what is this?

[brett]

Hi All,

I've had this coral for a month or so and it's doing great.

But, there's this brown/green "film" on the rock.

It looks like a tree fungus.

It has a distinct edge to it.

I think it's growing (but, I'm not certain).

And I'm not sure if it's harmful.

Does anybody recognize this thing growing between my polyps?

Is it safe?

Thanks,

Brett

ps. I kinda hate to spam the "Reef Keeping" group with this n00b stuff. Is there any need for a new forum called "Identification Help"?

Edited March 23, 2010 by brett

[nemirn]

edit

Edited March 23, 2010 by nemirn

[muddybluewater]

Looks like it could be cyanobacteria, but it seems like a strange location for it. Are there any other places that it is located? and don't worry about asking questions everyone here need info sometimes.

[Derek]

Could be diatoms. Is there a lot of flow going between the polyps or is it in a stagnant area?

PS: Awesome clove polyps. I love those things.

[brett]

Looks like it could be cyanobacteria, but it seems like a strange location for it. Are there any other places that it is located? and don't worry about asking questions everyone here need info sometimes.

This was a HH on this rock. There's one other smaller patch on the same rock.

[brett]

Could be diatoms. Is there a lot of flow going between the polyps or is it in a stagnant area?

PS: Awesome clove polyps. I love those things.

There is flow over this rock. The polyps sway about. But, probably not all that strong of flow down between the polyps.

ps. Yeah. It was love at first sight for me.

[DaJMasta]

It looks almost like it's growing outwards, almost with rings... is that about the color of it when it's under full light? I know coralline comes in a lot of colors and there's a chance it's that. Also have you poked it? Whether it's slimy/spongy/rough/etc could go a long way to IDing it.

[netmaster]

I agree poke it if its very hard I think it is a very over developed piece of green coraline

[GKarshens]

Looks like some kind of Macro Algae to me.

[JamesL]

Looks like some kind of Macro Algae to me.

+1 to this. I didn't see what you were talking about till I clicked on the larger picture.

It almost looks like what this site calls a Green Sea Pansy.

[brett]

I poked it.

It's a little slimy.

There was a little give to it.

But, it can't give much since it's very thin.

Here's another photo. Closeup with flash.

[GKarshens]

I had some of those in my old tank. It never grew very large and didn't hurt anything. I am sticking with Macro Algae.

[brett]

Thanks for the help.

You are correct. It's a macro algae.

Specifically, Lobophora Variegata.

There are some reports of it taking over.

And other reports of it simply going away.

So, I guess I'll keep an eye on it.

I'll report back in a few months just in case anybody is curious.

Thanks,

Brett

[brett]

...

So, I guess I'll keep an eye on it.

I'll report back in a few months just in case anybody is curious.

Thanks,

Brett

It grew slowly and eventually bulldozed my clavularia.

So, it had to go. Some it peeled off like wet paper.

But a good bit of it had to be scrapped off carefully.

Too bad. I thought it was kinda pretty.

[Timfish]

ps. I kinda hate to spam the "Reef Keeping" group with this n00b stuff. Is there any need for a new forum called "Identification Help"?

Hey don't apolagize this is what some of us live for . Sorry you had to get rid of it it looked kinda cool with it's striations

Edited May 5, 2010 by Timfish

[George Monnat Jr]

Another newb, so I figure it's safer to resurrect this thread than start a new one Let's see if I can make these quotes work right.

I have a similar situation to that above - a slow-growing, macro-algae-looking brown growth on my LR. I posted this ID question on RC last week, but I haven't received any responses there. Does this look like Lobophora or something else?

Any thoughts or comments are welcome.

http://www.reefcentr...519&postcount=1

My Setup

6' 125 gal DT w/ 33 gal sump

I upgraded from a year-old 20 gal 3 months ago moving 25# LR then

190 pounds LR total (I think the original 25# LR was Fiji and new 165# maybe Tongan? LFS on the phone just now said what sounded like "Tonaka"' date=' whatever that is)

AquaC EV-180 skimmer

Lights are TMC AquaRay like this (front of DT at bottom of diagram)

[img']http://i209.photobucket.com/albums/bb16/GeorgeMon/Pets/AquaRayLighting_Current.jpg[/img]

My Bioload

My tank's still immature, so I don't have corals, big fish, etc. Mainly just ornamental shrimp for CUC.

2x small (1/2"-3/4") red-legged hermit crabs

1x small (1”) emerald crab (in sump/refugium)

1x small (1.5”) orange linckia star (in sump/refugium)

10x small bumblebee snails

30x nerite snails

~16x cerith snails (**** hermits)

1x large (2") pistol shrimp

12x small (1/4"-1/2") sexy shrimp

4x medium (1.5") scarlet/skunk cleaner shrimps

2x medium (1.5") blood red fire shrimp

1x medium/large (4" dia.) brown BTA

1x large (2" dia.) Hawaiian Feather Duster

3x medium (1/2", 3/4" & 1" dia.) purple feather dusters

1x yellowtail damselfish (1.5")

1x Randall's Prawn Goby (2.5")

1x bicolor blennie (2")

1x tailspot blennie (1.5")

3x clumps of Chaetomorpha in sump (floating around one piece of LR ~1-2#)

My Water Parameters

pH 8.18, 80°F

salinity 53.3 mS/cm

Calcium 460ppm

KH/Alkalinity 3.3 Meq/L or 9.2 dKH

Mg/Magnesium 1310ppm

Ammonia/Nitrite/Nitrate about 0 (haven't checked in about a week, but my Seachem Ammonia detectors have stayed yellow [good] and my Poly-Filter pad has stayed white [good])

My Concern

I've noticed these dinner-plate looking spots of brown, film algae on some of the newer LR.

I've scoured all of the nuisance algae ID threads and online ID sites I can find, but nothing looks exact. My best guess is that it's a Lobophora sp. brown algae.

It's been growing pretty slowly but steadily for a couple of months now, and it's on multiple LRs across the DT from 5" deep to about 13" deep. Most are between dime-sized and nickel-sized (US). I tried tweezing some off. It's definitely too soft for coralline algae, but it doesn't peel off in chunks, either. I don't think I can manually remove it (maybe if I take a couple weeks to pick off each tiny bit as it breaks apart instead of peeling off), and it's on too many rocks for me to want to boil them (only as a last resort).

The LR it started on is the new Tongan/Tanaka? LR and is still mostly on that - but that may be because the new LR is piled up high in back and the old Fiji LR is at the bottom along the front.

The one under the red arrow in this next picture is about 7.5" under the surface of the water.

Here's another picture from further out to give you a better idea (again, under the red arrow).

That's just right of center, so it's under the back, left corner of the TMC AquaRay 1000 HD Ultra Marine White square (70W; 10x 14kK white LEDs) and almost under the TMC AquaRay 600 Ultra Reef Blue stick (35W; 5x 50kK blue). A couple of days ago I took a PAR reading with an Apogee SQ-110 reading 130 µmol/m2/s at the BTA (14" deep), so it's probably closer to 200 at that spot. My white lights are on for 9 hours/day (blue stick on for 11 hours/day).

In the last picture there's another large group in the bottom left of the picture under the yellow arrow at about 13" deep and under the TMC AquaRay 1500 XG Ultima square (70W; 10x 9kK white). So they have about 130 for PAR.

I think that's all I've got after reading the How to Help us Help you Identify Algae sticky.

Anyone have thoughts on ID and how to handle it? It's not critical, yet, but I want to get ahead of it. Especially before I get zoas or anything else.

[Timfish]

George, my compliments on the level of detail you included in your post! I would agree with your identification. I've seem it a few times over the years but have never had a problem with it, seems to be easily outcompeted by other things. I guess concievably it could envelope some corals but based on my experience it won't give you problems.