Sudden single spidery algae monster

[Murftoo]

This popped up and grew exponentially within hours. It looks and feels like algae (wipes off easy), but the sudden onset is weird!

I haven't cleaned the tank in several weeks, so there's a small bit of normal film algae, but no problems or algae anywhere else.

Any insight? Thank you!

 

[wangspeed]

Is that on the glass? I'm fascinated!

 

[Murftoo]

It is! It started as a little sprout just a few hours ago.

 

[mermaid_life]

There's been a few of these posts lately. I wonder if there's an outbreak! All posts that I've read so far says it's harmless.

 

[Murftoo]

There's been a few of these posts lately. I wonder if there's an outbreak! All posts that I've read so far says it's harmless.

Awesome, thanks! I searched before I posted, but must have missed those. Definitely had me curious!

 

[taricha]

This popped up and grew exponentially within hours. It looks and feels like algae (wipes off easy), but the sudden onset is weird!

I haven't cleaned the tank in several weeks, so there's a small bit of normal film algae, but no problems or algae anywhere else.

Wild!
looking closely at the pic, it looks like there's a connection to the sand, and that there's some sort of organism (worm?) coming up from the sand in multiple spots simultaneously?
Possible there's a sandbed worm population that has decided it's time to colonize new area and is building a network of tunnels on the glass. See the below circles on your pic.

If you examine the network closely do you see worms or similar moving through it?

 

[michael_cb_125]

Taricha may be on to something.
I am leaning toward a feeding appendage of some sort as well.

 

[Murftoo]

The tunneling to new territory theory sounds right to me as well. I couldn't see anything moving, but it was as if I almost could. Perhaps they very small.

Also, when I wiped my finger over a small section and dissolved it, I came back 20 mins later and all the other branches that were still connected were thicker. Reef tank ant farm!

And our final proof is that I left it as it was and when I woke up this morning, it was completely gone. No traces of the below-the-sandline brown either. Pic is from this morning without me touching a thing!

 

[taricha]

when I woke up this morning, it was completely gone. No traces of the below-the-sandline brown either. Pic is from this morning without me touching a thing!

Congrats on the weirdest hitchhiker post in recent memory!

I would definitely need to have a magnifier / low power microscope that can image through glass in case this ever shows again.

 

[Murftoo]

It's back! I was armed with a magnifying glass and good light this time.

Inside the brown web, it looks like a very, very thin long white thing (or many things joined together). At the end of it, little pieces or individuals will suddenly shoot off into a new branch and then slowly morph back to place on the main line. They do this multiple times in one place until a little trail forms, then they will shoot off in a different direction. The best part is that they brighten up as they shoot off so that it looks like very tiny little branching lightening strikes if you look very closely!

I still don't know what it is, but it's the coolest thing I've seen in my tank yet. I tried hard to get it on video, but nothing turned out and the web was gone in a few hours.

 

[wangspeed]

Can you get a macro pic? This thread totally deserves more attention!

 

[Murftoo]

With only a camera phone, it's impossible to focus on the glass with any clarity. I'm going to borrow a DSLR later this week, though.

Tonight's appearance was beautiful, but smaller than the others. All three nights have started at almost the exact same time (sunset on reef light time).

Tank clean is tomorrow (sorry for dirty glass pic!). I usually vacuum my sand bed, but I think I'm going to skip it because I'm enjoying this and don't want to disturb my nightly show!

 

[ying yang]

I've seen something like this posted when first joined r2r and in their video I pointed out looked like it was lots different all working together to make a colony so to speak. Let look through my posts and see of can find it as someone gave it a name in that thread

Edit: seems I can't go back early enough in my posts to check,unless someone knows a way ?

 

[vetteguy53081]

Looks like remnants of a sea fan

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

I've seen something like this posted when first joined r2r and in their video I pointed out looked like it was lots different all working together to make a colony so to speak. Let look through my posts and see of can find it as someone gave it a name in that thread

Edit: seems I can't go back early enough in my posts to check,unless someone knows a way ?

It looks like if you go to your posts, go to the 20th page (last page it lets you click to), and scroll to the bottom, you can click view older results and repeat the process until you’re far enough back to find the post.

 

[ying yang]

It looks like if you go to your posts, go to the 20th page (last page it lets you click to), and scroll to the bottom, you can click view older results and repeat the process until you’re far enough back to find the post.

Ok see it thanks ,hope dont have go to far back lol
Maybe Job for tommorrow as real late here now ^_^ and thankyou

 

[Karen00]

I thought I read a post with something like this and it looked like they were worms (or something similar). If you have a microscope get a sample and take a look. It's very fascinating!

 

[wangspeed]

Put a piece of white or black plastic in the tank right behind the glass. Then you can focus on that.

 

[ying yang]

I've seen something like this posted when first joined r2r and in their video I pointed out looked like it was lots different all working together to make a colony so to speak. Let look through my posts and see of can find it as someone gave it a name in that thread

Edit: seems I can't go back early enough in my posts to check,unless someone knows a way ?

Well just spent 2 hours looking through the titles that stood out but couldnt find,could be hid in my 3300 posts in a " new member saying hello or anything" sorry really thought I'd find it but nope

 

[Murftoo]

Well just spent 2 hours looking through the titles that stood out but couldnt find,could be hid in my 3300 posts in a " new member saying hello or anything" sorry really thought I'd find it but nope

2 hours, ouch! Thank you for trying!