Can you put a name on this one?

[piquesegue]

Hello everybody,

this algae grows on one of my rocks (pic shows a small fragment), is very fine and feels like wool under my fingers.
It grows, let's say, rather in a ball form, but not really round, something like a half sphere.
Unfortunately, the rock sits in the back of the tank, this is why I took a fragment out, in order to get a better pic.
The color is a bit darker as what you can see here, but i guess the algae could be so bright if it would get better light in the back of the tank...
I've been searching for hours on the net, just can't put a name on it, although i did see it once somewhere, before it appears in my tank...

Can anyone help?
Would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks!

 

[Subsea]

Looks like chaeto to me.

 

[Michael Hoaster]

There's so many algae, it's tough to get an exact name. For example, there are probably ten algae that are referred to as hair algae. I'd call it wool algae and be done. I've got something similar, that's more like a moss. The real question is do you want to keep it or get rid of it? I think it's pretty. Is it taking over your tank or is it staying small?

 

[piquesegue]

Hello Subsea and Michael,
thanks for your replies.
Of course i want to keep it!
Just like you i'm an algae fan, read a lot here even if I rarely post.
English is not my mother language and it's sometimes hard for me to formulate something clear.
I don't think it's Chaeto, this one is much smaller.
I'm used to speak about algae or corals with latin names, cause it' far more accurate than common names.
I think I finally found a name last night.
It could be a variety of Cladophora.
Really not sure though...

 

[Michael Hoaster]

It would be nice to know the correct species name, I agree. Without a microscope and a definitive reference book, it is very difficult. So descriptive names like moss algae or hair algae are helpful. That's why I think it's more important to say whether you want to keep it or not. Then you can try to understand how to either help it grow or get rid of it.

I'm glad to hear you want to keep it! It's a gorgeous green color.

 

[Subsea]

Michael,
You are so right about the difficulty of exact maco identification. For certain, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Piquesegue,
Is it difficult to purchase macro in Germany? In your quest to identify your macro, be advised that macro, can take differrent shapes and colors depending on enviromental conditions.

 

[piquesegue]

Well, not so easy...except the common ones.
You can sometimes be lucky with some nice things on new imported rocks.
Or just give some old rocks a try.
That's what i partially did, just took rocks from an old tank and let them under a full spectrum light, no skimmer and a bit of phytplancton culture mix, in order to maintain something like 10mg No3.
After a couple if weeks came a lot of unexpected macros out of it

 

[Subsea]

Surprise macro

Surprise macro

Well, not so easy...except the common ones.
You can sometimes be lucky with some nice things on new imported rocks.
Or just give some old rocks a try.
That's what i partially did, just took rocks from an old tank and let them under a full spectrum light, no skimmer and a bit of phytplancton culture mix, in order to maintain something like 10mg No3.
After a couple if weeks came a lot of unexpected macros out of it

Outstyanding on nuturing old rock and getting things to bloom. You are so right about cultivating macro from live rock. My favorite live rock is uncured diver collected live rock from Florida. The diversity of micro fauna and fana is amazing. My biggest challenge is not adding grazers for 6-12 months.