Macroalgae care,info, and questions

[deepercon]

Ive started a what i hope to be a macroalgae dominated tank and had a couple questions concerning the over all care of a tank of such sort.

Ive read so much useful and inspiring information on here and other places and am putting them to use but i still have some concerns, mainly;

*Nutrients:what to dose and how much to dose

*Lighting: What kind and how much is too much

*Kind of life that can be added ie.fish,starfish,coral,etc.

*parameters: whats normal to be at and what to watch out for

Im currently running a 30g tank with one white/blue LED 6500°K 25 PAR,an actinic(which im moving to my coral tank), and a 23W warmwhite bulb. On for 12hrs a day. I have a little stalk of codium,some Halymania(dragons tongue), had a green torch(died),another coral frag that died today(lastnight?),some xenia that also died a couple days after putting it in,and a head of caulestra(candycane) which is holding up still.

As for fish i only have a damsel, and a starfish rightnow. My valentini puffer got a little too curious(R.I.P)

I dont know what happened,i think it got a little too hot the other night im not too sure, but the one coral i dont know the name of died and my codium got kind of soft and lost a couple of branches.

currently ive checked my calcium and alkalinity levels and there pretty high up.
Ca is at around 520ppm and alkalinity is at around 20dkh

I have some different things to dose but im too scared to because i dont want to kill anything else.

Iron,flourish,flourish excel(carbon),kent marines essential elements,some aminoacids, some reef complete which i definitely know i dont need anymore Ca,and some stuff to boost alkalinity which i dont need either

So,any input of what you think might be happening and advice on what i should do/be doing would be great. Thanks in advance :fish1:

 

[Michael Hoaster]

I wish I knew! When my tank was new, macros wouldn't grow. Now that it's over a year old, macros are easy. Time and patience are your friends. And research. And Google!

 

[deepercon]

Haha, yea most definitely. Seriously, Where would the top scientists in the world be today without google.

Other than the library maybe. But either way, im going to definitely keep on trying and, let my patience and efforts do the talking.

 

[nawilson89]

I wish I knew! When my tank was new, macros wouldn't grow. Now that it's over a year old, macros are easy. Time and patience are your friends. And research. And Google!

Seconded on that. My tank is about if maybe a bit over a month old. So far I haven't had much growth of macro algae other than caulerpa prolifera.

Just waiting it out for it to take root, whilst working on a secondary project.

 

[FinzAquatics]

I've had the opposite result with my macros when setting up new aquariums. The high presence of nitrate, nitrite and ammonia tends to be a nice constant food source for the macros..

The real factor is that a newer/unpopulated tank may not have enough inhabitants producing nitrate for the plants to thrive.

I have multiple macro algae setups and the consistent theme is... They need nutrients and waste... Any time my tanks get "too clean" I notice the growth rate of my plants fall off drastically. So now I'm to the point where I feed two/three times as much food as I should... Solely to rot and provide nutrients for my plants

 

[Michael Hoaster]

Yeah, what he said. Some people add food even without fish.

 

[deepercon]

Ive feed the fish and the star brine and flakes every day since starting up,sometimes even twice or three times taking high nitrates into consideration and urging my damsel to...poop.

But now i seem to have brown stuff growing all over. Its what they call diatoms i assume. Quick fix for my other tank was turning off the lights for a few days, but thats tough for this tank considering i want all my macro to thrive which is what this is all about.


Tough to keep the balance and try to replicate ideal if not perfect conditions for our addictions.

Haha

 

[FinzAquatics]

This is the real challenge of a macro dominated tank. I struggle myself combating nuisance algae. Hard to prevent when your doing everything to promote plant growth.

I find myself constantly fighting my algae. Seems like one variety tries to dominate the tank at a time resulting in constant trimming

Most recently I've been battling golden dictoya. Before that hair algae, before that red grape. Before that caulerpa invasion, before that Cyanobacteria

 

[nawilson89]

This is the real challenge of a macro dominated tank. I struggle myself combating nuisance algae. Hard to prevent when your doing everything to promote plant growth.

I find myself constantly fighting my algae. Seems like one variety tries to dominate the tank at a time resulting in constant trimming

Most recently I've been battling golden dictoya. Before that hair algae, before that red grape. Before that caulerpa invasion, before that Cyanobacteria

You make my battle with bacterial bloom seem trivial.

 

[deepercon]

At least he's got some of the better-looking stuff to battle. Its growing which means water qualities in good condition.

I dont think im even there yet. I KNOW its going to take time. And im up for that; id just like to know how to achieve that balance.

Now i know when they ship algae you buy online and whatnot it goes without light for a couple of days, im thinking i can get away with no light(except what comes in from the sun) for a couple of days till the brown stops growing, then go back at it and try to get my water in check.

Any advice on what to keep dosing/feeding or not dose/feed.
Right now the only thing i add other than shrimp and flakes for the fish is : 1-2-3 ml of Kents essential elements, 1-2-3 ml of seachems flourish, and some phytoplankton and aminos for the feather duster and the single head of caulestra i have in there.
Much love people

 

[deepercon]

PictureProgress

PictureProgress

My cloudy-ness problem seems to have calmed down a bit, although not completely. But as always, patience is the key.

I decided to post some improved pictures as to document some of the progress thats been happening(not that much).
I have a rescue from petco(blue damsel)
Two itty-bitty stalks of RedGracilaria,chaetomorpha flowing around,and a tiny survivor stalk of codium that i hope really ends up thriving

Hope they can be of use to someone as a reference of what a cloudy tank with some bacterial and diatomic problems looks like at least x D

PEACE.

 

[nawilson89]

Looks great. What did you do to "calm down" your cloudiness? I've done a 50% water change with RO Water pre mixed at my LFS and nothing has changed. Still very cloudy

 

[deepercon]

I would say maybe hold off on the water change for a bit?
I was about to change 5Gal today when i had mixed everything up and went to my tank and noticed"hey,it looks way much clearer than lastnight" and im about to get a shipment of new macros so i didnt want to"deplete" the existing nutrients by doing a water change and whatnot. I did get a bigger filter over the weekend(from a quiet flow 20 to a quietflow 55/75-bigdaddy) and turned it on last night. I guessing that has attributed to the slowing of the bacterial growth in there. That and not having my lights on for about 4 1/2 days up until yesterday
So,patience is real important i've learned.
I was about to do the water change(5 today and 5 tomorrow) and i even ghetto rigged a powerhead filter to try and clear it up in the meanwhile i got a new filter. But i guess time is the answer to these things-_-
go figure

 

[nawilson89]

Interesting. I've lessened my lighting period for now.

 

[vlangel]

Hi all, I enjoyed reading all of your experiences. I also have a lot of macro algaes, mostly the red ornamental variety. I get good growth from the dragon's breath, red grape caulerpa, rose petal, halimeda and blue scroll. I get moderate growth from from my red titan. The biggest nuisance algae I battle is green bubble. It basically pops up everywhere. Because I have seahorses and i don't want to risk bacterial infections to the ponies, I do 50% WCs every week. It does not seem to diminish my macro growth. I do dose magnesium, alk and CA since I use instant ocean and I know the mag.is really important to macro algaes.

 

[vlangel]

This is what my tank looks like currently. You will see lots of red!

 

[deepercon]

Very nice tank you got there. Its great to see people keeping tanks of this kind.

So the 50% water changes dont do the macros any harm because you dose? Interesting.
The ocean is always constantly bringing new currents in. Especially in a lagoon area. So that makes sense

This is what my tank looks like currently. You will see lots of red!

 

[vlangel]

Very nice tank you got there. Its great to see people keeping tanks of this kind.

So the 50% water changes dont do the macros any harm because you dose? Interesting.
The ocean is always constantly bringing new currents in. Especially in a lagoon area. So that makes sense

Thanks for the kind words. Originally my tank was going to be macro dominant because that is usually what seahorse keepers do. However, I already had a reef tank and it made sense to use the corals that were safe for ponies so the tank morphed into a mixed reef/macro tank. I loved the pop of the red from the dragon's breath and the texture of some of the other macros. I am anxious for the halimeda to grow more to get that pop of green.

Seahorses are notoriously dirty and put a heavy bioload on their systems. Even with the big WCs and running an SCA 302 skimmer 24/7 my nitrates are still 10 ppm. That is probably what is feeding the macros along with the supplemental dosing.

 

[nawilson89]

Thanks for the kind words. Originally my tank was going to be macro dominant because that is usually what seahorse keepers do. However, I already had a reef tank and it made sense to use the corals that were safe for ponies so the tank morphed into a mixed reef/macro tank. I loved the pop of the red from the dragon's breath and the texture of some of the other macros. I am anxious for the halimeda to grow more to get that pop of green.

Seahorses are notoriously dirty and put a heavy bioload on their systems. Even with the big WCs and running an SCA 302 skimmer 24/7 my nitrates are still 10 ppm. That is probably what is feeding the macros along with the supplemental dosing.

You're tank is really gorgeous and the look of a macro/reef tank is awesome. I thought of adding a few corals to mine (Xenia and Kenya Tree. I was looking for easy), but I never really wanted to add more rock to my set up.

I was peeking through your posts a few weeks back when I was thinking of doing seahorse (I saw was, but it's more like is? Or more like a seesaw of emotions).

Because of your success with macro algaes, I had been reading your posts, as to contrast with my failure with macros last year.

 

[vlangel]

You're tank is really gorgeous and the look of a macro/reef tank is awesome. I thought of adding a few corals to mine (Xenia and Kenya Tree. I was looking for easy), but I never really wanted to add more rock to my set up.

I was peeking through your posts a few weeks back when I was thinking of doing seahorse (I saw was, but it's more like is? Or more like a seesaw of emotions).

Because of your success with macro algaes, I had been reading your posts, as to contrast with my failure with macros last year.

Thanks nawilson89, I am glad to hear you like the look my tank has. I looked back through your posts to see what you are dealing with. It sounds like your tank is fairly new, 6 months or less? That is probably the reason for some of your frustrations. Most of my rock has been in my aquariums for more than 8 years so there is probably a lot of bio-diversity living in it. Also I have a couple pieces that are large and dense helping with a bit of denitrification. Have you tried using seachem stability with your WC to help clear your bacterial bloom? Also I notice macros will sit kind of dormant for a month or few and then all at once take off. They must need some settling and getting established time before they grow. Hang in there and I think time and just being consistent will straighten things out for you. When you see stuff growing don't forget to dose magnesium, alk and CA. You can buy a kit to make sure you don't over dose. It works in conjunction with alk and Ca. Some macro algaes are calcareous and utilize CA to grow like halimeda.

PS Seahorses are high maintenance and need very good water quality that is low in dangerous bacteria, so if I were you, I would hold off on ponies until your tank seems very stable and is efficiently filtering. Ocean Rider has an excellant online seahorse training course that is free. That is where I learned a lot about seahorses.