Cheato and caulerpa turning brown?

limitup

Premium Member
I recently set-up a 25g refugium and added some various macros I got from my LFS. He said it's best to have different types in there, and he gave me a few different kinds. I know one is some type of caulerpa, some cheato, maybe hair algea too? I'm looking for pics now to figure out what is what.

Anyway, I've had this stuff in there about a week now and everything is starting to turn a little brown. Is this a normal thing as they adjust to the lighting, or a problem?

I'm using a 5100k 75w bulb that was highly recommended in another thread, and it's on for about 14 hours a day, in a reverse photoperiod from the main tank.
 
Ok actually it's not turning brown ... I took a really close look and they are slowly getting covered with some type of red algea. I have never had any real algea in my main tank so this is all new to me. Is this red stuff normal, bad, doesn't matter or ??
 
Sounds like cyanobacteria. This stuff grows fast! It is best to remove as much as you can. I use small tubing to suck them out.

In my tank / fuge cyano grew in areas where I had low flow. What type of flow do you have in fuge?
 
I have 500gph through the fuge - quite a lot actually. I was actually thinking of going to a smaller pump because the macros are getting blown around quite a bit by the current. This red stuff is growing on the grape caulerpa which is literally just a few inches away from the incoming flow, and the caulerpa is constantly in motion ...
 
I have been having the same problem, where my macro stopped growing and I have this bloom of cyno...both in my reef and my fuge. After doing many h2o tests and talking to my LFS I think I don't have a high enough nutient level to sustain the macro growth....in other words...my tank isn't dirty enough? does this make any sense?
 
well if I have used up my nitrogen then I don't have it for my macro to grow but since the cyno doesn't require that the it outgrows the beneficial bacterias?
keep in mind these are all just guesses more or less in trying to figure out why I have this outbreak
 
I don't know either ... I've never ever had algea problems in my tank so I've never bothered learning much about it LOL. I was always under the impression however that while flow and lighting are important factors, excess nutrients are required for cyano outbreak/problem.
 
well yeah, I agree, I always thought the same thing too...so I stopped feeding for 3 days and the stuff still spread just as fast as before....even with me sucking it out with the baster.
I dunno, but I'm getting frustrated pretty quickly on this one!
 
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