Macro in a Nano tank

[quackquack]

I have a 9g nano tank with grape caulerpa, chaeto, and prolifera. The question I have is what is the ideal lighting and water parameters I need to keep this florishing?

I noticed that my prolifera is turning transparent and melting away.

Keep in mind, I have an emerald, clarkii, and peppermint shrimp, and use phosguard and purigen. As additional filtration.

.

 

[graveyardworm]

Quite possibly your Prolifera is suffering from nutrient limitation and going sexual. I would remove the white as quickly as possible to avoid contamination of your tank. If its possible to trim and save some green to restart the culture then go ahead.

You may want to consider removing the purigen, this is competeing for phosphate with the macro.

Regular feeding for the fish should provide enough phosphate, check your NO3 to determine if dosing may be necessary, and consider dosing iron per product instructions. A PC fixture should provide plenty of light for your macro. What do you currently have for lighting?

 

[quackquack]

I currently have a 24w PC bulb. I haven't modified the hood to take more than that because of the temperature. I have mainly soft corals in the tank.
I took the PhosGard out today thinking that that was it. Maybe the Purigen is doing too much.

I'll test for iron and see about dosing it. I do this in my main tank, but I only have chaeto. I might try to pull some and put in my main tank as I have more of a load in that tank.

-rd

 

[sunfishh]

Lets see a pic of your nano

 

[piercho]

I'll test for iron and see about dosing it

Testing for low levels of iron is difficult, and you want to maintain iron availabilty at low levels, IMO. Despite the mantra "don't dose it if you can't test for it", IMO and in other's experience/opinions you'll be safe adding iron chelate to prevent iron limitation in your tank if you don't go wild with it. Dosing a prepared iron chelate according to the manufacturer's instructions will probably be fine. Frequent (daily) dosing of a small amount will likely serve you better than infrequent doses of large amounts. Randy Holmes Farley has written a few articles on iron in reef aquaria, you can link them from the stickied threads at the top of the chemisty forum. I've used both Kent and Azoo brands of iron chelate. Neither brand seemed detrimental to my aquarium and were likely beneficial in improving plant production.

 

[WarEagleNR88]

Any updates on this particular subject, quackquack?

 

[quackquack]

Sorry folks, I wasn't getting email alerts on this thread.

I've been dosing with Kent Iron once every 2-3 days. The macro looks much better. I removed the grape caulerpa, because it started to go sexual (I've seen this before).

I'm having trouble keeping up with the nitrates, but the corals seem be doing fine.

Here are the pictures of the nano. Its not a good shot, but it was quick.

 

[graveyardworm]

How are you keeping up with nitrates?

 

[quackquack]

Mainly water changes.

 

[WarEagleNR88]

Why Kent Iron?

For NO3, Some say CaNO3 will work with saltwater application since potassium isn't so vital in a reef environment. KNO3 is by far the easiest way to dose nitrates. Well, maybe adding a wet/dry bacteria breeding ground like a biowheel is easier. Tom Barr's estimative dosing is superb for dosing nitrates. He may pipe in if he see's this.

What do you mean by "keeping up with nitrates"? Are you having to add nitrates? Or are you trying to take them out? If by doing water changes you're hoping to add nitrates, you've got it backwards. Water changes will remove DOCs. Dilution solution to polution right? If I understand all of this correctly, load it up with nitrates. If it grows like crazy and out of control--using up the nitrates along with the other macro/micro nutrients--that seems like it would protect your corals while making macroalgae flourish. Everyone benefits.

The tank looks good! I'm still learning about the saltwater ramifications of planted FW remedies. And usually in planted FW you want to kill algae and keep it non-existent in the tank (like a reef tank). I've never purposedly grown algae like this (But I want to!) I'm thinking of starting a macroalgae driven 10G tank and pumping it full of NO3.

 

[quackquack]

I'm using Kent Iron as a supplement for macro algae growth. Also the macro looks much more green and have to trim it down every now and then.

With respect to my water changes, I was trying to control the hair algae and bring down my nitrates and nitrites, I don't run a skimmer in this tank and both test readings were higher than I normally like to keep them. I also had an NH3 spike (don't know why), so my LR could not keep up.