What is this ?
 

Okay so I recently started a saltwater tank on sunday :D then today when i was adding some extra water I noticed that one of my dead corals ( it looks like this http://www.fws.gov/news/images/coral2.jpg ) started having some red stuff on it does anybody know what it is ? Oh yeah and I have some dead live rock in there idk if it will ever come back alive and I also have about 5 pounds of live sand that I got from Robert.

Thanks,
Kevin

forminiferans?

red, like these?

http://www.saltwaterfish.com/vb/atta...1&d=1039904652
(pic from saltwaterfish.com)

I don't know much info about these guys other than, I've got them, they seem to come and go and are most often noticed in new tanks (as they are often the first bright thing to grow on live rock) they seem to stay small, cause no harm but may be sharp to the touch (more so the white branching variety I think)

edit: if all your stuff is dead (coral and rock), other than the sand I think it's probably not forminiferans .....is it a red slime? check out cyanobacteria/red slime

This is red slime:

http://www.saltwaterfish.com/vb/atta...1&d=1226540936


Your dead "live" rock will eventually become live again if you get a live, live rock to seed it with. (just put it in with your other rocks)

Hope that helps, I'm going to bed now :)

well im certainly sure its not that even tho im a noob at this it seems to be like this http://galido.net/CL/liverock.jpg the red part on the rock at the top right