Very Strange Algae

[ChitownRomeo]

I bought some Carib Sea Life Rock (The Purple Kind) about 3 months ago. For some reason It's starting to develop alot of brown spots on it. I also have Real Reef Rock and Some Marco rocks in the tank and they are full of Coralline. For some reason it's ONLY the Carib Sea Rock that is getting this brown algae. It's not Diatoms, It's not Dusty, It's not Slimy and not hairy..... I have no idea what this is and it's ONLY on this this type of rock. Should I ditch this rock and go with all Marco?

 

[jjmoneyman]

The rock itself is likely trying to go through it's own little mini cycle in your tank. I wouldn't sweat it, in a few months it will likely be just fine.

 

[Oxylebius]

Is it really brown or are your lights making it look brown? What color is it under normal white light, use a flashlight on it. Is it a maroon color instead?

 

[ChitownRomeo]

Is it really brown or are your lights making it look brown? What color is it under normal white light, use a flashlight on it. Is it a maroon color instead?

Its a dark maroon color. It's hard so it's not cyano or diatoms...

 

[Oxylebius]

I have something similar in my tank. It's hard, maroon and it has been there for years. Mine never went away, but it did spread. It doesn't hurt anything, just another type of encrusting algae like coralline algae.

 

[Oxylebius]

Here, I pulled some photos of mine. You can see that it is encrusting and maroon. I wouldn't ditch those rocks, they have lots of great looking coralline on them.

 

[ChitownRomeo]

Here, I pulled some photos of mine. You can see that it is encrusting and maroon. I wouldn't ditch those rocks, they have lots of great looking coralline on them.

Yea I see now. I also just got a flash light and looked in the tank and its on my Trochus snails shells and my Scarlet hermit crabs shell. This didn't start until I scraped the Coraline off the back glass of my tank...

 

[Danreef]

I have something similar in my tank. It's hard, maroon and it has been there for years. Mine never went away, but it did spread. It doesn't hurt anything, just another type of encrusting algae like coralline algae.

Not mine..... I had the brown algae growing in a small piece of rock with zoas. I got the rock with the zoas and that algae 4 months ago. I didn't realize it was an algae at that time. Bottom line, suddenly started to grow and started to cover the zoas. I took out that rock and during an hour I took the algae out from over the zoas. Almost all the zoas died under the algae. But I saved the uncover ones. A section grew over a main rock of the landscape. I cover it with glue and purple putty.

Daniel

 

[wscttwolfe]

I have something similar in my tank. It's hard, maroon and it has been there for years. Mine never went away, but it did spread. It doesn't hurt anything, just another type of encrusting algae like coralline algae.

I've had this too. It starts plating right? Mine went away after a year or so on its own

 

[Oxylebius]

I think these may be different from mine. I've had mine on these rocks going on 6 years now and they never have plated (had it on my rocks in my old 40g and stayed when they were moved to my rsm250). No plating, slow growing, not a nuisance to sps corals which grew over it. I have several different colors of encrusting calcium based algae (maroon, pink, purple, blue, green), some is definitely coraline algae, but not all and none have poised any problems that I have seen.

The one that plates may be Peyssonnelia rubra, but w/o a photo I can only guess. Look it up and see. It actually is a very pretty plating algae if you would like to keep it - help to suck up nutrients in the tank (and also Ca and Alk :goofy: )

 

[newo11]

I think these may be different from mine. I've had mine on these rocks going on 6 years now and they never have plated (had it on my rocks in my old 40g and stayed when they were moved to my rsm250). No plating, slow growing, not a nuisance to sps corals which grew over it. I have several different colors of encrusting calcium based algae (maroon, pink, purple, blue, green), some is definitely coraline algae, but not all and none have poised any problems that I have seen.

The one that plates may be Peyssonnelia rubra, but w/o a photo I can only guess. Look it up and see. It actually is a very pretty plating algae if you would like to keep it - help to suck up nutrients in the tank (and also Ca and Alk :goofy: )

Good to know. I have some of the plating kind as well and was always curious about it!

 

[Oxylebius]

Coralline algae also plates in growth and comes in a variety of colors, so post some pics here, let us see it.