macroalgae in my sump
- Thread starter suckadamyfoo
- Start date
:welcome:
Let me be the first to say, you're a loser, but you've got a kick arse tank.
Hey, what were your last nitrate readings on the system?
Has the macro actually died (turned white and mushy and dissolved)? Or is it just holding on? You know my tank and my record with macros, as well. I've heard before that some species of macroalgaes are actually very sensitive to water quality, especially during acclimation. I've lost a couple batches of algae because I acclimated them too quickly.
Also, how long are you running the light over it?
(FWIW to everyone else, I was teasing suckadamyfoo because he's a good buddy of mine)
Let me be the first to say, you're a loser, but you've got a kick arse tank.
Hey, what were your last nitrate readings on the system?
Has the macro actually died (turned white and mushy and dissolved)? Or is it just holding on? You know my tank and my record with macros, as well. I've heard before that some species of macroalgaes are actually very sensitive to water quality, especially during acclimation. I've lost a couple batches of algae because I acclimated them too quickly.
Also, how long are you running the light over it?
(FWIW to everyone else, I was teasing suckadamyfoo because he's a good buddy of mine)
If you have lights 24/7, some flow and macros are dieing off, then I highly suspect you have very low nutrients.
For instance if you just started the system with ro/di water, and established the refugium from the start, then there may not be enough nutrients to sustain the nitial amount of macros you added.
If you do nothing, the macros should die back until whatever amount of macros are there that can be sustained by the nutrients. Then as the bioload is increased the macros will start expanding again.
For instance if you just started the system with ro/di water, and established the refugium from the start, then there may not be enough nutrients to sustain the nitial amount of macros you added.
If you do nothing, the macros should die back until whatever amount of macros are there that can be sustained by the nutrients. Then as the bioload is increased the macros will start expanding again.
Once you get the RO system up, I'd do two 50% water changes, a couple days apart. That'll bring those nitrates down.
Hopefully someone with more experience than me with caulerpa will chime in on what's going on with that. Slime algae usually occurs in areas of zero water flow. I get pockets of the same in my refugium. I've been kicking around the idea of adding a small powerhead to that refugium area.
Hopefully someone with more experience than me with caulerpa will chime in on what's going on with that. Slime algae usually occurs in areas of zero water flow. I get pockets of the same in my refugium. I've been kicking around the idea of adding a small powerhead to that refugium area.
It could depend on the caulpera. and the refug volumn.
In my system, Caulpera profilera seems to do well in lower lighting but grape and chaeto better in higher lighting.
I had very high nitrates with my external refug. Tank is 55g with about 5-6 fish some corals and some inverts. The external refug/sump is about 10g with chaeto, caulper profilera, and a diy filter box. Light is an 18 watt flourescent (awww spellng) equliviant to 90 watt incand. on 24/7
I installed an in tank refug which is an egg crate 3" in front of the entire back glass. At first nitrates did not respond but caulpera profilera grew up and out the top of the egg crate.
I finally put two 4' utility fixtures 6" behind the back glass pointing forward to light up the back glass refug. In about 2 months nitrAtes went down to and have remained at 0.0. Plus the macros especially the chaeto stay between the glass and the egg crate now.
I also had much faster growth on the chaeto with the extra lighting, and grape caulpera took off. Before small bunches of chaeto were good but not exceptional growth. And grape never lasted long. And the caulpera profilera is now much less to the point where it may go away altogether.
So I guess the higher lighting did help the chaeto and grape, but may have hurt the profilera. Of course there was an expanded area in the in tank refug. Now that nitrAtes are down, the chaeto growth rate has slowed as well.
This is not to say you have to do an in tank refug. But perhaps my experiences will help you with your system.
Bob
In my system, Caulpera profilera seems to do well in lower lighting but grape and chaeto better in higher lighting.
I had very high nitrates with my external refug. Tank is 55g with about 5-6 fish some corals and some inverts. The external refug/sump is about 10g with chaeto, caulper profilera, and a diy filter box. Light is an 18 watt flourescent (awww spellng) equliviant to 90 watt incand. on 24/7
I installed an in tank refug which is an egg crate 3" in front of the entire back glass. At first nitrates did not respond but caulpera profilera grew up and out the top of the egg crate.
I finally put two 4' utility fixtures 6" behind the back glass pointing forward to light up the back glass refug. In about 2 months nitrAtes went down to and have remained at 0.0. Plus the macros especially the chaeto stay between the glass and the egg crate now.
I also had much faster growth on the chaeto with the extra lighting, and grape caulpera took off. Before small bunches of chaeto were good but not exceptional growth. And grape never lasted long. And the caulpera profilera is now much less to the point where it may go away altogether.
So I guess the higher lighting did help the chaeto and grape, but may have hurt the profilera. Of course there was an expanded area in the in tank refug. Now that nitrAtes are down, the chaeto growth rate has slowed as well.
This is not to say you have to do an in tank refug. But perhaps my experiences will help you with your system.
Bob
suckadamyfoo":2ti4uhd6 said:
I have heard of rules of thumb around 3-4 watts/gallon for chaeto in refugiums. So it does sound like you are a little dim.
You might just try adding another light. And see what happens.
And BTW new growth on my caulpera is a white color. That greens up through the day. So if the light works don't be suprised to see some white tips in the morning. That would be a good sign.
What everyone worries about is clear spots in the middle of the "runners" and "leaves" that used to be green. that could mean something else and if only on a small portion of the total caulpera, then that part should be removed.
Also in my experience I did get some red slime (cyano bacteria) immediately before and after nitrAtes went to 0.0. From what I hear cyano consumes nitrogen from the air and phosphates from the water. So if you see some red slime "bloom" when nitrates go down, that is expected. In my case the red slime went away after a few weeks of 0.0 nitrates. Hopefully, that just meant the macros had finally gotten the last bit of phosphates.
I wonder if anyone's ever done real lab studies to tell which types of macroalgaes do better under which types of conditions.
Also, I had a random thought. Bob, you mentioned an in-tank refugium. Just as an experiment, I had a thought of making a small box out of eggcrate (maybe the size of an overflow box) and putting some grape caulerpa in it, actually in my display tank. Maybe hide it behind rockwork. My convict tang would chow the hell out of it, but if I could get it growing so that he would just eat what he could reach, that might make for a nice renewable food source for him... Hmmmmmmmm, I might have to bust out the eggcrate and zipties this weekend.
Also, I had a random thought. Bob, you mentioned an in-tank refugium. Just as an experiment, I had a thought of making a small box out of eggcrate (maybe the size of an overflow box) and putting some grape caulerpa in it, actually in my display tank. Maybe hide it behind rockwork. My convict tang would chow the hell out of it, but if I could get it growing so that he would just eat what he could reach, that might make for a nice renewable food source for him... Hmmmmmmmm, I might have to bust out the eggcrate and zipties this weekend.
most the studies at least on heavy metal filtration that i have read about are with dead dried macros. Seems to be a lack of studies on live macrosSharkky":2uhjewed said:
Also, I had a random thought. Bob, you mentioned an in-tank refugium. Just as an experiment, I had a thought of making a small box out of eggcrate (maybe the size of an overflow box) and putting some grape caulerpa in it, actually in my display tank. Maybe hide it behind rockwork. My convict tang would chow the hell out of it, but if I could get it growing so that he would just eat what he could reach, that might make for a nice renewable food source for him... Hmmmmmmmm, I might have to bust out the eggcrate and zipties this weekend.
Absolutely!!!!!! my tang pokes his nose through the egg crate and grabs a strand of chaeto all day. And the chaeto still grows and expands. Here is a link to my in tank refugium as I first set it up: http://www.saltwaterfish.com/vb/showthr ... did=101556
That was before I added the light behind the glass pointing forward. Also the egg crate is now dark green with a few white spots from snail action. there are also some baby turbos/stroms in the crate also. The macros are not growing from the top any more but stay behind the crate.
I do think a black egg crate might have looked better. But live and learn.
I don't think I'd want to do it on a large scale, at least with my system, for a couple of reasons--I think it would create too much of a low-flow detritus trap, and also I have most of my macro in the refugium in the sump. But if I could bury a small box behind my rock so it was out of sight, but still open at the top area to receive light from the main display lights, it'd be worth a try.
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