My macro just died!

[danny zubot]

After being away for a few days this past weekend I finally had some time tonight to check out my tank. Everything was fine with the exception of my macro algea. I have a 10 gallon shallow rubbermaid bin for a refugium and it was about half full of calurpa, until this past weekend I guess. I had noticed in recent weeks that it's growth had slowed, probably due to my new PO4 and NO3 reactor, but looked healthy otherwise. Tonight all but a few thin strands of the calurpa had literally liquified! It had the consistancy of brown slime, and fell apart in my hands when trying to remove it.

I had recently started feeding my corals more, a lot more, since the acquisition of a sea fan. So I thought the macro would have plenty of nutrients. Does this sould like a nutrient issue though? Or does it sound more like a disease, infection or even competition?

 

[serpentman]

Whenever I change my phosban, my macro dies off. 99.9% sure its due to low nutrients and ultimately a good sign.

It kept happening to me so I ended up shutting down the fuge.

 

[TheH]

Sounds like the caulerpa went sexual.

 

[danny zubot]

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My origianal thoughts were low nutrients as well, but just today I noticed some Chaeto in the fuge that was not affected. Perhaps they have different nutrient requirements?

TheH - How would I know if the calurpa went sexual? Do they flower or something?

 

[kaylo]

I recently had the same thing happen.

My gracilaria went sexual and started "melting". Basically when it goes sexual, it starts breaking down because of low nutrients in the hopes of getting reloacted somewhere else with more nutrients to start growing again. I have removed all the gracilaria.

I also have chaeto in the same fuge. The chaeto is fine and didn't start breaking down like the gracilaria did. I believe chaeto is the hardier and more forgiving with nutrient levels of the macro algaes that's why it is used more often for a fuge.

 

[luther1200]

And Cheato won't go sexual like other Macro's will.

 

[danny zubot]

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Interesting!

In hind sight, I remember seeing yellowish balls mixed in with the regular green balls. At the time I thought they were just discolored due to being close to the water's surface, and too close to the light. Would those yellow balls have been some kind of flower, and thus an indication of going sexual?