Flame macro care

[fermentedhiker]

I picked up a portion of Flame Algae (Bryothamnion sp.) from Reefcleaners.org. The portion while small was very healthy in appearance. It had a nice deep burgundy color and firm "flesh".

The instructions said not to place it in full light right away. I placed it under an overhang but it seemed to be fading so I placed it out in the open. I don't have a par meter but based on BMLs par chart it was getting around 175 in the new spot. It has continued to fade and I would say is completely dead at this point.

The tank is newly cycled, is through the diatom phase and I'm starting to see GSP, a tiny amount of green cyano, and possibly some filament(although I think it's just strands of Chaeto that have escaped from the HOB fuge when I turn it. Ammonia and Nitrite are 0 and Nitrate is between 5 and 10 PPM. I don't currently have a phosphate test, but a Hanna checker is in my list of upcoming purchases. The only other living stuff in the tank are snails and three hitchhiker hermits.

Temp oscillates between 79.9-81.1 in a 1-2hour cycle depending on whether it's day or night.
PH varies between 8.32-8.34
I use IO reef crystals.

What things should I be looking at as primary causes for the macro's failure to thrive?

Thanks for the help

 

[brokereefer617]

Are you running any phosban like gfo? Any time I had anything like that my macro would diminish quickly

 

[fermentedhiker]

Are you running any phosban like gfo? Any time I had anything like that my macro would diminish quickly

No GFO/Phosban as the tank is too new to need it. Just some Purigen and possibly overskimming.

 

[brokereefer617]

Hmmm maybe it's the over skimming. Out of curiosity what kind of lights you have running ?

 

[fermentedhiker]

It's a Buildmyled 12000k fixture. which is a mix of 6500k W, RB,B, Red, Green leds.

I considered the skimmer since the HOB-1 is rated for a much larger tank, but the fact that I still have Nitrates and have micro algae growth would seem to indicate that they should have enough resources to survive if not grow.

Since the Flame didn't just fail to thrive but immediately started to fade away and melted completely within a week that seems like I've got something wrong.

 

[Raybee]

I considered the skimmer since the HOB-1 is rated for a much larger tank, but the fact that I still have Nitrates and have micro algae growth would seem to indicate that they should have enough resources to survive if not grow.

Low Iodine? Overskimming will remove iodine. Green macros like their iron, reds like their iodine. When I dosed iodine for the inverts, the red macros became much happier.

 

[fermentedhiker]

hmmm good to know. I wouldn't think low iodine would cause it to fade so quickly(just a few days) In the meantime I ordered some macros from live-plants.com. Some Codium, Halimeda, cryptonemia, and some fine branched coraline(which they don't show anymore).

The Codium looks to be holding up good. The Halimeda is slowly coming around(some of it anyways) with fresh new growth although a lot of it just bleached out and never recovered) I'm wondering if my lights are strong enough as it came back the most in the brightest lit locations. The cryptonemia (a red) is doing great on the back side of the scape out of direct light. The fine branched coraline has me worried though. It's absolutely gorgeous so I'd hate to lose it. It seems to be slowly fading and has some sort of fuzzy pink/purple growth in between the branches. I see the zebra hermit and occasionally a trochus snail going through it, but they don't see to be cleaning up the fuzz whatever it is.