Yikes!! What is this?

[Sherri F.]

Yikes! I just noticed this stuck to one entire corner, including the bare bottom, and the rocks in that corner of my 20 gallon quarantine tank. I have 13 frags, some small pieces of live rock, and a supposedly natural rock with holes drilled for frags. The frags looked mostly healthy upon arrival about 2 weeks ago. A few have some hair algae emerging, and one (an alveopora) hasn't been opening up much at all and it looks like it has tiny fish bones poking out of it in a few areas. Like it got in a fight with a frag sized porcupine.

I had a reef and sea horses about 20 years ago, and just started a reef again about 8 months ago. I've never seen anything like this before. Each little thing resembles a tiny dandelion seed like you'd see blowing in the wind. Light green under natural room light. Looks brownish red under a blue dominant light.

Do you know what it is?? How do I kill it?

Thank you, in advance, for any info you have to share!

 

[Fish Fan]

Weird!

#reefsquad any help for the OP?

 

[Sherri F.]

Here's a better photo.

 

[Red_Beard]

Those almost look like tufts of some kind of hair algae, wish i could tell you for certain though.

 

[Fish Styx]

It is hard to tell from the pics, but possibly hydroids? Let's call in the big guns. @ISpeakForTheSeas thoughts?

 

[exnisstech]

Look like tufts of algae. Ive seen similar in one tank on the back wall and I just scraped them off. I have no idea what type of algae they actually are if they even are algae.

 

[Sherri F.]

It is hard to tell from the pics, but possibly hydroids? Let's call in the big guns. @ISpeakForTheSeas thoughts?

ChatGPT thinks hydroids, too.

 

[Fish Fan]

ChatGPT thinks hydroids, too.

Hydroids is an easy ChatGPT answer; I'm not so sure, but what do I know

@ISpeakForTheSeas would be the one to ask, if she has a chance to check in and reply

 

[Rocks reef]

It’s little tufts of algae, especially since you mention it is green under white lights. Hydroids have specific number of tentacles with almost a bead in the middle. They look like tiny anemones.
This is a hydroid.

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

Those almost look like tufts of some kind of hair algae, wish i could tell you for certain though.

Yeah, there are a few things that might take a similar shape to this at some stage of their lifecycle, but the green coloration tells me it's an algae of some variety.

Edit: Corrected "em" to "me."

 

[Subsea]

“Light green under natural room light. Looks brownish red under a blue dominant light.“

How about a picture with white light?