Pics needing ID - Black mounds? & Red algae(coralline?)

[saltwatertaffy]

Hi there! We setup a new 46G tank with LR a couple of weeks ago and are still in the process of curing the rock. The past few days we have started to see feather dusters and a few other worms but also started to see black mound like objects appearing all over our rocks and a patch of bright red algae? I'm not sure if this is good or bad algae. The red stuff is not slimy and almost appears to be more like coralline but I'm hoping someone can confirm. The black objects are mushy and almost look like mini vulcanoes with hollow openings at the peaks.

We've been doing 50% water changes every other day, supplementing with a Calcium, Magnesium, Strontium supplement to promote coralline and keeping the lights down to a minimum. Our LFS advised us to get some crabs and snails to keep the algae in check (probably a little to early given the things we've been reading) so we've been pretty careful with the water changes (Heated RO/DI water premixed) and are doing tests daily to watch our levels. Right now we have 2 emerald crabs, 20 blue hermits crabs, 10 scarlets crabs, 10 nessarius snails, and 10 astrea snails.

Can anyone help us identify these 2 unknowns???

Here's a pic of the black mounds:

Here's a pic of the red algae:

Here's an overall pic of the tank:

Thanks in advance to all of you! This site has been an amazing source of help!

Derek & Tina

 

[Fluff]

I'm not sure on the black objects. Are they mobile? Are they firm to the touch? The red patch looks like the beginnings of an encrusting sponge. Or it may be a darker coralline.

 

[Bearfan]

If you change your metering on your digital camera (say EXP -1.0 to -2.0) it'll take out a lot of the white wash that the rock produces.

 

[Oceanicsublimat]

I have the same red algae looking stuff.. started coming up when the spongy green algae started to grow..

 

[saltwatertaffy]

Thanks for the info on the red algea! The black objects seem firm to the touch and don't appear to be mobile. It was suggested in another forum that they could be sponges. Can anyone confirm this - if so does anyone know the kind? They're pretty small (a little less than the size of a dime). I haven't had much success googling small black sponges.

Thanks again - and I will work on the photos - sorry if they're hard to see!