Yet another algae ID request, please
 

So today I notice I don't have the flow from the return pump that I should. It's an old Rio 1700, not much of a return pump, but the display is only a 29G. So I take it apart to clean it, and it is clean and operating normally. Hmm, maybe the return hard lines are blocked? I grab the Mag 5 from the closet (for an EV-90 skimmer I recently bought) and hook that up.

BANG! This piece of huge macro algae shoots out of one outlet. The other outlet is still plugged so I put my finger over the good outlet, and an even larger piece piece shoots out of the second outlet. Yuck. These things were in a run of cpvc pipe 1/2" diameter. No light whatsoever. This may affect the color, I don't know. There is a small piece that I see in the clear tubing that connects the pump to the hard lines. That tube had been filled with green hair algae and all sorts of other algae as it sits in front of the fuge light. I don't really care alot as it behaves like a turf scrubber sorta. Maybe?

Pictures below as best as I could do. The branches themselves are fluid filled, but there are pockets of air as well. The ends are pincher-esque in appearance.

[IMG]http://www.mikelaubach.com/albums/album42/DSC05622.sized.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://www.mikelaubach.com/albums/album42/DSC05623.sized.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://www.mikelaubach.com/albums/album42/DSC05624.sized.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://www.mikelaubach.com/albums/album42/DSC05626.sized.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://www.mikelaubach.com/albums/album42/DSC05627.sized.jpg[/IMG]

I have fuller versions of the pictures if those are more helpful.

Thanks many times.

Stumped for an ID, but I like the narrative. Brown, red, and green algae can take a brown color so its hard to go by color. Of the algae common to reef tanks Ulva, a green algae, is sort of similar but it ususally grows near the waterline. Its not unusual for algae to grow in clear or opaque pipes. Its one reason the thicker, darker, schedual 80 PVC is used instead of the white schedual 40 PVC which allows quite a bit of light through. I used black cellular ABS (sold as drain pipe) for piping and for skimmer reaction chambers which allows no light through, but its not available in diameters smaller than 1 1/2".