Macro suggestion please

[mnewsome]

I do not have a sump, but would like to purchase some MacroAlgae to put in my tank to compete for nutrients. I thought 'til I am able to put a sump together that I would "plant" some in the back corner of my tank. Has anyone ever done this? What kind would you suggest?

 

[The_Nexis_One]

IMHO, the problem you'll run into is this. If you pick a fast growing macro that will outcompete your micro algae - the macro will likely take over your display as others have commented about here. If you go with a slow macro that will be controllable, it likely wont have a dramatic effect on your micro growth.

Can you setup a temp sump with say..... a 5gal bucket that you could put cheato in? fast water movement with a single return pump at the bottom and a DIY light set on top of the bucket would do wonders and be super easy to harvest/control. It would also keep the macro out of the display. Cheato also has the advantage of not sporolating in your system (liquifying as a method of reproduction), so it's becoming one of the preferred macro's to keep for nutriant export.

John.

 

[JerseyReef]

I've had problems with Cheato in the past. Basically forming dense balls that never grew/expanded. In my last setup, I had this in a sump with a great amount of linear flow under a 400W 6500K bulb.

Any thoughts on why the Cheato never grew in my system?

Reason why I ask, I'm putting macro into my system again and looking to give this another shot.

 

[bluenassarius]

Mike,

have you tried pruning the dense balls of chaeto? it could be possibly that you did not have enough nutrients for it to grow. IE (when red macros have alot of light but low nutrients for me they tend to turn yellow in color)
i'm getting ready to prune my system right now for new macro growth. the green gracilaria, chaeto and red grape have outgrown the system

mnewsome

my opinion on this subject would be to either get a little bit of fast growing macro which you can prune often OR get a bunch of slow growing macro (red's tend to grow slower) to compete for nutrients. its a win win situation w/o you having to do a temp sump/fuge.

 

[JerseyReef]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7062948#post7062948 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by bluenassarius
Mike,

have you tried pruning the dense balls of chaeto? it could be possibly that you did not have enough nutrients for it to grow. IE (when red macros have alot of light but low nutrients for me they tend to turn yellow in color)
i'm getting ready to prune my system right now for new macro growth. the green gracilaria, chaeto and red grape have outgrown the system

I would prune them. However, I couldn't get sustainable growth.

It appeared the micro algae would beat out the Cheato for the nutrients within the system. It was a bit odd, the only place the micro algae would grow was in the sump with the Cheato.

I used eggcrate within the sump to contain the Cheato in the center area of the sump, the micro algae would grow on the eggcrate. Although, this did allow for easy harvesting of the micro algae once every 6 weeks or so.

 

[bluenassarius]

do you have any snails in to eat the micro to turn it into nutrients for your macro algae? i have strombus, stomatella and collinista snails that keep the tank fairly clean of micro algae but create a bit of waste for my macro algae growth. btw, strombus, stomatella and collinista snails breed like mad.