rubble. is this bad and from excess waste? they obviously weren't there when i first got the bag of sand and live rock 2 years ago. does this mean i need to be extra careful when removing sections of the substrate as i could "crash the system."?

when i saw these guys the first time a year ago, i thought "wow my own eco system, i must be doing something right if i got things growing in my tank" and i have a feeling now, this is quite ignorant...

 

[little_fish]

They are probably bristle worms, which are a great member of your CUC! There are also a number of other worms that live in our tanks, I cant think of any bad ones off the top of my head. But they probably came in with your live rock.

 

[Amba]

Sand can be annoying to keep clean but $5 vaccum cleaner (flex tubing into a empty bucket) works good for mine.