mistery disapearing culerpa!?!?!

[jagtech76]

I REALLY , REALLY need some help here .
I have a 180g reef tank , with a 55g+/- refugium from custom
custom sea life systems, lights are on 24hr 7 days a week ,
i cannot keep ph steady for the life of me (acording to pinpoint ph meter ) but for some reason every month or 2 all the culerpa in the refugium disapears. I'm fairly new to the hobby so forgive me for if i miss pertinent details in this post so if i need to share more info just ask , and i will try to answer best as possible .

 

[Herpn]

Could be wrong but I dont think you should be running you lights 24/7. You should put them on a timer and have them on oposit when your tank lights are on. So if your Tank lights are on from 8am till 8pm have your fuge lights run from 8pm till 8 am...

Good luck.

 

[jagtech76]

and may be i'm wrong , but i was told to run them 24/7 and it
would help stabilze my ph never stopping photosyntesis?

 

[ek9vboi]

Culerpa needs to have the lights on at all time or they will go sexual. I am not sure what that process does, but try to do a search on it or maybe someone can help him/her out who is a premium member.

Since the culerpa isn't working for you, try cheatomorpha. This stuff is very hard to kill and keeping the lights on all day and night can only help it. It is not needed, I would put reverse lighting schedual for the refugium.

As for pH, try to add a buff since it is not stablizing yet.

 

[jagtech76]

the funny part is that , culerpa works great for me when it's there
it grows like a weed when it's there ! and thanks for the tip i will
look into the cheetomorphic ! i mean cheatomorpha!

 

[Herpn]

Maybe try cutting it back. Could it be using up all the nutrients?
I have had mine die back when I was not feeding the tank it was in...

 

[fsn77]

I have calurpa and chaetomorpha in my refugium on a light cycle opposite the main tank. It hasn't gone sexual. Both grow very well, but the calurpa defenitely grows more quickly than the chaetomorpha.

Running a refugium on an opposite light schedule from the main tank is more likely to promote a stable pH -- the main tank does photosynthesis during our day, while the refugium does it during our night. On a 24/7 light schedule, they are both doing photosynthesis during the day, technically raising the pH together during that time period. Then, during the night, the refugium can't photosynthesize enough to make up for the main tank not photosynthesizing at all, so the pH drops as the corals and algae in the main tank respire (slightly lowering pH). Even with running an opposite light schedule, I've found it necessary to add buffer to my tank from time to time to make up for what is taken up by the livestock.

Photosynthetic organisms need a "dark" period. They make food while there's light, then grow when it's dark.

How often do you calibrate your PinPoint pH meter? Depending on how old it is, it may need a cleaning inside. I got a used one that was kept enclosed in the stand of the previous user and the moisture started to cause a short (salt creep inside the unit --didn't know it when I got it). The final straw was I accidentally splashed a small amount of water on it one day, and then it started becoming unstable. I thought the probe itself was bad, but then I took the meter itself apart after I double checked the reading with a pH test kit. I've dried it out and cleaned it up, but haven't got it back on my tank yet to see if it's better. Just a thought based on my experience.

 

[dc]

Actually caulerpa can go sexual with 24/7. I couldn't keep razor from going sexual all the time no matter what I did. So I have chaeto and prolifera now. I also use reverse lighting now.



Is it going sexual do you think? Mine always turned yellow, then white, and the tank clouded up when this happened. The caulerpa sort of melted away.

 

[jagtech76]

ok guys hold on ! what do you mean it's going sexual ?

 

[seaduck]

yeah, what is going sexual? I have caulerpa in my fuge too. Also, some say that caulerpa can crash and mess up the tank. how does this happen???

 

[cmsargent]

When caulerpa is stressed (from not enough lights, nutrients, etc) it goes sexual. The plant knows its dieing so it puts all its energy into producing seeds (spores) in hopes that some will land in a favorable location and grow. When this happens the leaves start to fade to yellow and then white and finally die and disinigrate. The tank gets cloudy from all of the released spores. If you look closely you can see lots of tiny raised dark spots on the leaves (these are the spores).

This may or may not hurt your tank. The spores themselves won't hurt anything but most of them will die and all the decaying matter may cause problems. All depends on your system, how capable it is of handling the increased nutrient load, how much caulerpa you have, what's in your tank and how sensitive it is, etc.

 

[seaduck]

thank you cmsargent..i feel a lot better knowing that. I have 1/2 lb of caulerpa in fuge and constantly prune it back and feed it to my fish. My lighting is reverse that of main tank w/ 9w pc. All is well so far.

 

[jagtech76]

I just gat back from the store and i bought some , cheatomorpha
has any one had any problems with this ?