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fox0521 · Nov 8, 2020

Hey there folks!
I’m new to the saltwater side of things and I could use some help identifying some algae.

first, I’ve got some burgundy/brownish/purplish algae growing on one piece of rock. It’s been growing slowly in small patches, and when I tried to scrape of it today, it was pretty hard and I couldn’t get any off. Got this specific piece of rock from a local fella, it was still wet so not everything had died off including some rather dull looking GSP (probably not enough flow, but that’s for another thread.. ) anyway! Doesn’t seem like cyano being that it doesn’t scrape easily? Thoughts? It’s only on this single piece of rock, not on the sand bed or anything.

second, there is this rather bright green algae growing on rocks throughout the tank. Thoughts on this? Good? Bad? Indifferent?
Thanks!

Doctorgori · Nov 8, 2020

that stuff is fine, usually IMO the bright green is absolutely the sign of a healthy tank,matter of fact that rock look darn good

fox0521 · Nov 8, 2020

Doctorgori said:
that stuff is fine, usually IMO the bright green is absolutely the sign of a healthy tank,matter of fact that rock look darn good

That’s great to hear! The system is only 2 months old, but I’m meticulous in my maintenance and testing. I have a very very mild diatom bloom lightly dusting parts of the sand bed and was worried I had some other unwanted algae’s. Thanks for the response!

Afrashz · Nov 8, 2020

Sounds to me like the early signs of coralline algae and stability. Cool tank!

Doctorgori · Nov 8, 2020

fox0521 said:
That’s great to hear! The system is only 2 months old, but I’m meticulous in my maintenance and testing. I have a very very mild diatom bloom lightly dusting parts of the sand bed and was worried I had some other unwanted algae’s. Thanks for the response!

As you already know, rock and algae types go through a progression as the tank matures . You probably won’t see the bright green for very long, my guess is the purple and pink overtake it sooner than later. There is some dark green stuff that’s pretty benign also. Who knows I’m no algae expert but know bad. algae when I see it and in your tank I don’t see it.