Coralline or not?

[Euphyllia97]

Hi,

First time setting up a reef tank with dry rock and a piece of live rock for seeding.

I noticed these tiny spots all over my rock today and was wondering if this could already be the start of coralline algae...

Tank has been up and running for only 6 weeks, therefore the doubt. Can’t just brush it of the rocks so I guess it is calcium based and color is red/purple.

thanks

 

[lpsouth1978]

Looks like Coralline to me!

 

[BeejReef]

It sure does look like it. How cool would that be?

 

[Euphyllia97]

Thanks for the quick reply! I’m quite surprised by how fast a tank can start to “live”... I was not really expecting to see any coralline algae growth during the first 6 months .

I guess the odds were in my favour this time (knock on wood)

 

[eggplantparrot]

the red stuff doesn't care, it'll grow super fast and take over your tank. the other colours are the slow ones taking months

 

[gdubs]

Coralline algae is great when you are just setting up a tank and want some color. If it's going to be a reef tank, you'll cover all the live rock with corals over time (hopefully) and you won't even care about coralline.