Three mystery things popped up

[bph]

Howdy all,

 

Some things have been going on in my tank and I took a few pictures this morning and thought I would post them and see if anyone had any insight on if I should get rid of them or not.

 

Thanks in advance for showing interest and helping out!

 

The first one is some black bubbles. I know, these can't be good... right? Where the heck did they come from?!!?

 

 

 

 

The second is a red looking coral (?) I certainly never bought this thing... did it come from the live rock and fall onto the sand? A hitch hiker from some snails?

 

 

 

 

Lastly is some green stalks that are growing out of one of my live rocks. Good? Bad?

 

[L8 2 RISE]

1st ones bubble algae, emerald crabs'll do the trick or you can just pull it out.

[jamesbuf]

The first pics are bubble algae. Aka Velonia algae. You can read about it here: http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2002-02/hcj/feature/index.php

or wait for Rik to tell you all about it.

[Jon Lazar]

I would remove the rock the valonia is on, and pull the valonia off outside of the tank. Rinse the valonia-free rock in some saltwater, and replace in tank. IME emerald crabs seem to eat valonia, but not when it's huge.

 

The red stuff on the live rock rubble looks like a type of algae, not a coral. I don't know if it's a nuisance algae, but most algae is when it's confined in a reef tank.

 

The green stalks are not uncommon, and I've never heard of them becoming a problem.

 

You also have a moderate amount of hair algae on your live rock. If you haven't already, I would start looking into ways to combat it before it gets out of control.

 

Jon

Edited October 15, 2008 by Jon Lazar

[jason the filter freak]

The last two are benificial the first you definately want to get rid of

[bph]

You also have a moderate amount of hair algae on your live rock. If you haven't already, I would start looking into ways to combat it before it gets out of control.

 

 

Ya, I had a huge outbreak, and you are seeing the tail end (I hope) of my fight!

 

Thanks all for the help!!

[MisterTang]

Be careful with the second one. I have read about that stuff getting insanely out of hand on WWM. For whatever reason, it has been coming through on corals a lot more recently.

[Sugar Magnolia]

The last ones are called neomeris annulata. Perfectly harmless calcareous algae.

 

The second one could be one of two different things. Is it soft to the touch or hard and spikey? It's hard to tell from the pic. Hard to the touch would be foramineferans, soft would be some type of algae.

Edited October 16, 2008 by Sugar Magnolia

[ctenophore]

The last ones are called neomeris annulata. Perfectly harmless calcareous algae.

 

The second one could be one of two different things. Is it soft to the touch or hard and spikey? It's hard to tell from the pic. Hard to the touch would be foramineferans, soft would be some type of algae.

A buddy of mine in FL had this stuff get out of hand in his tank. None of his tangs would eat it. Just keep an eye on it because having a few is neat, but having a forest might not be.

[Sugar Magnolia]

That's good to know. I have one that just popped up on a piece of rock that's been in my tank for years. Very strange.