Macroalgae and sand bed theory?

[Electrobes]

Thought I would post this here...

Okay so lemme begin. I was updating my reef diary on my website, writing about something I stumbled upon while speaking to a good friend of mine about my tank. Last night I got bored and was looking under my aquarium, I can see the under sand bed. Its interesting to see if you can, I see red, green, black, etc. I also saw tunnels and eventually root systems of my macro algae. Now this is where it gets a bit intersting. I have three types of plants: 1 Mermaid's Fan, 2 Sea grasses, 3 halimedia plants (one sprouted on its own). We'll begin with the mermaid's fan on the left side of the aquarium.

The mermaid's fan plant has grown quite a bit. Instead of a single fan it has reached to about three on the same stem. For a picture go to my photo gallery of my website (the red house thingie). Now if you were to look at the under sand bed you would see a vast root system that streatches out about 6-7 inches from where it is actually planted. The "coincidince" part that caught my eye is the fact that whever this root syetm reaches, is exactly where the brown crud on my sand bed does not appear. Now to the other plants on the right side of my aquarium.

I have the rest of the plants on the left side of the aquarium, somewhat towards the middle as well. If you were to look at the under sand bed where these plants are located, you might see a single small root. My point is that with 5 other plants in this area of the tank, there is virtually no root system that is viewable! And as you guessed it this is the same area that the brown crud is prominent in my aquarium.

Thats about it I guess, just thought I would throw some food for thought, what do you guys/gals think of this? Other info I want to share is that this brown crud is only at my sand bed, I have yet to see the brown diatoms reach anything else. I've had this problem present at this stage (meaning it has not gone further nor has it decreased) for about a month-month and a half. I just recently cleaned up my sump/refugium (the source of my nutrient problem, long story) so I don't expect to see the brown crud start disappearing for at least another couple of weeks or so.

 

[Fredfish]

This may not apply to salt water plants/algaes, but I did some research on this for fresh water plants years ago.

It seems that bog plants transport oxygen to their roots and release it into the surrounding soil so that the roots can function properly and absorb the nutrients they need.

I think that the oxygen also reacts with toxins like H2SO4 and neutralizes them so that the roots/plant are not killed.

I think that is possibly why the sand around your mermaids fan roots is not brown. The brown areas are probably anoxic (no oxygen) and the area by the roots contains oxygen.

I also seem to remember reading a paper on seagrasses that mentioned the transport of oxygen to the roots.

Hope this helps.

Fred

Edit

Technically, I don't think that algaes develop roots, but my halemeda always formed lots of fine hairlike structures that looked more like roots than holdfasts so I called them roots.

 

[eleodes]

holdfasts--the structures that macroalgae use to anchor to bottom--are not true roots and are not used for active transport, as are the roots in true plants. as such, it seems unlikely that they could accomplish very much movement of gasses or nutrients either into or out of the sandbed.

of course, that is not to say that there might not be some other effect at play.

 

[HippieSmell]

holdfasts--the structures that macroalgae use to anchor to bottom--are not true roots and are not used for active transport, as are the roots in true plants. as such, it seems unlikely that they could accomplish very much movement of gasses or nutrients either into or out of the sandbed.

of course, that is not to say that there might not be some other effect at play.

I think some species, like kelp I think, may have a very rudimentary vascular system, but I'm not sure.