What is this growing on my LR?!?

[boardsurfer]

Not sure what this is growing on my LR, but it seems to be taking over the 15lb piece of rock. I'm worried that it may spread to the other rocks in the tank. What's your take on it?

Should I:

1) Take it out of the tank into your QT tank and scrub it all off with a metal bristle brush

or

2) Forget about it. It's not a problem?

 

[TCTFish]

Neither. Take a pic and let us see what it is. If it's aptasias, then you don't want to do anything to the rocks that's going to allow it to propagate even more. Example...if you scrub it, breaking pieces off...if any of those pieces...however small get back in the tank, you'll have a bigger problem.

There are different stratagies for different 'pest' growths, so a positive ID should be made first and that can only be done with at least a photo.

 

[boardsurfer]

Here is the pic:

 

[Fluff]

Is this stuff soft like a macro? It looks like it has a white edge like a plating coralline maybe. Is it brittle?

 

[TCTFish]

Looks interesting. Doesn't appear to be anything alarming. It actually looks like a brownish type of coralline algae (sort of disk shaped and growing outward from the rocks or coral. Is it soft or hard???

 

[boardsurfer]

It is somewhat soft. It's not brittle like coraline, but it is rather tough to get off of the LR. I can only scrape it off with either my fingernails or another object, like a steel toothbrush.

If you look at the pic, it seems like it's soon to smother my polyps. I'm worried if I scrape it off in the tank, the floating particles might attach themselves to other rocks and spread...

 

[steve-s]

It's an encrusting species of Lobophora by the looks of it and yes you want to get rid of it. Short of scrubbing it off, a Diadema urchin's about your only hope.

Cheers
Steve

 

[boardsurfer]

Thanks, Steve. If you're still around this post, I plan on pulling the LR piece out of my main and putting it into my QT and then scrubbing it all off with a steel brush. I'll then put back into my main tank. Does this sound like a good solution?

 

[steve-s]

It'll work, just be sure nutrient in the tank is not part of the issue. As long as it's low, you shouldn't have alot of future problems.

Cheers
Steve