Although generalized lists of causes and solutions are possibly the least precise when it comes to diagnosis and remediation, the author thought a quick reference guide might prove invaluable. Despite substantiation in peer-reviewed literature and its adherence to scientific principles, no white sources are cited, insofar as the following is commensurate with the author’s observations.

Fig 3. An undesirable aquarium-cultured expanse of red slime algae (cyanobacteria) that manifest as a green or burgundy mat. These kinds of microorganism fix (assimilate) dissolved dinitrogen gas (DN2) as particulate organic nitrogen (PON) whilst they manufacture the intracellular intermediate ammonium (NH4+) which leaks from their cells. Hence this diazotrophy enriches dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN) destined to become nitrate, whereas their growth is supported in immature systems abounding in ammonia, or within those with disproportionate accruals of phenols, or those enriched in microbe-derived dissolved hydrogen sulphide gas (H2S) and/or CO2. Maximise the liberation and absorption of gas at the surface (degas/regas) because cyanobacteria are indicator organisms that alert aquarists to diminished dissolved oxygen (DO), while they constitute the microbial mat observed on black band-diseased corals (Fig 4.). Nominal turnovers in uncovered displays and sump throughputs must exceed 20 and nine times the entire system volume per hour. Image courtesy of Arvind ©; a Reef2Reef.com forum contributor.

Fig 4. Black band disease (BBD) of Pseudodiploria strigosa which only manifests like most coral ailments, at temperatures exceeding 25oC. Image courtesy of Dan Mele ©.

Chris Aslett
As the principal director of Reef Ranch Publishing Ltd and author of The Complete Reef Aquarist – A Conservation Manual, Chris has over 55 years of experience keeping aquatic animals with 47 of them nurturing marine species. His innate passion for system dynamics drove him from the laboratory to university where he gained a greater appreciation of biochemistry, biotechnology, epidemiology, genetics, histology, inorganic and organic chemistry, mariculture, molecular and microbiology, saltwater zoology, and the diagnosis and treatment of aquatic diseases. His dedicated marine livestock supplier, The Reef Ranch TM , demanded he devise, streamline, and establish protocols for combined acclimation and prophylactic pest/parasite clearance, and innovate system design, optimisation, maintenance, and husbandry in the face of incessant influxes of hundreds of delicate marine animals. With exceptional, uncompromising, and likely the UK’s most disease-free reef and fish-only facilities, losses were less than one resident every six months. 20 years hence, he has refined his expertise for digesting, authoring, editing, and publishing reef conservation-driven scientific literature, to an end of diminishing the impact the tropical marine ornamental industry exerts in the wild.