This is a piece of coral that I used over 20 years ago, and has not been in the water since. In fact, my wife was using it as decoration. That pink stuff is very weird looking and just appeared a few days after I put it in the water. Do I need to scrub it off?
I just did this, I turned a power head towards it, it immediately started peeling off and got sucked into the overflow. I don't believe it will make it through the socks in the sump, but it looks like it is working.
manual removal works in the short term, but typically it will come back. Silicates and lack of flow are usually the culprit, that said there are many reasons bacteria can grow.
I had a problem in my nano when I was running one vortech. I added another one, and it went away after a month or two. Just don't let it build up on corals, and you should be fine. It is probably stuff leaching out of that rock, especially if it's just been sitting around for 20 years. Should eventually go away.
I think I need another power head, the tank is five foot wide and there is no where to place it to make sure it has good water circulation in all areas
It's 5 feet and only 1 powerhead? I'd say you need at least 1 nice and powerful one on each end. Mine is 4' and I have the output split in the center then a gyre on one end, an MP10 on the other and another one aimed down the back of the rock. All on various programs so it's not just blasting one direction constantly.
I don't think every tank needs two, just depends on the size of tank and size of pump. The gyres are pretty dang powerful and you might be able to get away with one of the bigger models. I know mine is just a 130 (now the 230) and it packs quite a punch. You can see it move the water completely to the other side, hit the wall and wrap under and return. It's really cool to release a pinch of flakes in the flow. I like the gyre because of this. I think John uses Tunze and Doc uses MP40 ... all have their place I think. Just depends on what you need.
my fish wont eat unless I push the feed button on the controller and shut the power head off. I have watched them, they wont even go after the food.
You can alternate flow with the gyre. You can make it pulse or rotate from forward flow to reverse ... I'm sure there is more you can do with it but I just have mine reverse every 30 seconds.
I got an open box Jebao on ebay, put it on the other side of the tank, and took a toothbrush to the nasty stuff, it has not come back. I am dealing with more conventional stuff now, algeas. To much of one, not enough of the other. Snails and crabs that are picky about what they want to eat.
As I'm sure your aware, algae is a "normal," problem. If it's overwhelming, you might try Vibrant. I've not personally used it, but lots of positive reviews on R2R.