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December 17th, 2008
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| | Fish Lore Newbie
| Help identifying live rock growths
My girlfriend and I are new saltwater aquarists. I used to have some when I was a kid, but now I don't mind doing my home work and am hoping things will be much more successful.
We just started our tank (29 g biocube) 4 days ago. The pink and purple coraline algae are spreading rapidly, but we've got some other species that I have not been able to identify. Can anyone help?
2203: overview of our tank
2206: anyone know what the filamentous purple algae is that is growing over the pink and purple coraline algae?
2209: Green filamentous algae, good or bad for the tank?
2210: green buble algae I think, I believe this is good for the tank, but please let me know.
Also, I'm not sure about the progress of the tank cycle. Here's our data: SG: 1.023
Temp: 76 degF pH: 7.8 (it's started at 8.4 but has dropped over the last 2 days) nitrate: 10 PPM nitrite: 0 ppm ammonia 0.5 ppm DKH: 300+ ppm
We're 4 days into the new tank setup. Am I missing something? I've not seen an algae bloom like I was expecting. We used live rock and live sand, DI RO water, and cured live rock (though I question how live some of the rock pieces were). Any advice would be helpful. Cheers! | 
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December 17th, 2008
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| | Fish Keeper
| Welcome to Fishlore jsouyias, I'm not a salt water keeper, but I just have to tell you I love the formation of your live rocks!
From reading other posts from other salt water enthusiast, it sounds like it takes many weeks for your tank to cycle. (also, nice photographs)
I'm sure someone who can answer your questions will be along soon. Good luck. | |
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December 17th, 2008
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| | Fish Addict
| Quote:
Originally Posted by jsouyias  2210: green buble algae I think, I believe this is good for the tank, but please let me know. | Green bubble algae is bad. When you decide to remove it, do not pop the bubble. Remove the whole thing from the tank, and try not to let any remain in the tank.
I'm not too familiar/experienced with the other two items pictured. | |
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December 17th, 2008
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| | Fish Addict
| the third picture looks like a super small strand of chaeto in which case it's good for a tank...some forms of algae filtration actually help with controlling levels in your tanks. I could be wrong on this.
Bubble algae...yuck. Look at tossing in an emerald crab...usually this will help
not entirely sure about the red stuff though...possibly red hair algae? does it wave in the water or is it strictly on the rocks? | |
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December 17th, 2008
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| | Fish Master
| It looks like on the second pic on the right top it looks like red hair algae, there is also a bristleworm in that pic. The third pic, I have no idea. Then the bottom right I am guessing bubble algae.
You will prob go through a nice mess of hair algae, diatoms, etc where your tank is new. I would make sure the tank is cycled before adding inverts like emerald crabs, etc. Then let them munch away at the algae.
Here is a good rock hitchhiker site, I keep it bookmarked: http://www.xtalworld.com/Aquarium/hitchfaq.htm
Last edited by Angela_96; December 17th, 2008 at 12:28 PM.
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December 17th, 2008
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| | Fish Lore Newbie
| The red/purple filamentous stuff in the picture is not soft, it does not move in the currents. It appears to be brittle or coraline in nature, but I'm not sure. Thanks for all the help from everyone so far. | |
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December 17th, 2008
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| | Fish Lore Newbie
| A few other hitch hikers from our rock
Thought I'd put up a few more picks of other hitch hikers. | |
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December 17th, 2008
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| | Fish Lore Newbie
| I'm pretty sure the "creature" in that pic is an Amphipod, as it looks like a little bug and scurry's around. The picture in the UR of the original 4, that is.
Last edited by jsouyias; December 17th, 2008 at 02:40 PM.
Reason: To be more specific | |
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December 17th, 2008
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| | Fish Addict
| Quote:
Originally Posted by jsouyias Thought I'd put up a few more picks of other hitch hikers. | All the hitch hikers in these pictures look like some type of worm or feather duster. They all are harmless and good for your tank. | |
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December 17th, 2008
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| | Fish Keeper
| This a reason why i love having LR. SO many organism that you can find on daily basis.
I would not do anything unless see bristleworm which can dine on tube worms that's in last 3 photos and molluscs (clams, etc). but I did not see any in your pics.
Bubble algae should go ASAP since spread fast and becomes nuisance. Don't pop it in the tank. Physical removal outside the tank may be the best solution w/ good rinsing after removal. Emerald Crab may cut it off rather than eat them. Your may even have calcerous tube worm (like CoCo worms) with white tube on last 3rd and 2nd pics. Beautiful! Absolutely beautiful!!
Nice looking bunch of LR.
Good Luck and Enjoy!! | |
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December 17th, 2008
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| | Fish Keeper
| Hi jsouyias,
The first time I started to see things on LR, I was the same...
ATM helped with this link,
I hope it now helps you ID the things on the rock  http://www.xtalworld.com/Aquarium/hitchfaq.htm | |
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December 17th, 2008
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| | Fish Master
| I love the feather duster! I got a hitch-hiker in a not so nice way, it was inside a snail of mine, the snail died and now in its shell I have this feather duster who comes out of a hole in the shell, its a beautiful purple duster and boy has it grown!!! I hate it about the snail, but the strongest organism survived. I have also ended up w/ my original rock a clam hitch hiker, w/ the last coral I bought a great macro algae (its really pretty!), baby pulsing zenia (about 3-4 little peices, they are growing fast though), and a baby mushroom.
I am a huge fan of hitchhikers!! | |
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December 19th, 2008
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| | Fish Keeper
| Agreed on the last set of photos being feather dusters. I have a bunch that came in on my last batch of LR which was like 6 months ago. I still see the odd now and then.
The ammonia reading that you mentioned tells me that it's still cycling thought it maybe close to being done. Wait until you get that and nitrite down to 0 before adding anything.
[edit] Good job on the photos btw...very nice pics. | |
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December 22nd, 2008
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| | Fish Lore Newbie
| Yes, my red algae looks like the picture labeled d_46.jpg on that site quoted above. Unfortunately it doesn't tell me what it is, unless all of those were the same. | |
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December 22nd, 2008
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| | Fish Keeper
| The picture labeled d_46.jpg is GRACILARIA RED ALGAE | |
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