WHAT is this Stuff?...

Hello all.

Everything was fine, and pretty much still is.
I wanted to start a frag area in my sump, so I got this black egg crate from a lfs- it's initials are BF.
Now I know they don't make the rack, and it was a reasonable price- for black egg crate.

After just a week or two- this brown fuzzy stuff is growing on the egg crate, and on most of the frag plugs too.
This in the only place in my system this stuff exists!
I pulled it out about 10 days ago, scrubbed it off everything, and aftger a few days- back it came, worse now than ever.
No other changes.
Again, it's the only place it exists in my entire system.

What is this stuff? And ideas for getting rid of it. Again- only on this one area- big time.

 

Marbe a dinoflagellate? What?

 

Not dinos, you're lucky!

http://homeaquaria.com/saltwater-algae-control-the-ultimate-guide/#Dinoflagellates

 

I have the same stuff on my rack but more hairy. Looks like you have Dino or some form of bryopsis. I think your egg rate is leaching.

 

Calothrix? Else, chrysophytes.

 

heard the same thing of crates leaching causing algae blooms... magnesium kills macros im pretty sure... but not positive. has worked for me, before dipping new frags (only 2 acro frags and a monti) would put 3ml of mag into 2 cups of tank water and next day any macros or algae on the plug are gone... friend was doing straight mag dips for zoa frags with problem macro algae but wasnt comfortable for sps so i started to do the increased mag dip.

theres some very reasonable acrylic racks... likely even a local guy that makes some... have a few here in south florida... the guys who built my sump/fuge (evolution aquatics) make adjustable ones that are just slots not holes so you can spread them out as much or little as wanted.

 

Bio pellets are basically just plastic.Depending on the type of plastic used I suppose its possible you are feeding bacteria.I often wondered about adding plastics to sw systems.Hmmmmm.Anyone have any ideas??

 

Thanks to all for the replies,

I'll comment on a few

It's only on that eggcrate- so I agree that it's probalby leeching.

What can I do other that manual removal?

I've got my Mag to over 1500 again (Saifert stops at 1500) and it doesn't seem to be helping.

 

TTT

 

If it's chrysophytes, it'll be self limiting once the eggcrate stops leaching. If it's calothrix, I'm not sure.