hey guys,is this good or bad algae?

[nightfire76]

hey guys/gals,me again here are pics of whats on my LR and want to know what they are,first up a pic of little disks that have just now popped up in the last week,they change from this clear color to a green color from time to time as the day goes on.....secound is of this green stim and as you can see at the end of it,flares out to a few more green stims....3rd is blury but its a brownish/clear flat leafy thing...4th is a darker green leafy thing that....5th is a pink,soft flowing thing.......sorry for the blury ones,the pink looks like macro algae to me but the rst im not sure of thanks guys

 

[sambrinar]

The red mat like stuff with the bubbles is cyano.. bad suck it out.. green blur, not to sure maybe hair algae, hard to tell

 

[nightfire76]

i didnt even know bout the cyano,ill suck up as much as i can when i do a water change tomorrow,is there anything else i can maybe buy as in chemical to remove the cyano from my tank?

 

[sambrinar]

you need to figure out what is causing the increase in Phosphate that is causing the cyano... it doesn't like high flow so you can direct a power head onto it.. add phosban to the tank, put it in a reactor or I have mine in a panty hose in the sump under high flow.. (ph directed at it)

I think the red stringy stuff is OK, not sure tho

 

[nightfire76]

if i need to ill post more pics of my rock but is the cyano just the fluffy looking stuff or all the dark red in my tank?

 

[lcstorc]

Cyano is more slimy than fluffy.
I can't give you any ids but it really doesn't look like cyano to me.

 

[Reefmack]

The algae in the first picture might be this type of Caulerpa:

Melevsreef.com - Caulerpa nummularia

Too hard to tell the rest from the pictures. The algae in picture 3 might be a type of Dictyota, or a Sargassum, but just guesses.

 

[nightfire76]

it looks close to Caulerpa so it seems to be the best deal so far for that one,thanks mack for that one...one question though....whys it ilegal in california to have it ive never heard of anything like that

 

[Reefmack]

It's illegal in order to keep folks from discarding unwanted and non-native macro algae into the oceans. Caulerpa can be a real pest algae when introduced into waters where it's not a native plant.

A Google search will bring up a lot of information - this is just one of many articles on why Caulerpa types are being banned:

Killer Caulerpa taxifolia Strain Spreading

Here's another:

SCCAT [THE CAULERPA INFORMATION CENTER] Southern California Caulerpa Action Team

 

[tektite]

#1 looks like Mermaid's Wineglass to me, though it could be that type of Caulerpa

 

[Reefmack]

It does resemble Mermaid's but the picture #1 seems to show it's propagating by runners - since the Mermaid's Wineglass is actually one single (large!) cell, I don't know if it uses runners? An algae expert I am not LOL!

Mermaid's Wineglass

 

[nightfire76]

well if you arent i am that much less

 

[sambrinar]

I could definately be wrong on the cyano, but the dark maroon looks like it to me... if it is it will lift off very easily with a siphon hose

 

[Bischoff1SBeast]

thats weird lookin

 

[nightfire76]

the dark maroon stuff wont lift like that,the bubbling red stuff there on the first pic is on a stim and ive id it as a red macro,not many sell it but the green one is sold alot,even our sponsures sell it,i though could be wrong that this red version is good,the brown clearish stuff im not sure what it is,that darker green stuff looks harmless to me but not sure,as well as the light pinkish stuff that flows easily in the current,i'll try for better pics

 

[sambrinar]

OK then not cyano.. I admit it.. I was wrong.. sniff.. LOL.. Isn't a first

 

[nightfire76]

ill try lifting it later to see if it is for sure or not

 

[Reefmack]

I'm not quite sure what to look for in the pictures, but if the red won't lift off with a siphon it may just be Coralline. I've had dark maroon patches of coralline.

 

[nightfire76]

its what i think also,thing im concerned mostly is on that same rock there is a puffy red thing,looks kinda cool but like i said when i do a water change later ill take closer pics

 

[johnmaloney]

ok so...lots of algae some pics aren't clear but I will give it a shot:

leaf grass looking algae - caulerpa prolifera - can grow quickly but i like it
the cup shaped green caulerpa next to it- could be one of like 15 species that look really close to that. All invasive nad can be hard to remove so I would just pull it.
short red wirey algae - gelidioposis likely (spelling is probably off) - pull it, it is a nuisance.
green thin mulitbranching algae - maybe a cladophropsis species? spelling is probably off) anyway ugly, pull it
green blurry picture - does the "plant" end in a star shaped "leaf"? If so then probably a species of dasyclaides. If it is just cylindrical semi-transparent algae it is likely a species of Valonia, some species of this genus are referred to as bubble algae. If the latter is the case pull it.

last pic might be the red one I was talking about before. It is really hard to see, and there is no scale.