Sudden life in vacant tank?

[AGWL]

First, I am sorry for the quality of the pictures. It's the best I could get for now.

This is a 60 gallon. The tank crashed about 2 years ago (you can look back through my old posts) and has been vacant ever since. I emptied it completely and put in new live sand like 18 months ago. I haven't added any new critters to it yet because life got in the way. It had one piece of rock in it that was NOT in it when the tank crashed. I added some new rocks this weekend; these have been sitting in my dining room for months and were brand new. I've been hoping to start adding new friends as money allows. I admit I haven't really been paying much attention to the tank. But....

I was looking in there today and there are these somethings coming out of the sand and some on the glass. They are on long, green-ish stalks (a couple of inches) and have what look like dandelion fluff on the ends. One of them has what looks like a flower on the end. Again, sorry for the pictures.

I am guessing this is not a good thing. I can't bear to start this tank over again.

What are these?

Please be kind.

 

[bradleym]

Try looking up mermaids wine glass macroalgae

 

[AGWL]

Try looking up mermaids wine glass macroalgae

That looks about right, at least for some of them. But do they get fluffy stuff on them, like dandelion fluff? And where did they come from, suddenly, into my tank? How do I take care of them?

 

[kevgib67]