Ulva

[sjvl51]

I picked up some ulva for my refuge and threw it in on the tang heaven. I have some sites that say ulva likes to anchor on rocks other sites say free floating. Does it prefer high light (near surface) or what? Can someone recommend a good site that I can check out the requirements of the various macro algaes that I have.

Vickie

 

[kmk2307]

Hi Vickie,

In my experience, once Ulva is no longer anchored to a rock it doesn't re-attach. Are you keeping your Ulva in your 'fuge? Ulva likes moderate lighting. I don't know of a good website that has information on Ulva. The best advice I can give you is try google and reef central searches for your algae and see what info you can find.

HTH & GL finding more information,
Kevin

 

[sjvl51]

Thanks for the reply, Kevin.

I put some in my refuge (low flow) and some in my sump (high flow). The piece in my sump is near the surface resting on the tang heaven. The piece in my refuge floated for a while and then settled on the small circulating pump that I have in there.

info for others -

My Google search didn't turn up a lot of info other than it grows along many shorelines (England/Ireland/Scotland/Japan) which leads me to suspect that it's natural temp. is somewhat lower than our tanks.

Ulva has this type of habitat - "Found in shallow sea water usually less than 1 m. in depth. generally grows on rocks, coral, mollusk shells or other hard substrate but also grows as an epiphyte on sea plants including crops such as Kappaphycus and Eucheuma." per http://www.surialink.com/HANDBOOK/Genera/greens/Ulva/Ulva.htm and "Can be cultivated somewhat in the manner of Monostroma and Porphyra. "

Porphyra (otherwise known as nori) has this type of habitat - "On rocks, shells or as an epiphyte in the mid-tidal to the splash zone. Tends to flourish in cool temperatures below 10Ã"šÃ‚° C. Attached to substrates by a cord of interwoven holdfast strands." per http://www.surialink.com/HANDBOOK/Genera/reds/Porphyra/Porphyra.htm

This site http://www.marlin.ac.uk/species/Ulvlac.htm says - "The sea lettuce is found at all levels of the intertidal, although in more northerly latitudes and in brackish habitats it is found in the shallow sublittoral. In very sheltered conditions, plants that have become detached from the substrate can continue to grow, forming extensive floating communities. The plant tolerates brackish conditions and can be found on suitable substrata in estuaries."

This site http://www.britannica.com/eb/article?eu=68165 says this - "(Ulva), any member of a genus of green algae usually found growing between high and low tide marks on rocky shores of seas and oceans. Fragments may be washed ashore by wave action. Ulva grows also in brackish water rich in organic matter or sewage. The thallus, which somewhat resembles a lettuce leaf, is a sheet of cells up to 30 cm (12 inches) long and two cells thick"

From here - http://www.mesa.edu.au/friends/seashores/u_lactuca.html
"Habitat:
The various species of Sea Lettuce occur at the lowest tide levels, and in rock pools, in areas constantly being washed by breaking waves. It never occurs on the steep marginal slopes, but prefers flat platform surfaces.

Biology:
Ulva sp. appear to grow luxuriantly during winter and seem to prefer waters enriched by organic waste."

All this, tells me that the chances of growing ulva in a reef tank seem to be slim as it requires low temps and high nutrients.

Hopefully, I am wrong.

Vickie

 

[saltshop]

FWIW, the only way I have ever gotten Ulva to attach to a rock is to someone have it go sexual and then some of the spores started to grow new sheets out of the rocks, other than that is has always just been a "floater".

 

[sjvl51]

That's good to know, Justin. I won't worry about it being a floater in that case.

Vickie

 

[billsreef]

I've found Ulva in high current areas grows attached. However, when in low current areas such as sheltered areas of tidal creeks it can be found growing unattached in huge sheets. Like Justin, I've also found that unattached Ulva will not attach itself, but subsequent generations will grow attached in favorable areas.

 

[sjvl51]

Thanks Billsreef. I hope I can keep it alive that long. So far the baby snails (that migrated to my sump) are having a meal. I did put some in my rotifer tank to see how it would do there.

Vickie

 

[Welles]

Maybe I can share some experiences about ulva, it seems the keypoint for ulva is the current, not the temperature, light and nutrition:

Last year, one of my friends try to DIY a ATS system, and complete it with an old small cube, his ATS has a bucket mount on the top of the tank, and keep a small refugium area on the bottom of the tank with some live rock and algaes, and some rocks with ulva we collected from north Chinese sea.

few weeks later, we noticed the ulva begin to grow in the refugium area, then the ulva begin to grow crazy(must be harvest every week), at last, almost every kind of algaes could not compete with ulva and they have disappeared, the photo is as following:

With ulva rapidly grow, the nitrate has droped fast, from 25ppm to 0ppm in just few week, and phosphate also droped to 0ppm. (with Salifert test kit)

When the nitrate becomes zero, the growth rate of ulva is slow down, and the other algaes could not survive even the turf on the ATS screen.

We all shocked with this and try to find out what is the key point for ulva growth, we have try to put the ulva into the sump of the same tank, the screen of ATS, but all failed, it seems the ulva could only be thriftily in the refugium area of ATS tank.

So we think the current is the key point for the ulva growth in aquarium, the best stream for ulva is the current back and forth just like current at coast. The current maked with ATS bucket helped ulva to grow.

Now we have do more test with ulva and it seems the stream by the pump also could help ulva to grow, but it is not as good as ATS bucket does. (I think the TUNZE wavebox is good choice for ulva but it is too expensive )

We are still doing some dedicated test to find out if the current is the keypoint and what could make ulva grow fast in the aquarium, we think the ulva is a good choice for the reef tank to keep the nutrition low, with ulva's great contribution, the color of my friends' SPS looks great then before and he have many fishs in this tank:

sorry for the lengthy text and my english is not so good, I hope it could be helpful.

 

[bluenassarius]

welles thanks for the input. very interesting. i'll chime in with my experience of ulva. i purchased a rock w/ ulva growing on it about 2 months ago. there wasn't much ulva growth on it but i could tell it was ulva so i bought the rock for cheap. well, i placed the rock near the top of the tank w/ the flow hitting it constantly. pieces of ulva broke off and flew everywhere in my tank. the few pieces of ulva eventually attached to some of the rocks. now there is nice patches of growth in my display tank. this is my experience with it..

 

[chai]

Hi Welles,

My understanding is that ulva growth, in large part, depends upon a high level of macro nutrients. (Fast and effecient.) That leads me to think that growth rates would slow once the ulva took in the nutrients from the water.

You state, however, that you are conducting a dedicated test to correlate water current to ulva growth. I'd like to hear more about it. Keep us posted!

Very interesting experiment. :reading:

 

[Triterium]

I put some ulva in my tank a couple months ago. It died after a couple weeks but it has since began growing on my return line in the direct flow. The return line is 3/4" and has 1200 GPH flow through it. I suspect that it is growing and pieces of it rip off when it gets too big. My tank will be converted to a cold water tank this fall and i will be keeping the water at 45-50 degrees. I'll try ulva again at that time and see how it does. BTW, the only lighting on the 180 gallon tank is the sun. It gets full sun all day long.

 

[Triterium]

Welles, thanks for updating this thread. You have given me new hope. Ulva is a very cool algae

 

[bluenassarius]

hey triterium keep us updated on the coldwater tank. i was very tempted to try this.

 

[RicksReefs]

Ulva also grows down here in the subtropics with water temps
that hit 90*. and it's growing quite well in my systems at 80*-82*
it's predominately found in the intertidal zone here & gets high
and dry at low tide. decent light and flow is all i do to keep it
growing like a weed.

 

[kmk2307]

Welles,

You said yoru phosphates went down to zero. What were they before the insertion of the ulva?

Thanks,
Kevin

 

[Welles]

sorry for reply lately, I am on a business trip these days....

bluenassarius: you are welcome, I think ulva is really like the current near the surface.

chai: yes, when the nutrients going down in my friend's tank, the growth rate of ulva is slow, but it is still dominated.

Triterium: my friend has set up a new tank with the ulva act as only filtration and heavy bio-load, and we are still trying to find out what kind of current is the best for ulva with more test.

kmk2307: phosphates is 0.5 or higher(Salifert) because he feed heavy with home made food.