What hitchhiking on this LR?

Hey all. I just started cycling my 30 gallon tank with some live rock in it. It's only been up for about a week now and i see this very small tree like thing growing on it. I'm not sure if it's a form of algae or what but if someone could ID it that would be great. Thanks!

 

looks like Byropsis not good.

 

The green macro is Fern Caulerpa. It can become invasive. I would manually remove it. It looks to me as if you have some Cyano on that rock as well.

Caulerpa

 

i'd say caulerpa as well! google it, but be careful half the pics will be bryopsis and half caulerpa, make sure you look under the pics! not sure why it does that!

 

ok few, cause I thought I had byropsis too! lol fern caulerpa looks right though, and yes manually remove it I too a razor and got it all off out side of the tank and it hasnt came back for a few weeks.

 

Its easy to tell the difference between Caulerpa and Bryopsis if you touch it. Caulerpa is much stiffer then Bryopsis. Also Bryopsis does not always show a feathery appearance. A few times it popped up in my tank looking like a clump of cotton.

 

man it seems there will always be some sort of a pest to take care of hahaha

 

^^+1

 

You have a host of crap in that pic. Bryopsis, hair, cyano, Caulerpa etc….You are one week into a cycle – these things will die off, the rock will become barren and then you may see that cyano return as it often does to many new systems.

I would expect it all to die off in the cycle so you could do nothing at all. But, Bryopsis is a real pita and just for peace of mind yank it out.

Vinnyboombatz is spot on when it comes to touch – hard to tell some times before the caulerpa take off and really appears differently. There is no chance of the Caulerpa surviving, even if it did it would be gobbled up by your future tangs. I harvest it from my refugium and feed it to my tank on a clip with some broccoli … its gone in 30 minutes ! Good luck with the cycle, keep us posted please.

 

Fern Caulerpa and it isn't exactly a pest but it can be. Some people buy it and grow it in their tanks to help with filtration. Most only keep it in a fuge, but if you are like me, you wouldn't mind having a few algae in your tank that are helpful. As long as you keep up with them and keep them trimmed you should be fine. As always with this sort of think I want to put that it is your call and your tank. If you want to keep it for filtration or get rid of it is entirely up to you. I just want to make sure you have the info to make the decision.

Also I pulled this from reefcleaners.org: