Rock covered in tons of cyano

you mean like put it in a pot, put the lid on it, boil it in the kitchen until it starts freaken steaming, turn off the heat, and then all the cyano and algae is gone??? yeah that could work XD if my dad lets me

 

wait so thats literally what i have to do? that was a joke lol

 

I'm quite certain it's not cyano if it's not coming off with a toothbrush. It is either red coraline or turf algae. If it's fuzzy, it's turf algae (bad), if it has just a slight texture, it is probably coralline (good).

This picture is red coralline http://i499.photobucket.com/albums/rr356/thincat/blkwhtBrittlestarscopy.jpg Sorry for the arrows, not mine, found it online...

this is turf algae
http://www.zeovit.com/photopost/data/500/red_turf_algae.jpg

Red isn't the most attractive coralline, but no one really gets to pick their rock color. Whatever color survives best in your tank will take over eventually...

 

doesnt feel like coralline...

 

what does it feel like? If you scrape it with your fingernail edit: "lightly" does it come off? Or would you need something sharper like a knife to get it off?

 

thats not bad at all. for the first 4 months after i set my tank up all the rocks and the entire sandbed was covered with red cyano, I would manually remove it in the morning and by night it was all back, then one day it all disappeared. id just wait it out rather than boiling the rock and killing everything

 

i could still seed it since I have LR in my tank anyway

 

mine all died off after a cut down on feeding so since you only have a shrimp in your tank and dont need to feed alot, it will probably go away pretty quickly. otherwise id do what others posted about putting it in a bucket of saltwater from a waterchange and scrub it, the only thing i would do is use a real stiff bristle brush since a toothbrush wasnt working