Perplexed by what seems to be coraline algae growth...

[Pinkheine]

We are still in the curing/cycle process but I see a bunch of algae popping up all over the rocks. Some of it is a mint green in color and others is the reddish and some orange-ish in the pics. Nothing on the glass or plastic in the tank at all, just on the rocks. Is this possible that it will stick around? Or will it die off? Sorry the pics are blurry they were the best I could get... I took a ton (not very good at pics)

 

[NYreefNoob]

if you are reffering to the red in middle of rock that isnt corline, forget the name of it, and the last pic kinda looks like sponge hard to tell

 

[reefman]

linky

 

[Pinkheine]

Tried to get a few better pics...

The first pic here is of the last blurry pic above. To me it looks like algae and not a sponge (btw we did clean all the rock off before putting it in the tank/ scraped the sponges etc. could some pop back up?)...

This pic is where some of the coraline intially on the rocks died off and now it seems that some green algae (?) is growing...

And lastly another pic of the reddish/purplish dots cropping up all over the rocks randomly...

Most of the dots do not look defined like the one pic in my initial pics in the thread. That is really the only one 'sticking up' off of the rock, the rest is kind of just covering the rock. Hard to explain.

Checked out the link and it could be that is what that thing is, but it doesn't look as defined as the things in the link.

 

[NYreefNoob]

yes it can, unless you bleached the rock, left it outside ect, i wouldnt worry unless it starts to really take rock over

 

[basiab]

Not likely to be coraline while it is cycling. Coraline is like a crust and is almost impossible to scrape off rock. You need a blade to scrape it of glass. If you can blow it off or brush it off it is most likely an algae that you do not want and may even be cyano which is a bacteria that looks like algae. You may have other stuff that grows like sponges etc. And if you are lucky some will make it through the cycle.

 

[KathyC]

Are you running your lights when cycling?

 

[rookie07]

I have some of that also(atleast it looks very similiar)...ive never had any problems from it in the 5 months ive seen it......
Im a rookie.....make of my info what you will

 

[Pinkheine]

To answer some questions above. We do not have the lights all the time only one hour a day currently and that has only been for the last week. These things were popping up before we had the lights on and seem to be a bit more now that the lights are on. And I have been in the tank often cleaning the rocks with a scrub brush kind of thing and a turkey baster to blow all the stuff off and none of this comes off.

Before the rock went in the tank there were sponges on them, we picked them all off and scraped the rocks clean where they were. The orange and green stuff in the pics is not "spongy" to the touch. Are sponges all 'spongy' :duh: that sounds really stupid of a question but are they?

 

[meschaefer]

This is all normal, and is part of what is loosely referred to as an Algae cycle. It is very hard tell, but the last pic could be coralline. (I stress the uncertainty of the word "could")

Sponges are fine, and I wouldn't worry about them. Most tend to avoid high light and will grow on the undersides of rocks (the fact that you didn't have lights on the tank until this week, is why they may have grown in visible locations). Even if you scrubbed them off when you added the rocks they will grow back. The point of scrubbing the off the rocks when you first put them in, is that they will probably die off (sponges don't like being exposed to air) and will just add to the fowling of the water. Once your past that point, sponges are ok.