purple stuff

[ef4life]

It’s not coraline, it’s not gap. And as far as I can tell it’s not an algae at all. It’s like a mat growing over the rocks. It grows on top of hair algae on the rocks,grew over top and killed an acan, grew over top of red mushrooms even but did not kill them. It’s soft and can be peeled off rock, has a semi glossy sheen to it. Zoas and Palys can grow through it no problem. Originally I thought it was mat growing from some purple zoas I have but it never grew any polyps out and when I pulled some off, the zoas stayed on the rocks. The bare white rocks on the top are where I was pulling it off.

[Newstead]

From your description, it almost sounds like an entrusting sponge - but I never knew they would cover corals.

[ef4life]

I never thought about it being a sponge, sponges usually have a hole on them as a vent or something though right? 

 

Anyone local to Phoenix can have some if they want it 

[ef4life]

Here’s a pic of what’s left of my acan, I broke it off the rock and tossed it in the sump where it’s dark to see what it will do. it used to be about 20 heads in an almost perfect round shape, it grows right around then over them. On the very right side is a tiny bit of bubble algae and it’s growing right over it.

[Belikin]

Definitely looks like sponge. I have some in my tank, but, so far is not as aggressively spreading as yours is.

[ef4life]

On 5/1/2019 at 12:25 PM, Belikin said:

Definitely looks like sponge. I have some in my tank, but, so far is not as aggressively spreading as yours is.

It’s been in the tank for a long time really, probably 4years now, it started small but once it started growing it just grew exponentially. Once i get some time I’m going to cut the rocks up to eliminate it. I will be keeping 1 rock that’s entirely covered with it, but it has a whole colony of Palys on it so I’m just going to isolate that rock and trim the purple back when it starts growing onto the sand.

[ef4life]

Here’s the piece of rock I put in the sump now, purple is reaching now for another rock or whatever 

 

 

[ef4life]

So I pulled out all the rocks with the purple stuff on them except the one with my Palys. I chiseled off the corals that I wanted to keep. Then I did a muriatic acid clean on them. The rocks were almost white after, but this stuff still was purple, but came off easily with the hose and a direct high power stream to wash it off. Underneath it was still green and dirty, I then put the rocks back into another muriatic bath. Probably going to do a bleach clean after then let them soak in rodi for a few days then let them air dry. Then start to cycle them again.