Black velvet?

[freakintiger]

Hi all!

I have noticed that there is a small amount of a black/dark brown velvety substance on my button polyps. Anyone know what this is? This is happening in my 1.6g which I want to break down and add the contents to my sumped 10g...can't do that till I find out what this stuff is. Thanks!

[Six]

by "velvet" are you refering to the fish disease commonly called velvet? Or are you just describing the texture of problem?

 

without a photo, it is very hard to diagnose coral diseases/problems.

 

my gut instinct is that it's probably a species of cyanobacteria (AKA - cyano algae, blue-green algae, slime algae). They come in just about any color you can imagine. The normal colors are rusty red and green, but there are black species too.

 

Try searching "cyanobacteria" on google and see what photos pop up. Or better yet, post a photo.

 

Cyano is relatively easy to get rid of, tedious, but not something you'll need to tear a tank down to treat.

 

Good luck.