Can someone tell me what this is?

[fishorbust]

I have a 20 gallon FOWLR tank and the live rock appears to have a red coating on some parts of the tank.....Also i have a mushroom on one of the rocks and i was wanting to know when or if more mushrooms would form from it??

 

[greatfullreefer]

IMO the red algae is cyano, usually related to poor water quality or not enough water movement. Do you have any powerheads? what are your water parameters?
The mushrooms probably will reproduce. Try directing a power head on it, it will move leaving a trail of shrooms.
Good Luck.

 

[fishorbust]

I have a maxi jet 400 powerhead on the left side of the tank and its aimed towards the middle of the tank and slightly up. The mushroom is below it so it isn't receiving the current as much at all. it seems that the water movement is ok. i may need another powerhead or just a bigger one. I just done a water change and it appears that the reds stuff on the live rock isn't as bad.

 

[wayway]

Is the red stuff kind of a smooth almost velvet looking stuff. If so then it is probably coraline. Which is very good in a tank. And it should spread quick if you keep your water healthy.

 

[chandler04]

No, coralline is usually purple, pink, green or even blue, not usually red. Sometimes yellow I believe. Its definitely Cyano, cuz Coraline doesnt spread onto substrate. Use yer lights only 10 hours a day tops. Keep the tank away from windows, dont use tap water, and have good water flow and good water quality, Key ingredients to no algae.

 

[daredevil]

I got some LR yesterday with alot of corraline on it. All u need is good water quality? Cool! Do u need to have a strong light 2?:happy:

 

[wayway]

Yes there is such thing as red corraline. Just go to the photography message board and look at the pictures in the corraline thread.:yes: And no you dont need really strong lighting to grow it, just good lighting.

 

[fshhub]

red coraline does exist
cyano will appear felt like where as coraline will be very smooth almost kinda like molded plastic

 

[dragonboy]

My algae is brown so far I have 10 snails and 3 other small snials in the tank and one starfish in the tank. My tank is 100 gal I need more rock but the algae is all over my sand what can I do to reduce it? My NO2 and NO3 are 0. Alk is high but ph is little high.