Live Rock Algea ?

[spirosspike]

Hi Everyone, I am also new to this.
I had a q on live rock. Can anyone tell me what bad algea to look out for on the live rock & what it looks like, sorry I am an amature on this.
I have noticed a brownish-purple like colour substance growing on my live rock, which looks like a mushroom head which seems to be soft tissue rather than hard substance, by looking at it, and normally is expanded when the light comes on. It is growing by the day. Does anyone know what this is ?
It's growing on a small broken piece of rock, probably 10 cm long which I have placed on top of the main rock.
Any input will be appreciated

[Oliver]

without a picture it is hard to say what it is. Brown algea is common in the newly established tank but from what I can gather you might have apstasia! this is very bad. Does it look like an anemonea??? if id does then it is atstasia. Take a pciture and let us see it, then we can say what it is.

[spirosspike]

I am attaching a photo, well the quality isn't the best,
see if it is noticable.
It's pretty much in the centre, and looks like a mushroom

Thanks

[spirosspike]

Let's try again
Can't seem to be able to attach photo, for some reason.
To describe it a bit better, it's like a muffin, which the stem is very thin and short and the top is very thin and has a diameter of about 3 cm. It's
top isn't a perfect round shape.

Regards,

[Oliver]

I am no expert but i think you should do some reading on apstasia. Have you bought this or did it appear.

[ssaalm]

Does it look like this?

http://www.aquaticphotos.com/details.php?image_id=692

April

[matter1331]

could be a polyp? hard to say without a pic

[spirosspike]

I have tried to attach a picture of it, but I had no success, anyway it looks very similar to the photo in the link in the previous post, just it isn't that colour but more toward a brownish purple.
Is this a bad thing ?

Thanks for your input

[Cat]

Sounds like its just a mushroom, which is a soft coral, looks just like you discribed. you get lots of different colour variations they expand under lighting as they are photosythisizing.

http://www.acmereef.com/images/images_mushroom_a/MA0010.JPG

They are not bad at all, given the right lighting conditions they will spread. Do you have a reef or Fish only tank? Some fish munch on soft corals so its survival will bepend on weather you have reef friendly fish.

[spirosspike]

Well I feel more at ease now. Thankyou.

I have fish only tank only 34 ltrs, with 2 clownfish, thinking of pirchasing maybe another 2 fish, not sure what kind yet, and see how that goes.

Thanks

Cheers

[Cat]

well your clown fish are reef safe so they wont bother a mushroom.
What kind of lighting do you have/how many watts?
if you get on with this one okay and it grows happily, you could always try your hand at other easy corals and become a reef!

[spirosspike]

Hi !!

Not actually sure what lighting it is as it is built in the aquarium. But I am definately thinking of going to some easy corals at some stage.
Any suggestion to what to start with, ie which are easiest to maintain.

Cheers

[spirosspike]

I think it is
Tube Pl Lamp Cool White 11W 7100K

[Cat]

Okay you really need more powerfull lighting for corals, even easy ones, A mushroom by the way is the easiest coral out there. There is a lot of debate over the best number of lumins 10,0000k etc and I think a lot is personal taste. For soft corals it seems general rule of thumb is 3watts per gallon. with some of the easy ones like your mushroom you can get away with less put its the difference between keeping something alive and having it grow. if you dont want to spend a small fortune on halide lighting just increase the number of T8 flurescent strips under the hood and be sure to use full spectrum lighting as corals are photosynthetic like plants.

[spirosspike]

Thanks for that. I will keep it mind.
When I am ready I might increase the number of TB or if that cant be done to my system I might just go for the halide as you suggest.

Cheers