macro algae turned white over night

[0rangeFish]

I just got some dragon's tongue algae a few days ago. I first put it in the refuguim for a day and the next day it was doing great, but the hermit crab in there was wrecking it, so I put it in my main tank. Next day I come to find it's lost all it's orange color and is clear with a tint of green to it. What happened to it?

 

[FinzAquatics]

I just got some dragon's tongue algae a few days ago. I first put it in the refuguim for a day and the next day it was doing great, but the hermit crab in there was wrecking it, so I put it in my main tank. Next day I come to find it's lost all it's orange color and is clear with a tint of green to it. What happened to it?

It's dead unfortunately... I've had poor luck with dragons breath myself as of late. My lack of success is due to insufficient nutrients due to my other macro. Dragons breath requires a fair amount of nitrates and phosphates to do well.. Along with some calcium

 

[Michael Hoaster]

Even if it is dead I'd leave it in. A new baby version could pop up somewhere. I've had several macros do that.

 

[FinzAquatics]

Even if it is dead I'd leave it in. A new baby version could pop up somewhere. I've had several macros do that.

Very true. I just had a variety show up out of now where in two locations after it died off roughly 8 months ago.

 

[toothybugs]

Agreed, leave it. It's funny how the stuff gets around - I have an Astraea snail carrying around a 3" string of Botryocladia

 

[BlueCat1949]

I just got some dragon's tongue algae a few days ago. I first put it in the refuguim for a day and the next day it was doing great, but the hermit crab in there was wrecking it, so I put it in my main tank. Next day I come to find it's lost all it's orange color and is clear with a tint of green to it. What happened to it?

It is not unusual for dragon's tongue to die back as it is a bad shipper and it takes a few days to die back. Once established it does great but can be iffy at first.

 

[Michael Hoaster]

I have zero experience with dragon's tongue, but you may have it in too bright light. You might want to move it to a dimmer area. In very general terms (with several exceptions), green macros like very bright light, reds like more medium light. Hope this helps.

As you can see by the many threads on macro algae, there is still are a lot of mystery surrounding theses plants. It's hard to find a consensus about the care of many of them. So the more we share our experiences, the more we all learn.

 

[0rangeFish]

Alright. Thanks everyone. I'll see if some pops up somewhere in the tank.