maro ID? and questions

[staticfishmonger]

i got these two types of macro about a month ago and so far i am not sure which types i have. i have a leafy type and a stingy type.
i have taken a few pics.
i also have a question. what is the typical growth rate of macro, as i said i have had these around month and i have not seen a noticable amount of growth. i suspected that there growth rate was tied into the amount of nutrients present to feed on and since i only have two small fish and have never had detectable nitrates i assumed that was the reason why. would that be a safe assumption? any help or advice you can offer would be much appreciated....thanks

here is the leafy type..

a closer shot while holding the maro out of water.

the stingy stuff

a close up

 

[clown2be]

Hey , waiting also to know. what up Fishmonger? got you pm

 

[mellen]

Guessing Caulerpa Profilera (well-behaved caulerpa type, easy to manage) and Chaetomorpha (very easy to manage and popular).

 

[mellen]

Sorry, forgot to answer other part of your question. Your tank set up is still new and lightly stocked. If you had added macros during the break-in/cycling phase, all kinds of growth alternated by "burn" of macros would have occured. By "burn", I mean over-abundance of nutrients in spikes. This happens when someone accidently adds too much fertilizer to a lawn, too. The macros will appear to die or be damaged, then a few days later, new growth begins again until bacterial/photosynthetic balance is reached. IME, cycling a tank with both macros and higher, vascular plants speeds up and smooths out the process. Mitigating deadly nitrogen cycle spikes with Purigen and 10%-20% water changes every 24 hrs helps a lot to achieve homeostasis, too, and even more so with the use of macros/vascular plants. Remove dead fleshy macro, but leave bleached, calcerous macro (algae cells are temporarily withdrawn/"hiding" within the calcerous structures. Halimeda, fan plants are examples). I started doing this years ago, figuring that some interference would prevent unnecessary die-off of benthic animals in LS, or at least save some of their cycts/eggs. In other words, why let your expensive live rock die off completely? Just siphon off the rotting stuff and prevent total hell on earth for the creatures that hitchhiked in. Also, I use a normal lighting routine for breaking in tanks without macros/plants, too, just more Purigen is used and the larger WC amount.

 

[staticfishmonger]

thanks for the ID and the great info. i saw some cool halimeda at the LFS a while back, thought about getting, but at that time i knew nothing about its care and so forth.....

 

[staticfishmonger]

hey clown it looks alot better now that i cleaned off all the diatom growth. the brown algae was not attached it was just growing within the macro and a little shake and a rinse with clean saltwater and all the diatom fell off. hopefully with a little added flow and the addition of the new fish the macro will be able to starve out some of that ugly stuff.....

 

[mellen]

neomyacin

neomyacin

An old trick to shock out an established slime or cyanobacteria problem is to dose with one 200mg Neomycin capsule per 10gal volume. Remove all delicate zooxanthellate corals and macro algae to temp. holding/quarantine & shut off any biofilters or skimmers (airstone or just powerheads should stay on). Keep light on so cyano is actively sucking in the bactericide for 3-4 hours. Siphon scrub all visible slime algae. Then strip the medication out with polyfilter/skimmer/carbon - all three. Add corals back after 1/2 or full day of strip. Your macros will get upper hand on any cyano that survives the shock treatment, and sop up ammonia if some of your nitrogen cycle bacteria dies back (usually they are pretty tough, though).

 

[staticfishmonger]

interesting method i have never heard anything like that... yeah i was able to beat all the cyno just by increasng flow dramatically its the hair algae that still keeps coming back. i think it has somthing to do with my sand bed as thats one of the only things left that could be the cause. my lights are up for replacement and i have already ordered the bulbs. if the replaced lighting doesnt help then i may try adding some phosphate remover. even though my tests show no detectable phosphates. the sand bed is still fairly new so this may also be just be a phaze of the maturing process. i dont think my sand bed could be already "full" and so i will wait a couple years before tearing it out..

 

[mellen]

Quite a few critters like to eat hair algae - urchins, fish, snails, crabs, shrimp, lettuce nudis. Perfect excuse to go shopping!

 

[staticfishmonger]

LOL.......yeah i have added a few shrimps, some nassarius snails, a kole tang, and a few hermits all in the name of hair algae attack. what is your take on urchins i have always liked them, but get mixed reviews on there addition to the reef tank if they are"reef safe". they are somthing i would like to add i just dont want to end up with somthing that causes trouble.
also what are you favorites as far as snails i have mostly trocus i think and they spend most of there time on the glass and not on the hair algae. i have also been looking into a conch i hear there awsome for the sand. i may be heading out to the LFS later today to pick up some more algae eating critters. thanks for your input.