Not a critter, but what is this orange stuff?

[bun]

This is the second time this has happened in my tank. I did a water change and the day after there was an orange substance sitting on the rock. It isn't fixed to the rock, I can move it. If I didn't know any better I would think it was a piece of coral that broke off because of how bright it is, but I don't have any coral that color.

I know I had a cleaner shrimp molt. I lost a hermit crab, but I removed the majority of them from the tank, it looks like somebody chewed on it's behind and left it. I also have a sea hair, and I seem to remember the substance being around before my last sea hair died. That may just be a coincidence though.

Any thoughts?

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

This is the second time this has happened in my tank. I did a water change and the day after there was an orange substance sitting on the rock. It isn't fixed to the rock, I can move it. If I didn't know any better I would think it was a piece of coral that broke off because of how bright it is, but I don't have any coral that color.

I know I had a cleaner shrimp molt. I lost a hermit crab, but I removed the majority of them from the tank, it looks like somebody chewed on it's behind and left it. I also have a sea hair, and I seem to remember the substance being around before my last sea hair died. That may just be a coincidence though.

Any thoughts?

Not sure - my first thoughts would be either pieces of a molt or some kind of red macroalgae.

 

[cloak]

How does it feel to the touch? Is it hard, soft, rubbery?

 

[WalkerLovesTheOcean]

I sometimes see this fluorescent orange pop up when coraline algae dies. Usually the coraline is stuck to the rock, though. Maybe a piece of rock fell/chipped off and had dying coraling algae on it?

 

[bun]

How does it feel to the touch? Is it hard, soft, rubbery?

I didn't touch it, I should have. But from how it moved in the water, it wasn't very heavy.

 

[bun]

I sometimes see this fluorescent orange pop up when coraline algae dies. Usually the coraline is stuck to the rock, though. Maybe a piece of rock fell/chipped off and had dying coraling algae on it?

After doing a bunch more searching, I'm wondering if you're correct. I took the loc lines out and clean them with a toothbrush. They had a lot of green hair algae on them. They also had a lot of Coraline on them.

The next day I did a water change which kept them dry for probably 30 minutes or so. I'm wondering if some of it died off.