Nice job! Comparison shots are great.
Looks like your caulerpas are growing like um, weeds.
Looks like your caulerpas are growing like um, weeds.
My Caribbean Biotope Tank Build
- Thread starter jraker
- Start date
jraker
New member
I found a new hitchhiker today. I think it is Dictyota, and it is growing on my red grapes. I will remove the pieces, as they are growing in several different locations. I want to see where they do well, under high or low light. All the macros under the higher light seem to have been growing faster than the others on the left side of the tank.
Unfortunately, I haven't had much time to fiddle with the hair algae because of school. It is still growing at a steady rate, but I think I will be able to control it. I will need to prune some of the caulerpa soon because it is growing so fast. Some of the other macros are being smothered.
Unfortunately, I haven't had much time to fiddle with the hair algae because of school. It is still growing at a steady rate, but I think I will be able to control it. I will need to prune some of the caulerpa soon because it is growing so fast. Some of the other macros are being smothered.
jraker
New member
You may have noticed the lack of updates lately. With the start of the school year, I have much more work to do always, and I haven't really had time to give my tanks much attention, and I definitely haven't been able to take the time to closely observe everything and take pictures. I will try to do a picture update soon.
jraker
New member
So I ordered a bunch of snails from ReefCleaners. I ordered 100 ceriths, 30 "stocky" ceriths, and some small nassarius snails. They all came well packaged and got delivered fast.
I think they sent more than a hundred ceriths. There was a good handful in the bag.
Photo to show Stocky cerith vs regular cerith. The stocky is behind the algae on the bottom left, and the regular ceriths are at the top.
Today's FTS
I think they sent more than a hundred ceriths. There was a good handful in the bag.
Photo to show Stocky cerith vs regular cerith. The stocky is behind the algae on the bottom left, and the regular ceriths are at the top.
Today's FTS
Whew, that's a lot of snails! That should do it.
jraker
New member
I think the snails have been helping. I have noticed that the hair algae hasn't been growing as fast as it had been previously. My rocks still have of it on them, but look like they are doing better.
Watching the jawfish has been interesting. They squabble a bit, and fight over burrows every now and then, but there really isn't that much aggression. Earlier today, two of them switched burrows, but when I fed them, they switched back. The one in the back seems to be inching closer and closer to the front each day, and I think it might be making a burrow near the front. It seems like a clear hierarchy has formed, and the biggest one is the most dominant, and the smallest has the least power. If they switch burrows, it is always a larger jawfish taking a burrow away from a smaller jawfish.
When I get rid of the hair algae (I think I am winning the battle right now), I will be more open to some biodiversity, like seagrasses, more gorgonians, and some anemones. Sometime soon, I will get a cherub angel to control the macro growth. They only get about 3", so I'm not too worried about it growing too big and eating too much macro. I was also interested in getting a pair or trio of royal grammas. Has anyone had success with small groups of these guys?
FTS:
Watching the jawfish has been interesting. They squabble a bit, and fight over burrows every now and then, but there really isn't that much aggression. Earlier today, two of them switched burrows, but when I fed them, they switched back. The one in the back seems to be inching closer and closer to the front each day, and I think it might be making a burrow near the front. It seems like a clear hierarchy has formed, and the biggest one is the most dominant, and the smallest has the least power. If they switch burrows, it is always a larger jawfish taking a burrow away from a smaller jawfish.
When I get rid of the hair algae (I think I am winning the battle right now), I will be more open to some biodiversity, like seagrasses, more gorgonians, and some anemones. Sometime soon, I will get a cherub angel to control the macro growth. They only get about 3", so I'm not too worried about it growing too big and eating too much macro. I was also interested in getting a pair or trio of royal grammas. Has anyone had success with small groups of these guys?
FTS:
cHRoNzZe 619
New member
Looks like the snails are doing there job...I would diff add some seagrasse towards the back of the tank to cover up some of the glass ...the gorgs are looking really happy I order a few a few weeks ago and they haven't been doing too good in my reef tank,plus one of my tangs went HAM on two of them.
Haven't had any royal gramma but what I hear they are bullies... I believe I seen on Michael h. Macro/seagrass tank,he have a few royals on a picture so I'm sure it can happen maybe get the smallest 3 royals and place them in the tank at the same time? I would put a few more rocks in there so the royals can run and hide from each other maybe stack up a cave in the middle? at one point I'm sure there gonna fight in a smaller tank.
Haven't had any royal gramma but what I hear they are bullies... I believe I seen on Michael h. Macro/seagrass tank,he have a few royals on a picture so I'm sure it can happen maybe get the smallest 3 royals and place them in the tank at the same time? I would put a few more rocks in there so the royals can run and hide from each other maybe stack up a cave in the middle? at one point I'm sure there gonna fight in a smaller tank.
cHRoNzZe 619
New member
Most gorgs do shed there's a few that don't in my experience mostly the filter feeding gorgs don't shed and the photosynthetic one do... I guess I'll look it up so I know the right answer lol....
Isn't your tank still very new? When was your go live date?
I think you're just in your algae phase of development. It just happens. The micro and macro algae are fighting a chemical war. Remove micro. Favor macro. Wait, repeat.
Macros die back like that to nourish remaining plants, when they lack some nutrient. So if it's not nitrogen limited, what is it?
I think you're just in your algae phase of development. It just happens. The micro and macro algae are fighting a chemical war. Remove micro. Favor macro. Wait, repeat.
Macros die back like that to nourish remaining plants, when they lack some nutrient. So if it's not nitrogen limited, what is it?
JZinCO
New member
That's what I thought but I haven't as much experience as others. What I've done is taken it as a sign that I need to prune to reduce competition for nutrients...obviously not a solution if you want to maintain the amount of macros. As Michael says, the solution would be to find out what is limiting and dose that.
Yes to pruning (exporting)-of the micros, reducing their biomass and competition with macros.
jraker
New member
For some reason the potassium phosphate got "damaged or lost in transit", so I will need to wait another week for that to come. The hair algae isn't showing signs of stopping. It keeps on growing and growing. School has been busy lately, so I needed to do another blackout on the tank to stop it from growing. I might get a pygmy angel soon to help out with the algae.
Do like I do and pretend they're pretty…or get a peppermint shrimp or two.
