gdemos
New member
Need some thoughts here guys, really appreciate it, posting here because I like the expertise in this forum and this is an SPS grow-out:
2 questions really: (1) algae ID see pic and (2) chasing mucus/detritus good bad or indifferent.
now the wordy part:
I've been reading up on acro mucus,
http://www.nakajimar.sakura.ne.jp/nakajimar/Publications_files/Nakajima(2009b)AE.pdf
yet struggling with the simple question: is it good or bad. I am also questioning my husbandry practice and looking for professional input so will provide some history and some of my practices:
My 30g Frag Tank all SPS, maybe 25 frags total, milli, acro, couple monti.
(100g total volume with sump) is heavily skimmed. I have lots of good live rock in the sump. Up until recently no other livestock in the frag tank itself other than clean up snails, (red banded trochus x5 and turbo x1). recently lost my bristle tooth tang, I believe he hurt himself amidst one of my cleanups and couldn't recover.
The frag tank has been running for 9 mos.
Ca 415, Alk 9.3, po4 .25, No3 3ppm
The advent of PO4 and NO3 is new, i've noticed these numbers increase since my low tide situation.
Since adding the snails (from my DT) I've had significantly less algae problems (which leads me to believe it was not bryopsis either that or the snails are just helping manage it, not eradicating it)
Somewhere around month 4 I developed what I believe to be either bryopsis (See pic - algae ID please!), if not a pretty stubborn hair algae. ideally, these frags will grow out and I will cherry pick what goes in my 120g DT, which is bryopsis/hair free. So I felt I needed to work on eradicating it and chose for now at least to not mess with Mg. With the algae I decided to get aggressive, scraping individual frag plugs, plucking it off, taking out the whole frag rack setting it on a bucket in the fish room (70 deg 40% humidity), while I scrape the tank and syphon out the flotsam.
so I do a healthy 30g WC at 1.025 (Seachem Salinity) every two weeks along with this process and a dose of Lugols Iodine.
Okay, now back in goes the frag rack and they slime up. the next day I may take a turkey baster and blow off the mucus to get it in the water column. some surely gets skimmed out. ultimately however some settles on the bare bottom and becomes detritus.
so you see my brief low tide simulation is dramatic (not gradual). and it puts me in the cycle I'm trapped in -- I've got to scrape the bare bottom and to do so means moving the frag rack out of the water. this brings slime into the system, more detritus as mucus degrades, likely resulting in PO4 and NO3.
Am I doing more harm than good? Colors seemed better before I started this, yet I can stand to see algae under my frag rack. maybe keep my same practice but only do it every other WC?
appreciate any thoughts. I will say that the low tide practice has solved the algae problem but has added to the mucus detritus problem -- and the question is ... is the mucus detritus really a problem???
thanks,
-Greg
2 questions really: (1) algae ID see pic and (2) chasing mucus/detritus good bad or indifferent.
now the wordy part:
I've been reading up on acro mucus,
http://www.nakajimar.sakura.ne.jp/nakajimar/Publications_files/Nakajima(2009b)AE.pdf
yet struggling with the simple question: is it good or bad. I am also questioning my husbandry practice and looking for professional input so will provide some history and some of my practices:
My 30g Frag Tank all SPS, maybe 25 frags total, milli, acro, couple monti.
(100g total volume with sump) is heavily skimmed. I have lots of good live rock in the sump. Up until recently no other livestock in the frag tank itself other than clean up snails, (red banded trochus x5 and turbo x1). recently lost my bristle tooth tang, I believe he hurt himself amidst one of my cleanups and couldn't recover.
The frag tank has been running for 9 mos.
Ca 415, Alk 9.3, po4 .25, No3 3ppm
The advent of PO4 and NO3 is new, i've noticed these numbers increase since my low tide situation.
Since adding the snails (from my DT) I've had significantly less algae problems (which leads me to believe it was not bryopsis either that or the snails are just helping manage it, not eradicating it)
Somewhere around month 4 I developed what I believe to be either bryopsis (See pic - algae ID please!), if not a pretty stubborn hair algae. ideally, these frags will grow out and I will cherry pick what goes in my 120g DT, which is bryopsis/hair free. So I felt I needed to work on eradicating it and chose for now at least to not mess with Mg. With the algae I decided to get aggressive, scraping individual frag plugs, plucking it off, taking out the whole frag rack setting it on a bucket in the fish room (70 deg 40% humidity), while I scrape the tank and syphon out the flotsam.
so I do a healthy 30g WC at 1.025 (Seachem Salinity) every two weeks along with this process and a dose of Lugols Iodine.
Okay, now back in goes the frag rack and they slime up. the next day I may take a turkey baster and blow off the mucus to get it in the water column. some surely gets skimmed out. ultimately however some settles on the bare bottom and becomes detritus.
so you see my brief low tide simulation is dramatic (not gradual). and it puts me in the cycle I'm trapped in -- I've got to scrape the bare bottom and to do so means moving the frag rack out of the water. this brings slime into the system, more detritus as mucus degrades, likely resulting in PO4 and NO3.
Am I doing more harm than good? Colors seemed better before I started this, yet I can stand to see algae under my frag rack. maybe keep my same practice but only do it every other WC?
appreciate any thoughts. I will say that the low tide practice has solved the algae problem but has added to the mucus detritus problem -- and the question is ... is the mucus detritus really a problem???
thanks,
-Greg
