What the heck is this??!!

[ferret]

Originally Posted by Reef Pilot

So, what type of conditions and trace elements do these red algae prefer? My tank recently went through a phosphate spike (when I combined sumps with another tank that had higher phosphates). But that is getting back to near zero now. My nitrates remain at zero (or undetectable). And I should add that it is an SPS dominant tank.

I have not added any live rock (just some dry marco rock), and the tank is about 13 years old. I have no idea where the live rock originally came from (we bought the house 3 1/2 years ago with the tank running).

So just wondering where this red algae came from? I have never seen it before.

Honestly speaking I've no idea although I experienced keeping quite a various types of marine plants long ago and I'm still running 2 small systems mainly for macro algae.

I've came across this algae twice and tried to keep it without success. The very 1st time was obtained from Rene/J&L long ago and that was my fault that the small frag was not properly glued to the LR and I never found it again among the forest of marine plants. The 2nd time was I didn't even have a chance to raise the small frag since the algae had turned into 80% transparent when I received because of poor shipping and cold weather.

I've encountered some of the macro algae die off and return alive after one whole year. Some unnoticeable small frags or sprouts of algae dormant for months and start growing all of a sudden. All these may be the reason why you have this algae or the new fish/coral or even a snail you newly purchased carried the spores and introduced into your system.