ID help please

[jcaulley]

Can someone help me with an ID on these items? The first one looks like a cocoon. It looks almost like a spiders egg sack with an opening at one end. It came in on some caleurpa that I bought and is all over my refuge and is now spreading to my main tank. The pictures aren't great but these are hard to get a picture of.

[jcaulley]

Second pic

[jcaulley]

This is an anemone that came in on my live rock piece. Is it harmless or is it a pest?

[jcaulley]

I don't have any idea what this is. It is attached to the side of my rock and it kind of looks like a venus fly trap. It hasn't moved or grown from what I can tell.

[Max]

the cloudy picture is a sponge one of the glass sponges if I'm not mistaken. They spread around but won't hurt anything at all. The real clear picture might be a majamo ,"sp" anemonie but, I'm not 100% sure,"never been cursed with them." I hope not but, if it is get rid of them quick!

[jcaulley]

One last one. This algae started growing all over my tank a couple weeks ago. It started as a really deep green and now I am starting to get alot of burgandy colored stuff. I haven't tried touching it but it looks pretty slimy. It hasn't started growing on the rocks but seems pretty agressive on the sand. Anyone got an idea what might be causing it or how to get rid of it?

[jcaulley]

Does anything eat the sponges so that I don't have them covering everything? They seem to be reproducing pretty well.

[Max]

yup, that one's cyano bacteria, "red slime algae". all you should need to do is increase your water flow towards your sand bed. Just curious how long do your run your lights if your tanks just starting out there isn't really any reason to run them for more than a couple hours a day. That will cut back on the nasty algae until some of the extra nutrients in your water are absorbed. Are you using ro water?
Chris

[Max]

Those sponges you posted really won't. Most of the time they tend to live under live rocks etc. Also they will go through an initial bloom and then will pretty much fade away. If they are what I'm thinking that they are they use silica in their skeletons and as it's exhausted from your water it should be a limiting factor on their growth.
hth
Chris

[jcaulley]

I run my lights for 12 hours a day. The tank has been up since february so it is still pretty new. I use ro water that I get from a dispencer at the grocery store. The silica idea makes sense. I had to use regular play sand in my refugium so it probably had alot of silicates in it.

[Max]

Maybe so but, it will be a real short term problem. I'm not sure about that silica thing it was just an idea. Really a better way to judge that is from a diatom bloom ," brown slimy algae". I probably shouldn't have posted that about the silica let me apologies to you. I noticed that they appeared in my tank right after set up and spread like mad. After a few months they started either dieing back or at least not reproducing as rapidly. I guessed that it was due to silica depletion in my water because the last of my diatom bloom happened at the same time. I sort of convinced myself that's what happened but, I have no proof and haven't found where anyone else has came to the same conclusion.
Sorry
Chris:emb:

[mogurnda]

Only a few things worth adding.
The green thing looks like the byssus from an ark shell that was once attached there. Is it really rigid?
If you are really interested in getting rid of the sponges, a keyhole limpet will certainly do the job. Personally, I would just let them be. It's unlikely they'll become a pest, and sponges are an excellent source of biological filtration if they are doing well.

[jcaulley]

Anyone else got an oppinion on the anemone. Is it a keeper or a pest.

[tubbanorman]

The anenome is aptasia and is considered a pest. Pepermint shrimp ate all of the ones I had in my tank.

[jcaulley]

I have two cleaner shrimp in my tank (75 Gal) can I add 2 pepermint shrimp without a problem?

[mogurnda]

They will be fine together. The two species tend to hang out in different areas and mostly ignore each other.