What is it?

[loganj]

This started growing out of the rock as soon as I upgraded the lighting. Not sure what it is...haven't seen anything like it anywhere else. It is a dark purple color and probably about 1" high right now.
Logan J

 

[AmekaAquatics.C]

All Hail The Lights

 

[michealprater]

All Hail The Lights

huh?

 

[reefrunner69]

This started growing out of the rock as soon as I upgraded the lighting.

 

[reefrunner69]

It looks like a really col purple thing to me. Hope that wasn't too technical 8O

 

[Anemoneman]

If it's hard my guess is branching coraline. A relatively rare form of coraline in our tanks.

 

[Guest]

Oh yeah, coool man. You found a doonzeedumdweezy. The purple one.

8O 8O 8O 8O 8O 8O 8O 8O 8O 8O 8O 8O 8O 8O 8O 8O 8O

Just funnin

 

[michealprater]

Are the white spots on it polyps? Maybe its a photosynthetic gorgonian. ????????

 

[loganj]

Hmm...I don't know if they are or not. I guess it'll have to grow some more and maybe we'll see. Gorgonian crossed my mind very briefly, but I don't know much about them so I dismissed the idea. I guess if the white bumps retract when the lights go out, that would be a good indication that they were polyps...right? Of course, it could be a dumdingdweezybat or whatever that was . I'll do some digging on gorgs and see if I can find anything that resembles it. Branching coraline would be neat too though...I'll check that out too. Thanks for the ideas!
Logan J

 

[reefrunner69]

It looks quite a bit like that red macro algae (that I can't remember the name of ), only purple. Is it hard? Soft?

 

[ReefLady]

I think, that it's a Distichopora sp. (or Stylaster sp.) - both of which are species of Hydrocorals. Similar to the Fire corals.

Here's a pic of some Hydrocorals:

From this article: Hydroids — The Ultimate Cnidarians

HTH,