Help with Setting Up Macro Tank

[Pigpen17]

Yeah, that's not bad at all. Most snail won't eat GHA though. Or if they do they don't make a dent. I bought a handful of Spiny Star Astraea, which are cool as heck, but they never seemed to get a handle on the GHA. GFO was the only thing that beat it down.

Fowleria Cardinalfish. I can already picture them hiding among the macros.

 

[Pigpen17]

So this is ending up as more of a build thread than a help thread, but I still really have no idea what I'm doing.

I had a question about lighting. I am finding very little info out there as far as what lighting to use. I think most of the answers are for an in sump refugium. I have a Reefbreeders Photon 24 LED light. I can program both white and blue channels. What is better for macros? More blue? or more white? How intense should I be going?

My C Polifera is looking pretty shotty. I was worried about it anyway, as it came out of the bag looked a bit haggard.

 

[Michael Hoaster]

Maybe it's a help/build thread. There's not a whole lot of consensus in the macro world just yet, but there is some.

On lighting, I lean towards white for macros. Most (I think) are shallow water species, so more daylight color makes sense to me. You could always do bluer light in the mornings and evenings, with your LEDs, right?

One thing I do all the time is "ask the interwebs". Google any questions you have, and you'll find quality answers by highly qualified people.

Your C. prolifera could come back, even months after it disappears. My C. racemosa did.

Macros are hard! Then, for some mysterious reason, they become easy. I think it has to do with tank maturity and water parameters.

Do your research. You'll figure it out. And when you do, let us know what you've found, because we have no idea what we're doing either!

 

[Pigpen17]

Thanks for the reply. It's at least helps to know to increase White or Blue to see what effects the tank well. Right now I'm on a 10 hour daylight cycle peaking at 30% Blue and 50% Whites. This is an increase from 30% Blue and 40% Whites. I may increase the daylight hours with a longer peak and see what that does.

Tomorrow I am going to do the big clean up as well and get rid of as much micro algae as I can. It’s weird, but it seems like everything is blooming like mad once I added these new guys. I would have thought it to be the opposite.

 

[Michael Hoaster]

That must be cool, to be able to adjust light color like that. Jealous!

Cleaning up the micro, helps the macros compete for nutrients.

 

[Pigpen17]

Spent a few hours cleaning the tank today. It's a start. Scraped the glass and got to picking at the large bits on my rockwork. Also I set my lights to 30% Blue and 80% White all day long. I might do the same tomorrow.

The new fish are in the QT as well as an additional Cleaner shrimp and pepermint shrimp in the tank.

 

[Pigpen17]

Just a quick update. The increased lighting made no difference at all, good or bad, so I am back on a slightly higher light level than I had for coral. A ten hour light cycle with a 3 hour peak of 30% Blue and 50% White. It looks like the tank is starting to turn in my favor though. Micro algae is starting to get much better especially in my sand bed. The increased clean up crew is probably the cause, but I would like to think the dominance in the tank is changing as things are settling in. I’m going to try to leave things be for a bit and let the tank re stabilize.

I’m going to lose the C Prolifera, but I could tell that right out of the bag. The Dragons Breath has frozen as far as dying off or getting better, but it’s starting to arm wrestle some GHA. Maybe it will start to turn around if I can clean up around it a bit. The Red Grape seems to be doing fine.

I’m still skimming. Perhaps my thinking is flawed here, but with the amount of micro algae and other micro growth I have, I think that nutrients are not my problem, just who is consuming them. I don’t want to just have a free for all in my tank. I want to have the dominance slowly change over and have the micro growth starve out. I think it has begun.

 

[Michael Hoaster]

Yes, I'd have a hard time letting go of my skimmer too, if I was battling micro algae! I suffered through a three month cyano bacteria scourge, and I was seriously considering buying one. Just keep your water quality high and keep removing the yucky stuff, and you'll win.

You may want to add another macro that is fast growing, like chaeto, ulva, or another caulerpa, to help in the competition. Did you say you got Cerith snails? If so, great. If not, get some. They reproduce in your tank and the tiny ones are excellent at keeping your macros clear of micros. That, and weekly water changes / manual algae removal will do the trick.

You've got this!

 

[Pigpen17]

Right on! Yes, I just restocked my Dwarf Ceriths and added about 10 Florida Ceriths. I think I may buy some more though. I got 30 Dwarfs, and that just really was not as much as I thought it would be.

I was really hoping that the Prolifera would have worked out. I am a bit scared of the others because they can take over your rock work. I'll look into something though. I was thinking of Grape at one point. I left the Prolifera in there to do what it will do. I hope it will come back.

 

[Michael Hoaster]

You may have enough snails already. Their population explodes, remember. Don't be afraid of caulerpa. Would you rather remove micro algae or macro? Macro is much easier-and prettier! Last weekend, when I was removing caulerpa racemosa by the handful, some sections were two feet long! Easy!

Try to remove any micro algae from your prolifera, to give it a fighting chance. It's too bad they sent you such a sorry clump of it. You may want to hit up the vender for some credit for another order.

 

[Pigpen17]

You may have enough snails already. Their population explodes, remember. Don't be afraid of caulerpa. Would you rather remove micro algae or macro? Macro is much easier-and prettier! Last weekend, when I was removing caulerpa racemosa by the handful, some sections were two feet long! Easy!

Try to remove any micro algae from your prolifera, to give it a fighting chance. It's too bad they sent you such a sorry clump of it. You may want to hit up the vender for some credit for another order.

Good point! I saw a tank with huge growths of Grape Caulerpa that looked pretty awesome. I'll think about it.

I think the Prolifera perished in shipping. It is pretty much gone now. I may order another bag soon, or I might just wait. I was thinking of setting up a permanent quarantine observation tank with sand and rock and maybe start a Prolifera farm.

 

[HEROCA]

Nice tread, can you please do an update on the tank, I have grate success keeping a refugiem and I'm getting ready to build a macro tank.
This is my fuge.

 

[Pigpen17]

Did someone reply to this thread? What happened?

 

[Michael Hoaster]

Yes, I saw it too, in my email. When I clicked on it, it didn't show up here. Weird!

 

[rickzter]

U got some good lush purple coralline on that rock. It's not sprayed is it? I see that sprayed rock everywhere nowadays.

 

[Pigpen17]

U got some good lush purple coralline on that rock. It's not sprayed is it? I see that sprayed rock everywhere nowadays.

Nope. It's the same rock I had in my very first 29g tank 10 years ago. Fiji live rock, from my local. It was brown when I got it. It's been through 4 tanks so far. 29g, 65g, 30g, 56g.

 

[rickzter]

That's cool! I hear natural live rock is illegal to collect. I hate that sprayed crap.

 

[Pigpen17]

That's cool! I hear natural live rock is illegal to collect. I hate that sprayed crap.

This was a very long time ago. I think laws have changed a lot since then. For the better, I think.

 

[Pigpen17]

Nice tread, can you please do an update on the tank, I have grate success keeping a refugiem and I'm getting ready to build a macro tank.
This is my fuge.

Nice!

The tank is down right now. No Macros. I have my coral out in a 12g biocube while I clean things up. I thought Macros would help contain my GHA, but it really doesn't work that way. You have to start algae free, I guess. I am lights out for a month and running GFO.

I'm debating putting my coral back in. There are some fish I would love to keep that are not reef safe. Fish Only with Macros and maybe a Bubble Tip? With a separate 12g Nano Reef? Could be nice.