I lost my shrimp a few months ago...unfortunately. I loved that little bugger.

I have Red Sea Salt and Instant Ocean Reef.

Nothing seems dead. I count all my crabs and snails. My blue gudgeon isn't looking too good, but I'm assuming poor water elements or lack of.

I change my water once a month, but I have an ATO. I've been told two theories behind water changes. Many and rarely. I tried rarely it seemed to be ok, now I have this white junk. I'll increase to twice a month, see if that helps.

Also, I realized one of the Kent products I added contained a partial percent of crude protein. Perhaps that is the key to this white junk.

Ren

It is hard to make a definitive call on what it is without a clearer picture. To me it looks like it could be the start of a white sponge colony. I have rocks that started this way and over time the sponge got thicker. However, when it starts out it can look like a thin white slime coating. Sponges are good by the way. The help take up nutrients.

Also, you don't seem to have a very large bio load so your live rock should be fine. It should be more than enough to support your one fish and a few invertebrates. Or do you have more fish in there?

Anyway, if you don't like the white "Junk" then brush it off and suck it out of your tank. Otherwise I wouldn't panic. :-)

how do you define not looking good? Do you have a picture?

His eyes are darker than usual. He has trouble swimming and when he does come out of hiding, he's always hanging off the rocks. He used to be an "open swimmer" but now he seems to be dragging himself along. Unless he's entering his teenage years, I have no other explanation.
Ren

PS: I'll try to get a picture of him or a video.

I also got the same diagnostic from my friend. He told me not to worry and it's probably just sponges. However, how did they come to be?
Ren

They hitch hike quite easily on live rock. Often times they are there but you just can't see them at first. They filter feed and take up nutrients in the water so if all of a sudden you start to see an explosive growth in a sponge colony (kinda like what you're seeing), it could be because it has found an abundance of nutrients in the water.

I don't think it's sponges but with out a better picture I can't be sure. I had a very similar slime before and lost everything except the hardiest leathers and polyps. In my case it was from running bio pellets. I started out with you much and the bacteria exploded in population and the high population of bacteria used most of the available oxygen.
I would do a good sized water change, and start that skimmer and don't add any more additives.

Lighting spectrum? new or old bulbs? all sorts of funky things grow in poor light:mrgreen:

Poor lighting, I have a Radion working at 40% of its intensity.

I bought some live rock to help the biological filtration out.

The skimmer is skimming. I believe my gudgeon died. While I changed my reef scape I didn't see him once and I've been staring at the tank since 4:30pm and he hasn't made an appearance. My corals are starting to open slowly but surely and I increased the temperature of the water. The LFS has his tanks at 26(79) C(F). Breaking news, the gudgeon isn't dead. He seems to be frightened by the new rocks. Hopefully he'll begin to feel better after the water change.

I'll keep you all posted.

Ren