Help ID some plants from gulf coast

[gweeto]

I picked up some plants that washed up on the beach (gulf coast near tampa) while in Florida a month ago. I put it in a QT tank and after a month, things are growing roots.

I was looking for advice if I should add this stuff to my fuge.


There is the green Plant, behind it you can't see, is a clump of red berries, and far back is a stiff red plant.

There is the brown plant with berries

Gargonia looking thing, also directly above the head of the zip tie is a flesh color coral with no polyps

you can see it better in this pis

Two types of coral, hard jelly like, and a green plant

Thanks guys

 

[philter4]

Not sure of all of them, but the green is one of the feather caulerpa, there are 3 sp and I don't know which on it is. The golden colored algae with the bladders is sargassum, again not sure what sp, the way to tell most of them apart is the structure of the bladders, some it is smooth, others it has spikes or spines. The thick green in the last photo is codium, there are at least 4 sp that look like the one you have, all of them common in FL so it could be any one of them. The gorgonian looking thing is just that it is an octocoral, again not sure of the sp, there are several sp it could be but the one you have has a lot of tissue loss and I can't really see the structure. Whatever sp it is if it is fed and given good lighting is may recover and begin to regrow lost tissue.

 

[gweeto]

Thanks Philter

Is there any danger adding it to my reef setup?

 

[philter4]

Well, caulerpa isn't recomended for the tank or refugium, not sure why but others could tell you the problems. Sargassum isn't easy to keep and by the time it washes up on the shore it is already stressed or dying, but if it is growing there in no reason to get rid of it, codium also doesn't usually do well, but again if it is growing and looks good, ie not rotting away, keep it, it is an attractive algae. The gorgonian should be fine as long as it is fed.

 

[yardboy]

In the last pic, the green is codium. I've had success with growing it at the top of the tank. The lumps below it in the last pic are sea squirts, a type of tunicate.
The gorgonian is likely Leptogorgia, which I've had no luck with, it being azoxanthallate so needing to be fed. Good luck with it. That stuff lays so thick on the beaches sometimes that I have no guilt about trying some out. I'd suggest keeping it in its own tank though. Caulerpa especially can take over, then die off causing lots of problems. Tangs'll work it over though.
The sargassum, I've not had lots of luck with, but I've known others who have. It's real cool down here, with clumps of it floating around with a whole managerie of critters hiding in it.
I live farther north, but keep a nano with stuff I've gotten at the jetties.

 

[piercho]

That's a nice tank, yardboy. Sargassum likes a lot of light, and what I would call a moderate nutrient level. I kept it for a while under MH in the tank and the sump, and at one time it was a major export algae for me. After more than a year it quit doing very well for me. Caulerpas are productive and reliable export algae for the sump, but some specie can be difficult to confine there and may spread to the tank. For tanks with coral Caulerpa is undesirable in the main tank IMO. IME established Caulerpa that is trimmed back regularly is not likely to sporolate, but that is one reason many people will not keep it.