Does anyone know what this red algae is? Very "decorative".

Hey fellas,

Have got this algae all over my Tunze powerhead, doesn't seem to affect flow but does look quite nice. Also have another bit on a rock sprouting up now as well. Have never seen it before and wondered if perhaps one of you guys (Liquidg i'm looking at you..) might know what it is.



Edit: Don't mind the caulerpa in the powerhead, i had to trim some last week and haven't been bothered to pluck it from the powerhead yet..

My passion being algae,how the hell would i have any idea,lol.
It’s a form of halymenia algae as far as i know or its sometimes-called burning bush red algae or flame algae.One biologist told me years ago he reckoned it was a form of nemastoma?
They vary in colour and shape depending on light,temp and nutrient levels,a choice algae to have!
One of my favourite groups of algae, well done. They thicken in density in situations like that and remain that way to retain enough body to stop the pump from sucking it in. Phil used to sell it in years gone by, very popular as it is harmless and a high nutrient importing algae. Only herbivore nudibranch and dedicated herbivore fish may worry that one.My blue nudi would nock it over in a day,lol.

I knew you'd know what it was

Thats cool that its a good algae to have, its a really nice addition i think and it is nice that it covers the powerhead to make it somewhat more "natural" looking i guess.. hides it a little..

It doesn't seem to stop the pumps flow either which is a good point as well. Is it a nutrient importer or exporter? Would be good to know if it would do a caulerpa type job.

I'm going to look into those names you gave and see what else i can find about it

Mate importing is the alga absorbing the nutrients,onto using them to make its structure and feed from them via photosynthetic conversion. Exporting is trimming it and giving those bits away or throwing it away.
Importing-absorbtion, exporting-removal.

So that would mean it would do the same job as caulerpa would, is that right? That sounds pretty good then if that is the case!

No mate,that algae you have is multi celled algae,caulerpa is a single celled algae and the walls of a single celled algae allow for much easier absorption of nutrients. Multi celled algae are more careful when it comes to not allowing bacteria to get in. Single celled are most resilient to the affects of bacterial infection, so they have a semi material woven look to their cell structure which allows the waters content to move through the walls easier, that’s all. Both are great at importing, its just the caulerpa forms that have near to no chemical defences in their sap, which makes them the best of all nutrient importers.
For algae to import and subsequently export, you have to have it becoming larger in content and cut it back and throw the trimmings away to export nutrients.

I have heard it called Dragons breath here in the states. Sells very well here, adds color to a tank.

Bill