It just showed up, what is it

[rbento]

A couple of months ago this green bushy thing showed up and has grown quite well ever since.
I had been feeding a large urchin romaine lettuce, at first I thought it was a piece of scrap lettuce, I do not know if this is related to the romaine lettuce or just where it came from, or what it is.
It is kinda cool although.
Does anybody know what this is and how it could have gotten into me tank?
thanks

 

[tektite]

That's bryopsis, a type of hair algae. It can be very invasive, you want to remove all you can.

BTW, lettuce has almost zero nutritional value for saltwater fish/inverts. Its much better to get nori as it is made from saltwater macroalgae. If you don't want to pay a ton for it a lot of asian marketplaces have it for very cheap.

 

[rbento]

Thanks for the ID of the algae also good information about the food value of lettuce, makes sense because when dieting, folks eat lots of salad.
I'll keep an eye on the bryopsis, so far it is not a problem and I think it is kinda cool.

 

[tektite]

No problem. You should remove the bryopsis now while there's only a little though. It can look cool in the beginning, but it is an extremely invasive kind of hair algae. Just do a google search on it to read of others experiences with it.