Can you ID this?

[Timbor]

Hi there,

I got the rock for my tank about a week ago, and there has been a bit of algae popping up. Still waiting for my snails to take it down in some parts...

Anyways, I noticed something that looks like a thick-type of algae, almost like a small blade of grass, but it looks like there is a bluish flower-looking crown type thing that has formed on the top.

Can anyone give me an ID for this? It's pretty much dead centre in the image.

Thanks!

Tim

 

[reefguru2]

Very cool. I cant help you with the id, as i couldnt even narrow it down to the phylum in my mind, as I am thinking it might even be a hydroid. Very cool find. I hope it grows enough that you have a few cool ones, and that it doesnt grow so fast that it takes over the tank.

 

[Timbor]

Could be, I dunno.

It looks like it sprouted from some of the larger algae that you can see growing on the left hand side of the picture.

That stuff is quite coarse (as in thick) and smooth, like a really thick and round blade of grass. I have a few patches of that stuff on my rocks.

 

[reefguru2]

The stuff on the left looks like an elongated form of volonia. Who knows, maybe u could try to grace us with a couple of more pictures from different angles so we can get a better view.

 

[Timbor]

yeah sure, just gotta fire up the camera

 

[Frick-n-Frags]

those little cups are Acetabularia. the green sticks with the fuzz are little macros too, have to look that one up.(they could be a stage of acetabularia too)
the little long green things could be a type of valonia that resembles balloon animals, but it doesn't look like a bubble, so can't tell for sure. there is other green micros/hair in the middle

 

[Timbor]

couple more pics

couple more pics

alright, here are a few more pics, one from the same rock and one from another rock.

First pic:

This one is from the other rock. It mostly only has the thicker algae growing on it.

Second pic:

This is the same rock the my very first ID pic was from. You can see some more of the little cup things near the centre top, and in roughly the centre of the photo is a patch of the thick algae again.

Tim

 

[TikiDan]

http://melevsreef.com/id/algae.html

This should help

 

[Frick-n-Frags]

(see other post above)
yeah, those could be some valonia tubes alright(bottom pic, center slightly below center)

 

[Timbor]

I had checked on melevs site, but none of the pics really matched up with what I was trying to identify.

Valonia tubes, eh? That's kinda what the algae on the other rock (top pic) look like, although the ones in the bottom pic are a tad darker and longer in real life... maybe because they are older, I dunno.

I did try pulling a few out a while back, and they were rooted in very well.

 

[Timbor]

Are the elongated valonia as troublesome as the round valonia?

 

[Frick-n-Frags]

OK, for me they absolutely were/are as bad as the spherical valonias, AND the small bubbly mat version too. IMO/IME they all suck equally.

those little acetabularia(your little cups) are boom and bust. they show up after a major disruption or large waterchange then fizzle back out. There is a cool larger version that grew on some of my snails that actually can put out 3 cups all strung on a single stalk like some freaked out satellite dish. I seem to recall that they put out a bunch of thin fuzzy hairs from the main stalk, then grew the cups.
That's why I'm thinking those stalks with the fuzz on top(left side first pic of the thread) may be immature versions of that larger species of acetabularia

the cover of the littler+littler marine plants of the caribbean book has an awsome acetabularia pic on it.

 

[Timbor]

Horray! 300th post!

Anyway,

I will have to keep an eye on them and how much they spread.

From the looks of things, I will probably not end up putting any fish in the tank till the new year, since the fish I want is not in stock yet, and when it will be in stock is too close to when I will be leaving for a week or so, so the tank won't be getting food put in for a while. Hopefully that should slow down any more algae cycles, and in the long run should be better for the tank.

Right now I only have a few trochus snails and blue leg hermits, so I think they can find enough to scavenge from the LR till I start feeding.

 

[Frick-n-Frags]

ok, here is a pic of a snail with several cool algaes growing. those greenish/white thin stalks later grew the large cups. this snail looked like it belonged on the jetsons a week after this pic

<img src="http://www.rusynyk.com/coral/donkingsnail2.jpg">

 

[Timbor]

What the heck is the purple branching thing? Looks like you fragged a colt coral to the snail or something!

 

[Frick-n-Frags]

heh, a beautiful semi-calcerous red algae called Laurencia.

I was super into algae for a lot of years. I , unfortunately still have spores from probably 50+ macro species in my system that i collected over several years and they still randomely show up, like the 3 types on the snail.

I did save one algae, my "dragon plant" a cool red algae called Halymenia


here is a pic of my favorite algae of all time that I had for a while. this pic doesn't do the incredibly rich bright red color that algae was:
<img src="http://www.rusynyk.com/coral/Mysteryred3catalog1.jpg">

 

[Timbor]

Wow, kinda crazy to think of all the cool types of algae out there. We usually spend more time focusing on corals.

Do the macros cause trouble when they show up in your main tank?

Tim

ps you are almost at 10000 posts!

 

[Frick-n-Frags]

The Dr Seuss world of the algae is what got me too. it is stunning.

Here is the summarized conclusion of my whatever 3-4 years of serious macroalgae growing:

1) every algae has one purpose on this earth: to take over your tank.
2) see #1


Currently, I am trying to exorcise the last of all the algae out of my system (except for the dragon plant). pest #1 du jour is chaetomorpha, followed by valonia, a smattering of hair and a smattering of itsy calcerous ginko leaf looking deals.

no typo: Chaetomorpha. that crap can holdfast to the rocks.
I now believe a strand can easily grow 6" to a foot in 24hrs, maybe more. it totally sucks when it gets into the pocillapora forest.

heh10K posts, you are right..

 

[Timbor]

Wow, Always thought Chaeto was more of a free-floatin kinda guy.

At least they are easier to keep than SPS! A lot easier to be a pro algae keeper, I imagine.

Congrats on the 10k posts... I think I'm almost there... just another 9700 to go.. lol