Is this coralline algae?

[Wampatom]

I have a different type of algae growing in my aquarium. It seems to grow, in what feels like a plastic film, on the glass, and now it is growing on the rocks. When I scrape “normal” coralline is feels very calcified. It comes off in flakes. This new algae can be removed in sheets. It is a lurid red.

Picture of live rock

Low magnification microscope view (4x objective)

High magnification microscope view (100x objective). It seems to have tightly bunched cells like tiles which is typical of other type of coralline.

 

[reefwiser]

Coralline is calcium based algae. If it comes off the glass easy it’s not coralline. Most likely a bacterial in natural

 

[Mastiffsrule]

Hi,

is this a new tank, or rock? That does not look like cyano. Like reefwiser said bacterial or I think actually more plant or algae like. Maybe a hitchhiker on a new pie of rock?

 

[SMSREEF]

it looks like coralline algae to me. Beautiful purple color too!

 

[jack_aubry]

defiantly algae I don't know if it is coralline algae or not

 

[Wampatom]

Thank you for your responses. The live rock is old, about 1999, but I had a GFI incident about 3 years ago when I lost most of my “normal” coralline algae. When I first saw the growth I expected it to be a type of cyanobacteria. I was less certain when I saw it under the microscope. Here are pictures I have taken of other coralline algae.

Macro of growth on glass. Green and pink coralline.

Microscope image of pink coralline. The red fiber is a type of cyanobacteria. I did not record the magnification.

Microscope image of green coralline. The red fiber is a type of cyanobacteria.

Microscope image of another type of cyanobacteria in my tank.