Red Algae?

[mvcg2001]

Is the stuff in the first picture red algae? It came in on a piece of liverock about a month ago and has been becoming more prominant ever since. This is in my reef tank and this is the only piece of rock with this stuff. If it is red algae, how do I get rid of it? My Margarita snails don't seem to touch it.

Also, what is the critter in the second picture? It looks like tiny anemones but I don't think it's aptasia. What do the experts think?

Thanks,
<Mark />

[wwest]

looks to me like red hair algae. a emarold crab would get rid of it or if you could starve all the PO4 out of your tank it should die off. i have a emarold and it did the job within a week.

the second picture looks like pest anemones. a peppermint shrimp is spose to get rid of them but you would have some trimming to do on the anemones. i dont think peppermint shrimps eat anemones if they are really big.

but thats IMO

hope that helps and i am sure others will stop in :)

[Rob]

the first picture looks like some type of hair algae, turbo snails should eat it up.. also, check out the podcast show from a few weeks back, one of the recent Q&A shows, i talked about handling hair algae.
(emerald crabs usually dont eat it IME, they better known for eating bubble algae)

the second image looks like aptasia, or maybe hydroids, (im outside on my laptop so its hard to see the image). if it is aptasia (pest anemone) peppermint shrimp are great for eating these if they are smaller.. for the large one you might have to get rid of them manually

[mvcg2001]

Thanks for the responses. The anemones are maybe 3/16 inch tall so the picture is a bit deceiving (viva la macro photography). I'll get a couple peppermint shrimp and see how they do. Otherwise I might just shoot them with Kalk.

I haven't gotten through the most recent podcasts as I've been trying to catch up.

I've tested for phosphates and it measures at zero. Just because I can be obsessive about my tank I used PhosGuard "just to be sure" and they still measure zero. I do have a bit of a hair algae problem on my back wall but the Margaritas took care of that. I don't know where the phosphate is coming from. I use RO water. I do feed frozen and some flake food (the clowns like it more than the frozen). It's Ocean Nutrition Prime Reef and the container reads "Low Phosphorus & Low Ash". If the phosphates are coming from the food, any suggestions for a non-phosphate flake?

Thanks again,
<Mark />