Need help IDing two brown branching growths

barscaz · Mar 23, 2015

Need help identifying these two different hitchhikers. Set up tank about 9 months ago maybe a year. Mostly dry rock from old tank, seeded with a pound of nice live rock rubble. After the cycle I got the usual diatom, cyano, and hair algae blooms ( brown) all on the sand bed. The hair algae stuck around for about a month until the large branching growth started, at which point the hair algae receded. During this time I had added one Scarlet reef hermit and a few dwarf blue legs. Also a sifting goby. So the hair algae recession may be just coincidence with the new growth and been eaten by the new additions, or died back due to normal tank maturity. The large branching organism did seem to grow in pace with the recession of the hair algae finally halting with the disappearance of the hair algae. So I do believe its some type of algae or other nutrient hungry organism. Both hitchhiker's are somewhat soft. The large one in the sand is limp, while the smaller on the rocks is a little stiffer but still moves in the wake of the power head. So anyhow, I like the little one, I think the larger one is ugly. If both are relatively safe, and non invasive is like to let the little one grow (trim when it grows larger) while the larger I'd like to trim tiny yet keep for possible nutrient export. Thanks helping!