Plantbrain
Active member
Sarah et al,
I've been away doing research and playing with other things.
anyway, I've played with the growth of several macro algae and have some culturing methods to address.
I used CO2.
It did not do much relative to a control.
Actually nothing.
I did not predict this.
I predicted more growth.
This tank is packed also, so limitation may occur.
I also had a bought with cyano in another culture tank.
I tried quite a few things, made lots of mistakes on this tank in particular.
I tried every remedy for Red cyano and not one of them worked.
This was like the FW algae.
So I took FW approaches.
I reasoned that the focus should be on the plant/macro, not the noxious algae pest.
Adding CO2 did not help, nor any combo of ratios, etc, and I tried all sorts of antibiotics also etc, blackout worked well for 3 days but the cyano came right back, 3x a week 50-80% water changes never worked etc.
So what did work and amplified the growth a great deal?
Aeration, lots and lots of it.
You might not be aware of my old CO2 mist theory from the FW plant folks.
I can test it indirectly using O2 meters and CO2 [aq] measure.
But there is more to it in our case and the result is simpler in terms of a method for the macro algae hobby and I suspect seagrass strongly as well.
Cyano went away rapidly, never came back.
Plants have grown and looked very healthy.
I have very high biomass now.
I tried to filter all the detritus all also, that did not work either, but helped some against the Cyano and growth.
Steady NO3/Fe dosing helped, I also started PO4 dosing as the levels started to fall,m but that was only after heavily aerating.
So what is going on here?
The bubbles are sticky and they break up boundary layer around leaves/fronds. They also contain gas like CO2 and O2.
These are much faster in terms of Fick's 1st law of diffusion, for transfer.
This also mimics the ocean environment with the froath of bubbles near seagrass and a lot of macro habitats.
If you go inland on the bay side of Florida, you'll note how much more cyanos and diatoms you find, temp+low gas exchange is likely the cause.
Where there is higher current/aeration + plants, less cyano.
I saw this everywhere in FL, in CA, seagrasses are only found in higher light high aerated regions, which is all of CA coast
So this froath of aeration seems to produce the awesome growth.
I turned it off 4 times and waited, the growth reduces, and the O2 diurnal peak also declines(110% saturation to 95%), suggesting less growth. I also saw the return of pest algae.
Turning the aeration back on full blast: inside 1 week, the results returned to the original state and maintained strong resiliency.
I've done very well with macro algae growth in the past from tropical regions. I also had a skilter cranking in lot so aeration. The one problem tank also had a skilter, but the air intake kept getting salt spray and clogging. After addressing that and testing my hypothesis out a few times, it seems I can safely make some conclusions:
Stable high aeration is a key/significant part of heavy macro/seagrass growth.
This facilitates gas exchange and perhaps removes epiphytic pest/algae
Stable NO3 and Fe dosing are critical.
Ca and alk are also critical.
pH tends to be more stable
Bacteria tend to do better cycling.
Less detritus
I also recently developed and marine specific Fe supplement for marine plants/macro algae.
I do not sell fertilizers, but another vendor will be selling it dry and you can make up your own solutions.
It's about 20-100X less than commericial brands BTW and is specific to marine systems alk and pH, unlike most other products.
I have just started using this and am extremely pleased.
I am thinking of going back and attacking CO2 better using a gas tank etc.
Regards,
Tom Barr
I've been away doing research and playing with other things.
anyway, I've played with the growth of several macro algae and have some culturing methods to address.
I used CO2.
It did not do much relative to a control.
Actually nothing.
I did not predict this.
I predicted more growth.
This tank is packed also, so limitation may occur.
I also had a bought with cyano in another culture tank.
I tried quite a few things, made lots of mistakes on this tank in particular.
I tried every remedy for Red cyano and not one of them worked.
This was like the FW algae.
So I took FW approaches.
I reasoned that the focus should be on the plant/macro, not the noxious algae pest.
Adding CO2 did not help, nor any combo of ratios, etc, and I tried all sorts of antibiotics also etc, blackout worked well for 3 days but the cyano came right back, 3x a week 50-80% water changes never worked etc.
So what did work and amplified the growth a great deal?
Aeration, lots and lots of it.
You might not be aware of my old CO2 mist theory from the FW plant folks.
I can test it indirectly using O2 meters and CO2 [aq] measure.
But there is more to it in our case and the result is simpler in terms of a method for the macro algae hobby and I suspect seagrass strongly as well.
Cyano went away rapidly, never came back.
Plants have grown and looked very healthy.
I have very high biomass now.
I tried to filter all the detritus all also, that did not work either, but helped some against the Cyano and growth.
Steady NO3/Fe dosing helped, I also started PO4 dosing as the levels started to fall,m but that was only after heavily aerating.
So what is going on here?
The bubbles are sticky and they break up boundary layer around leaves/fronds. They also contain gas like CO2 and O2.
These are much faster in terms of Fick's 1st law of diffusion, for transfer.
This also mimics the ocean environment with the froath of bubbles near seagrass and a lot of macro habitats.
If you go inland on the bay side of Florida, you'll note how much more cyanos and diatoms you find, temp+low gas exchange is likely the cause.
Where there is higher current/aeration + plants, less cyano.
I saw this everywhere in FL, in CA, seagrasses are only found in higher light high aerated regions, which is all of CA coast
So this froath of aeration seems to produce the awesome growth.
I turned it off 4 times and waited, the growth reduces, and the O2 diurnal peak also declines(110% saturation to 95%), suggesting less growth. I also saw the return of pest algae.
Turning the aeration back on full blast: inside 1 week, the results returned to the original state and maintained strong resiliency.
I've done very well with macro algae growth in the past from tropical regions. I also had a skilter cranking in lot so aeration. The one problem tank also had a skilter, but the air intake kept getting salt spray and clogging. After addressing that and testing my hypothesis out a few times, it seems I can safely make some conclusions:
Stable high aeration is a key/significant part of heavy macro/seagrass growth.
This facilitates gas exchange and perhaps removes epiphytic pest/algae
Stable NO3 and Fe dosing are critical.
Ca and alk are also critical.
pH tends to be more stable
Bacteria tend to do better cycling.
Less detritus
I also recently developed and marine specific Fe supplement for marine plants/macro algae.
I do not sell fertilizers, but another vendor will be selling it dry and you can make up your own solutions.
It's about 20-100X less than commericial brands BTW and is specific to marine systems alk and pH, unlike most other products.
I have just started using this and am extremely pleased.
I am thinking of going back and attacking CO2 better using a gas tank etc.
Regards,
Tom Barr
