I'm thinking of adding some macroalgae to my mixed reef 24g nano. I'm currently in the process of doing a small overhaul to my system and am hoping someone can give me some advice. Next week I'll be removing the hood on my tank and replacing the lighting with a 360w kessil, and I also want to remove the skimmer. My filtration will consist of lr, ls, and a filter pad to remove any debris... and I want to put some macroalgae in the tank to help with excess nutrient export.
My questions are:
- what types of macroalgae would be most beneficial in my system?
- what types of macroalgae are some of the more attractive varieties?
- do they need to be planted in the sandbed, or do they just "hang out" like chaeto?
- what other factors do I need to be aware of and/or take into consideration when keeping small amounts of macroalgae in my system?
Any advice and suggestions appreciated!
Since this is current, and sounds like you have a similar setup as I do (29g cube, 3x16x1w LEDs) I might be able to provide a useful opinion.
I added dragon's breath algae because it was readily available for me. I've largely been happy with it, and it has been growing nicely. Nitrates are at 0, and phosphates are low.
I also have a middle chamber refugium with a 10w LED from ebay back there growing whatever algae, mostly GHA against the black plastic and glass back there. With waterchanges I scrape that chamber and toss whatever floats up out with the dirty waterchange water.
My dragon's breath I just kind of tucked into the rockwork so it didn't blow away. I had a small attached arch in the back corner of the tank, and so I stuck it through that, almost looping it, so that my vortech didn't blow it around. You can always just squeeze it between two rocks and it'll stay, or even under a rock, though you'll have to consider detritus build up under it if you do that.
I still skim despite all of that algae. I just think that the constant aeration is very valuable since we don't have a sump/overflow to aerate the water, and it always helps to protect the tank against too much organics (and nitrate/phosphate). I'm considering pulling the skimmer, or maybe even putting it on a timer to bring my nitrates up, since it might help with my coral (SPS) coloration, but for now I'm still doing bi-weekly water changes and skimming with my two algae outputs.
I would not recommend using caulerpa, and if you do, I would use in the back chamber only so it doesn't proliferate. My old 24g nanocube came with caulerpa that was always going sexual and spreading further waste, and it grew prolifically so I had to keep it under control. I still haven't had much luck with cheato in either of my tanks. I feel like it just of needs it's own undisturbed area with it's own low flow. I tried it in the back chamber of this tank, and it fell apart, got sucked into the pump, floated around the tank, everything that I didn't want out of a macroalgae.
I wouldn't dose anything for your algae unless you want it to dominate the tank. Just keep doing water changes as normal.
Hope that helps, and good luck!
