Orange coraline Algae?

[SaltyDog2]

I recently took my 72gal bow front reef tank down and moved everything to a 180gal with 20gal refuge and 40gal sump. A few new pumps but mostly the same stuff. My rocks have very little pink and purple coralline algae but there is a lot of bright orange. It looks like coralline algae but I've never seen it before. Any ideas? I miss the pink and purple.

 

[NC2WA]

could this be a sponge instead of coralline algae??

 

[SaltyDog2]

It's hard like coralline and plates over the rock. Here is a picture.

 

[Rob in Puyallup]

Does that orange "disappear" under blue lighting like my pink and purple coralline does? If it doesn't, would you like to sell your me some.

I'm digging the orange...

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[NanaReefer]

Orange Coralline algae, way cool! Likes lower light. Hope it continues to grow for you as you could make some good coral moneys in the future Pretty rare to see it in the home aquarium.


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[SaltyDog2]

It's not very visible under actinic light. It seems to be growing best directly under my 400w 20k lights.

 

[SaltyDog2]

It's definitely not sponge, I broke some off tonight and it is very hard.

 

[Rob in Puyallup]

I'd love a piece to seed my tank... (hint)

 

[BEAU_RN]

Interesting... Never seen this before.

 

[SaltyDog2]

It does set off the green corals that I have but it makes the orange monti and digitata blend in.

 

[spieszak]

I have red coralline that starts out orange... Its brilliant orange for a few days, then turns to almost a brick red. How long has yours been orange?

 

[SaltyDog2]

I think it showed up a couple months ago and it does have red edges in places.

 

[Mark2]

That's a cool color coralline to have in the tank! Has it spread across the tank or just to neighboring rocks?

 

[Bricky]

Looks more like lobophora algae than coralline.

 

[Herefishyfishy]

Encrusting sponge

 

[SaltyDog2]

I've never heard of lobophora algae, is that a good thing?

 

[Chichas01]

I'm with Bricky, some type of lobophora/scroll algae

http://reefguide.org/encrustingfanleaf.html

 

[SaltyDog2]

Thanks Bricky and Chichas01. I've been reading articles on lobophora algae and tend to agree that is probably the identity. Mine is just oranger than any I see pictured. Now the question is, is it bad or good. I found one online site that sells it for $10. fish don't seem to eat it yet urchins do consume it like they do coralline algae. It doesn't seem to be bothering any corals.

 

[Rob in Puyallup]

The pet store in Sumner has some growing on a filter tube in one of their coral tanks. It's reddish brown, like kelp, sort of.