best plant or macro algae

[CTaylor]

Hi,

I have caulerpa already in my reef tank. And it's a pest.
I need a moderately growing plant/macro algae to suck up nutrients so to help slow and prevent nuisance algae in my sea horse tank.

The caulerpa I have that I found a nightmare is the feather type, especially when it stays very small and you can't pull it out of the rocks. I also have bubble caulerpa, not as bad. Is the solid leaf caulerpa better than both of these?

I really need to get something in the tank b/c my seahorses had some algae on their backs today that I had to blow off. That can't be good.

Any ideas?

Thanks!

 

[rayjay]

I'd be doing more husbandry.
Search out and remove frequently any uneaten food/detritus, especially what gets caught up in and around rock work and/or decor or macro.
Do more frequent/larger water changes.

 

[CTaylor]

Thanks. If I had more time I would make huge water changes, and take out all the extra food left. Though there is actually none visible. The horses and my two gobies eat everything visible.
And algae would still form, wouldnt it? it only takes a trace amount of phosphate, etc for it to. I'd like it mostly elminated like it is in my reef.
Who uses plants and what type?

 

[rayjay]

No, Algae won't form if it doesn't have the fuel to grow.
It's been MANY years now since I've had any algae in any of my seahorse tanks, ever since I upgraded my water quality with ,more intense husbandry.
I actually started this because of bacteria problems and pouch emphysema in my tanks that would develop over time.
Since then, I've not had bacteria problems and the algae went away, not to have returned.
You would be surprised to find a LOT of detritus/uneaten food that can't be seen, mostly in and around rockwork, but also caught in decorative hitching or macro.
While many use macro, the only one I've had access to is one of the caulerpa type. I envy those who can get the reds.
It is not only phosphates that give you algae.
I never do any water quality testing as there are NO test kits that tell me the water quality is insufficient for bacteria problems with seahorses, so preventive maintenance for me is the key, and means I don't have to test.
How all that being said, as your tank is VERY young in service at this time, it is not unusual to have problems like cyano and some algae forms until the tank is matured. However, I've found that this is VERY minimal with more extreme husbandry, more than any reef tank needs.
Of course too, you will always get a buildup on the glass that a mag cleaner can take care of once a week or so, but even for that, I use a power head with a quick filter on it to remove the haze that gets cleaned off.

 

[Elo500]

Rayjay can explain how you increased your water quality in the seahorse tank? Not understanding how intense husbandry helped...

 

[rayjay]

The more extreme husbandry helped because it improved water quality. A quality that cannot be tested for with the normal phosphate/nitrate/etc.. kits.
All those can be perfectly fine and yet the bacteria thrive unless the water quality is improved. Because it can't be tested for, it's a proactive rather than reactive needed because once you can see a problem it's often too late for the seahorse, or at best, you need to spend time and money on meds to treat in a hospital tank.
Here are two pages from my web site that perhaps explain my thoughts.
http://www.angelfire.com/ab/rayjay/seahorsekeeping.html

http://www.angelfire.com/ab/rayjay/husbandry.html

 

[CTaylor]

He is 100% right on increased husbandry = better sea horse environment. But even so it's very hard to keep algae to nothing even with huge water changes and keeping all extra food out, etc.
I will be even more dilgent at water changes and other.
So back to my orig question. I'm putting these plants/macro algae in my refugium (coming this week). Which I think Ray Jay you also have. That will help to naturally absorb what the nuisance brown algae likes that is in the tank now. I actually don't have much nuisance algae. None visible on the rocks, just some on the sand and glass (and some on the seahorses :-/ ). I don't even have a clean up crew (yet). So the level algae in tank considering i have very little export isn't too bad in my opinion. I do have a descent skimmer (urchin on my 30 gallon tall).
**So what plants and algae do you (whoever is reading this) use? I just don't want them to 'infest' the main tank. i actually have no hitchhikers etc in the main tank because I used only Carib Sea Life Rock.

Thanks :-D

 

[CTaylor]

How about seaweed from the ocean (floating in water, not washed up on the sand) ? I'd rinse it off in RO DI water prior to putting in refugee, but there are a lot of living organisms in the seaweed bunches usually, so i wouldn't want to kill them also. has anyone done this?

 

[rayjay]

While macro seems to help nitrates, I never found it to bring down phosphate levels back when I was doing testing.
Also, macro tends to make bacteria problems worse, even though nitrates get better, mainly because it can trap unseen particulate matter.
I know there are plenty of people who have used macro from the ocean, but it's not something I would do as I just prefer to start with a sterile tank, and not add anything that might possibly introduce a pathogen that can have negative results for me.
For me personally, I don't find it hard to keep the algae out now that I do better husbandry. All I do now for algae is to use the mag cleaner on the glass.
I don't have any substrate in any of my seahorse tanks again, personal choice, and all my rock pretty well is in the sumps.
I don't have a refugium but the caulerpa was on a piece of rock in the DT.
I've never used clean up crews of any sort in any of my reef tanks and seahorse tanks for about the last 20 yrs as it's so easy to clean bare bottom tanks.

 

[DanU]

Algae on seahorses is usually not a problem. Wild seahorses are often covered in it. It helps them blend in. It bothers the aquarist but the seahorse not so much.

If you really want a good plant filter, consider an algae scrubber. Very effective.

Dan

 

[CTaylor]

Thanks for the info on the algae on seahorse . That makes sense on the camouflage. Wouldnt a densely planted refugium be similar to an algae scrubber? (All I really 'know' about scrubbers is they use algae to pull out pollutants.)
I'm about to get my new sump today with refugium, so I'm anxious to get it started

Thanks!

 

[DanU]

Refugiums can be good. A densely planted refugium is basically doing the same thing. The difference is that an algae scrubber pulls more stuff faster. The faster stuff grows and the more you have to remove it, the more it is pulling out.

Dan

 

[Devaji108]

^ yeah I was gonna recommend an ATS. if it just for filtering.
but you could also add display type of Macros they look good give the SH places to hitch etc.
think dragon breath and the like.

 

[glh7767]

my tank is heavily planted with macroalgae, along with 2 separate refugia, one in the sump and one hang on. i keep the chitos and caulerpa in the refugia, both to export nutrients and to act as a breeding material for cocopod reproduction. my display tank is filled with various macroalgaes, including dragon's breath, shaving brush, acorn macroalgae, corky fingers, and gorgonia with fairly thick branches to both filter nutrients and to provide hitching areas. without question the most popular spots in my tank are the corky fingers. i have 5 of them in the tank now, and at times 6 of my 8 horses are hitched to the corky fingers. and surprisingly, they rebound very quickly with full polyp extension in the rare moments a horse isn't attached.

 

[vlangel]

my tank is heavily planted with macroalgae, along with 2 separate refugia, one in the sump and one hang on. i keep the chitos and caulerpa in the refugia, both to export nutrients and to act as a breeding material for cocopod reproduction. my display tank is filled with various macroalgaes, including dragon's breath, shaving brush, acorn macroalgae, corky fingers, and gorgonia with fairly thick branches to both filter nutrients and to provide hitching areas. without question the most popular spots in my tank are the corky fingers. i have 5 of them in the tank now, and at times 6 of my 8 horses are hitched to the corky fingers. and surprisingly, they rebound very quickly with full polyp extension in the rare moments a horse isn't attached.

Greetings fellow Pennsylvanian!