macro help!

Thanks for all the input!!!!!!!!!

I would like to think that I have good/great circulation due to my closed loop system. I have good surface agitation by keeping my returns at the top of the water column. I have been running abt 3 cups of carbon 24/7, changing it out every 1-2 weeks on average. I am think I am going to leave my SB alone and add some more snails, and a lawnmower blenny. I will always try a natural approach for controlling things like algea.

54240Reef_Tank_867__Small_.jpg
 
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Yep...

Yep...

Big view looks normal - Ushio's REALLY penetrate sand. Your micro ecosystem is setting up rapidly in the sand. Enough top notch equip & 'fuge (gotta love Oceans Motions & melev - smart guys makes 'em, smart folks install 'em). Just let it ride for a while, til Mama Nature is done setting the stage. Gonna be a sweet tank by next year or so - chock full & thriving. Well, depending on how many "tank-warming" gift frags you get from your local club...or if your LFS let's you run up an account.

Is a running LFS account scaring or turning you thread readers on? An Atlanta LFS (a really good one) is just starting to promote that new policy openly; one of it's owners is a divorce lawyer....hmmmm...trying to scare up a little extra bidnezz fer himself, I t'ink. Wha' you guys t'ink?:lol:
 
juststartingout

Just a thought here. When I have taken down a tank there is always the awful rotten egg smell of anerobic bacteria in the final 1/2" of water and in the sand. So even with the closed loop it probably is still anerobic at the lower points. Unless you got somethign like an undergravel filter which constantly flows the water through the substrait.

Anerobic bacteria breaks down nitrAtes to ammonia and the smelly stuff. So right above the sand may be a higher concentration of ammonia that is feeding the algeas. As your plant life expands to consume more of the nitrates, the anerobic bacteria in the sand will have less nitrates to break down. And therefore less algaes right above the sand.

Just a thought.
 
I believe nitrATEs break down into Nitrogen gas and not ammonia? Not to hijack the thread just wanted to clearify that point. Most macro's also need nitrogen gas if I remember correctly so the though about could still hold true. I also think that cyano can turn nitrogen into nitrates but I'm not sure about that one.
 
hmott:

I think anoxic bacteria to break down the nitrates to nitrogen gas. As I understand it, one of the products of anaerobic bacteria is ammonia and not nitrogen gas.

I have never heard that macro's or other plant life consume nitrogen directly. Could be but I haven't heard it. Seems like we would all have large algae blooms if the algae consumed the dissolved nitrogen in our tanks from the air.

There is not doubt that plant life consumes ammonia and nitrates (and in that order). As well as phosphates and carbon dioxide.
 
So.... should I try to "harvest" some HA out of the tank, or just let it go and wait out the uglyness? I thought that a picture of my tank would paint a better picture than my explanations;)
 
as far as you tank supporting livestock is concerned, leaving it in there is the best thing to do. If you want it out (because it is ugly) then replace it with something you like. (the chaeto?).
 
Urchin or lawnmower blennie will eat the top strands of visible hair algae, for better looks, leaving the benthic, under sand algaes (which you need) intact. Nevertheless, the herbivores will help that way to free up some nutrients for the Chaetomorpha. Try additional species of macro algaes in fuge - different macros have different nutrient binding preferences/rates. A lot of folks, including melev, have seen faster refugium plant growth rates by using yellower-looking plant grow lights over 'fuge. Could try some vascular marine grasses like turtle grass safely in display tank's sand - they are higher order true plants, don't have weird reproduction methods and are non-invasive of rocks, easy to contain to a given zone of sandbed. Mangroves in an auxiliary loop to 'fuge in their own planter tub of live sand & silt can handle a lot of nutrients once they are established (couple months or so), and make appropriate, attractive Marine houseplants next to your living room display reef. I will search for a cool photo link to a thread about this and paste it in later...http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=371205&highlight=mangrove there ya go! took a minute to find it...:)
 
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M'Ellen, interesting reading on the mangroves, I had thought about growing them in my refugium, as it has an open top. The lighting that is above my refugium is a 6500K, so that should be yellow enough huh?

Bob, will my hair algea disappear in time on its own, helped a little by my inhabitants, or will it stick with me until I find where the nutrients are that is fueling it's growth and get rid of them through water changes, which I have been doing.
 
juststartingout said:



...

Bob, will my hair algea disappear in time on its own, helped a little by my inhabitants, or will it stick with me until I find where the nutrients are that is fueling it's growth and get rid of them through water changes, which I have been doing.
Click to expand...

The problem is the nutrients are comming from or will be comming from your livestock. 0 nutrients in your replacement water for water changes will not eliminate those nutrients. The best that can be done is the (say) nitrAtes will rise between water changes then drop after a water change. With sufficient plant life nitrates (for instance) will be unmeasureable regardless of the input water, water changes, feeding, or anything else.

I hope your plant life does not disappear on its own. You need the plant life to complete the nitrogen cycle and stabilize the system. The only question is whether or not it is the plant life you desire.
 
I would have to say that the hair algea is not the plant life that I (as most) would desire. I would rather that my plant life be in the refugium though.:)
 
In a deep sand bad, 4 inches or more, the odds of ammonia being released into the tank from the breakdown of nitrates is somewhere between slim to none ;) So that's something I wouldn't even worry about :) In this case, I would simply add some herbivores and let the tank go through it's natural progression. Nothing like a little time and patience ;)
 
yes. 6500K good for 'fuge

yes. 6500K good for 'fuge

Ditto Bill. Tank is still in very early stage of development. Think of it this way; a really big fire burns down a forest totally. It's all barren and ashy, but there's seeds and spores and little critters under the surfaces (like in your live sand and rock). In time, things sprout and compete and change eachothers living conditions, the ecosystem re-establishes itself in incremental steps from tiny, primitive plants and animals on up to higher, larger forms over time. In a big setting like a forest, this takes decades before it becomes a recognizable forest again. In a reef tank, the process is many, many times faster, and of course, we tweak it along by adding animals and maybe plants (even if just in 'fuge). It's still about an ecosystem establishing itself, just in miniature. If we leave out a major biological element normally found in Nature, we must duplicate that bio-element's function through technology and other physical/chemical intervention methods.
 
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I have cheato in sump with a LOA 65watt so I don't think poor lighting is a problem. I have it on timer with main tank. I have 0 phospahte and 0 nitrate. Mine has stopped growing but is not dying.
 
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