Macro problem

raki

Member
Yea I know that sounds weird but...I have a 6 gallon Nano that I have mostly mushrooms in along with a few zoas a xenia a small leather and a red pepper...I also have a damsel and a few snails and hermits the problem is I have so much macro growing that I have to pull it off of the 'shrooms and zoas evey week . and it has even choked some of my xenia.
Is there a safe fish or invert that I can keep that will help keep the macro growth down....I even concitered a baby hippo tang but can't find one real small ( about the size of a quater) I would take him out and transfer him to my 125 after he got bigger.
Any one have any suggestions...I wish I could get it to grow in my 125 like this!!!!!
 
grape calurpa(sp?) and a real pritty one that looks like feathers I don't remember what it's called I toss it in my big tank when I harvest it and my Tangs eat it ..
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6917702#post6917702 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Fishfreak218
the feather one is probably feather caulerpa or Razor Caulerpa
Thanks....now what eats it that will be happy in a 6 gallon Nano Reef?????
 
You might try one of the larger turbo snails. He may knock stuff around and get moved to your bigger tank after he clear cuts the nano. I have to feed my single snail nori to supplement in my 37g.
 
Raki04, I had the same problem where the grape caluerpa and some feather was choking out my zoas, so after some research, I discovered that a foxface rabbitfish will eat that stuff. So I got one and sure enough, he ate it clean. See if you can get one real small, or if you can't find a small enough one, get whatever size you can get and put both the fish and rock in your bigger tank.
 
I can't put the largest of the rocks in my bigger tank....not enough light to sustain the corals on it I have done that with some of the smaller pieces of rock and my tangs made short work of the Macro. But there isn't any coral on the rocks I do that with. It takes my 2 tangs about a day and a half to completely clean off the rocks and I don't feel good about leaving my zoas or leather in the "dark" that long. I may look in to the fox face I can always move him to the big tank later. I will most likely get a turbo this weekend and see if that helps ..it is definitely the cheaper solution..and that's a good thing right now.
 
Turbos wont usually eat macro. They eat hair algae.

You can always send some my way for my sea horse tank!:D
 
I use RO water and already have a Phophate pad in the filter.....any other ideas????I also do a 1 gallon water change every week.
 
The sea slug oxynoe verdis will eat caulerpa and is the appropriate size for a small tank,

Oxynoe Verdis

The problem is finding one. They're not commonly collected but come in as hitchhikers on caulerpa, that's how I got one from the LFS.

I doubt a turbo snail will do much to remove caulerpa........
 
My snails (turbo and astraea) won't touch the Caulerpa, however the hermit likes to chop them up.

The feather looking one might be Caulerpa Taxiflora, which is a highly invasive seaweed, and is on "red alert" lists all across the world. The grape one would be Caulerpa racemosa.
 
Thanks....I'll see if any one locally has a sea slug oxynoe verdis maby I'll luck out...kinda wish one came in on the macro I used to buy for my tangs.....but the LFS I used to get it at was closed because of fire damage ...and they don't even know if they will be able to reopen in the same location.....so I'm limited to only one good store and one I haven't been to yet, that just opened.
 
If you are adding phytoplankton or other additives your nutrients could be coming from that. I had a similar problem in my 5g and found I was adding to much, an easy thing to do with a nano.
 
I do add phytoplankton I will cut that down to 1X a week and I also have to feed the damsel and 2 peppermint shrimp in the tank but I can cut back thrie food too. Thanks.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6930765#post6930765 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Agu
The sea slug oxynoe verdis will eat caulerpa and is the appropriate size for a small tank,

It's inhumane and irresponsible to get a "throw away" creature to try to control algae issues in a tank. Sea slugs have a very specific diet - and if you remove their very specific food source, they starve and die.

Your best bet is continual manual removal. It's safe and it's the fastest method, and you won't have to worry about contributing to something as inhumane as sea slug collection. There are just too many dangers regarding keeping sea slugs, and I never like to see that someone recommends one.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6943603#post6943603 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Raki04
I do add phytoplankton I will cut that down to 1X a week and I also have to feed the damsel and 2 peppermint shrimp in the tank but I can cut back thrie food too. Thanks.

That phytoplankon is easy to over due, especially in a nano. One small drop is enough, that stuff is packed with nutrients. I have since been adding phyto only one small drop a week and keep up frequent water changes, and that is making a difference, slowly.
 
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