Cyno? Can it be hard too?

[dscount]

Okay. I've had cyno in the tank before and usually scrubs right off the rocks when I do a clean up.

BUT.. This time it's not like the normal soft type cyno I've seen in my tank. This stuff does not scrub off. It's hard like coraline and doesn't really scratch the surface even.

Do I have cyno or coraline here? It's a DARK Purple compared to my popular light purple in most of the tank.

Tank stats today: Calcium 400, Am .35, Rate 10, Rite 0, PH 8.3

See pix attached. Thanks in advance.

 

[ColdFish]

I'm very curious about this also. I have some of the exact same stuff showing up in my rock. Don't think it's cyano as I've also had that problem in the past. This stuff is hard like coraline and was hoping that's what it is.

Mine is growing mainly on some smaller pieces of liverock rubble that I added to my 50 gallon FOWLR. I got a 45 lb order from liveaquaria.com about 3 weeks ago for my new 90 gallon. These pieces were too small for the 90 and since it was just a small amount of rubble, I put it in my 50 gallon. These small pieces seem to be the only place it's growing. Definetly not spreading like my cyano did, but that's what I thought when I first saw it. Funny enough, It's not growing at all on the large pieces that are cycling the 90 gallon. Not running the lights much in there though.

 

[JG]

Coralline ... if its hard. Cyano is slimy.

I have coralline in this color as well. There is also a type of red mat algae which has the same color, but it feels spongy and can be peeled off of the rock easily.

Joanne

 

[Florida8]

It's coraline... among other colors it comes in wine red as well... very nice addition to the purples I think.... Love variety

 

[dscount]

Sweeeeeeeeeeeet! I love the dark purple against the light colored.

Thanks JG and Florida8

I'm going to go check out the rock again just to be POSITIVE it has no slim on it anywhere.

 

[zuzecawi]

A lot of keys rock has this on it. Mine came with orange, red, and two colors of purple. It's all corralline. And very nice. The red isn't quite as hardy as the purple but it grows quicker, IME.

 

[ColdFish]

Way Cool !!

I sure didn't want my cyano problem back hehe. I've only ever been able to grow the pink coraline up to this point. I'm setting up my first reef and I picked up a Kent Reef Starter pack figuring that I could use it when I started stocking the new tank. I put a single 5ml dose of the calcium supplement and the moly/stront supplement in my 50 FOWLR thinking that a single dose wouldn't hurt anything. Don't want to keep adding it as I'm not testing for it yet. This stuff showed up shortly after that. Do you think that may have been what got it growing? Guess I better hurry up and order my test kits.

 

[dscount]

I suspect it's the reef starter kit as well. Mine really grew like crazy after I added the buffer and calcium dose. I had low 300 on calcium that is now in the 400-450 range finally.