What's this?

[scramer74]

It's on one of my life rocks. Looks like it's getting bigger.

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[ttheus]

Looks like green hair alge.
how established is your tank?
how often do you feed?
How many hrs do you run your lights?

 

[lsu_fishfan]

It's hair algea. Grows during the cycle. Mine just started to grow last week

 

[hiimsean]

Mine was a PITA but eventually went away with some waterchanges and the help of some turbo snails.

 

[jennm]

Are you talking about the hair algae, or the red thing?

 

[scramer74]

No sillys, the red/pinkish thing on the very top of the rock/dead coral. It's tee-tiny. I'm actually very proud of my hair algae. It's the only thing with color in my tank right now

 

[jennm]

Is it hard or soft? If it's hard it might be coralline, if it's soft it might be a macro algae like Dragon's Tongue.

 

[scramer74]

Thanks Jenn!! Leave it to a girl to notice the small red dot. So it's ok to leave it there for now?

 

[jennm]

Poke it and see what it feels like. Chances are it's OK - but if you want to know what it is, we need more info.

You really should get the hair algae under control. It's a scourge if it runs away on you - it looks like it's already got a good foothold in the tank.

 

[scramer74]

It's definitely hard. I'm afraid to do anything with the algae because I'm almost done wth my cycle. It's only growing on that one live rock I put in. Will the cuc take care of that one I put them in or not?

 

[jennm]

It's probably coralline then - the red thing.

The hair algae is too long for clean up crew to do anything with. I'd get the rock out, and scrub it with a (previously unused/keep for the aquarium use only) toothbrush, and give it a swirly in some saltwater (not inside the tank).

It can spread and it will spread. If you scrub it in the tank it will fly around and settle someplace else and you'll be in a world of hurt with it.

Get rid of it NOW while it's reasonably contained. That might kill the speck of coralline - but you'll grow more coralline. Hair algae drives more people out of the hobby than about anything else.

Jenn

 

[scramer74]

Thanks Jenn! I know I keep hearing horror stories about it.

 

[jennm]

Ounce of prevention beats a pound of cure - especially with hair algae.

 

[picoreefguy]

honestly the red thing looks like the shell of some kind of tube worm to me. but either way its not worth keeping if you cant get rid of the algae without killing it as well. id say just pull it out give it brush down and rinse it off like jenn said. or if you dont mind killing the bacteria on the rock give it a bath in some vinager after the brush down and rinse it with fresh water then let it dry completely before you put it back in the tank

 

[scramer74]

Thanks Pico! I did take it out and scrub it. If it pops up again I'll use the vinegar method, Thanks for the indea on that. I have a few rocks epoxyed together and can't really be taken out easily. What do people usually do in those cases?

 

[camellia]

scramer74;1019506 wrote: No sillys, the red/pinkish thing on the very top of the rock/dead coral. It's tee-tiny. I'm actually very proud of my hair algae. It's the only thing with color in my tank right now

Lol