baj Posted January 16, 2007 Share Posted January 16, 2007 Hi, This is a cross post from RC. I expected a lot more replies there but just one guy replied. I'm hoping there are others here who have this macro and it will be great if you could share your experiences. I have some as a hitch hiker and it is doing really well in my tank. So far I've found that it does not really care too much about flow. However, I did have some of it lose some color under bright light. I am assuming since it has 'red' in it, it must be able to withstand low light conditions and maybe that is what it prefers. I have them all in a shaded region now and the color has returned on the faded stalks, I'm not sure if this is a coincidence or there is some correlation. I separated a stalk, placed it in a separate container (a low rubbermaid tub, about 5" tall) with 4" of water, a powerhead for flow and a 64w 6700k PC light. I also began to dose some seachem iron (formulated for freshwater) and within about a week the stalk had completely faded but it was not dead. I am not sure if it was just the light that caused it since it was bright and lit directly. The stalk rebounded when I placed it back in my main tank though. I have also noticed that some of the stalks have ceased to be soft and slippery. They instead have a hard whitish growth covering them, which I think could be precipitation of CaCO3 on them. These stalks have retained their shape and have not disintegrated (like how macros disintegrate -melt- away). Hopefully in time I will be able to at least post something that is a bit more educated and scientific, instead of some half-baked observations. I would be very interested to hear about other people's experiences with this. Here are some older pics, I will take some new pics soon and update. Free Image Hosting [xs.to] Link to comment
supernip Posted January 16, 2007 Share Posted January 16, 2007 we love macros here at nano-reef.com. Adin will chime in soon Link to comment
Wonder Boy Posted January 16, 2007 Share Posted January 16, 2007 we love macros here at nano-reef.com. Adin will chime in soon I had some, but there was a population explosion followed by complete dyeoff. Wish I still had it, maybe when I set up a macro tank... Link to comment
formerly icyuodd/icyoud2 Posted January 16, 2007 Share Posted January 16, 2007 i have some in my macro aquarium. its a 24x24x18" deep aquarium and i have 2 65watt 9375k power compacts lighting the it. the lights are suspended a good 10" above the aquarium and the algae sits on my sand. its not a shaded area what so ever. the plant seems to be thriving under these conditions and is the size of a baseball. now i'm sure light intensity has alot to do with its survival, but spectrum is equally important. macro's seem to fair best under 6500k-10000k lighting (daylight). i went to toronto on the weekend and my cheap timer got stuck. i'm not sure when the lights failed but the aquarium sat in the dark for1- 2 days. all the tops of my macro's turned white. but quickly colored up when the lights were turned back on. now some might think this was sexual behavior, but its not. at night the new growth is colorless. every morning all my macro tips are white/clear but quickly color up. how quickly is it growing? i find if a have a growth spurt the algae seems to be much lighter on the tips and eventually colors up. the crusties could just be coraline. theres very little info out thier for a macro discovered in 1907 . so keep us posted on your findings. the first pic is only a couple days after it arrived at my lfs when the lights come on itt take a upto date pic for ya. Link to comment
formerly icyuodd/icyoud2 Posted January 16, 2007 Share Posted January 16, 2007 my critters like to pick at it/eat it. Link to comment
baj Posted January 16, 2007 Author Share Posted January 16, 2007 Great stuff guys! Thanks formerly icyuodd. Just some more info: what salinity (or sg) is your tank at and at what temperature? Have you experimented with how much salinity shifts it can take? I'm thinking of putting some in a lab tank but I wont be able to top it off regularly, so there will be salinity shifts since it will only be a 5g tank. I'll try it out myself, but any info you have would be great. I havent seen anything eat it so far. At least anything limited to what I have in my tank - bumblebee snail, hermit crabs (blue, red and scarlet), turbo snails (mostly pacific, one could be atlantic), cerith snails, astrea snails, a tri-color faiury wrasee, a rainford goby and a lawnmower blenny. I had some green codium which the turbo/astrea snails ate happily (I dont know which one, I never caught them in the act but the codium was doing fine when there was only one pacific turbo in the tank and started getting eaten after I added astreas and more turbos). Also, the first pic of the scinaia in your post is very similar in color to the new growtrh I have. This is new growth off the rock off which I have the scinaia hitch-hiking on. Its really interesting, I pull of the scinaia from the rock, presumably by what it is attached to and a new shoot will grow out of the exact same spot a few days later. This new growth now is brown in color like your first pic. Man I got to take some pictures, I'll try to put them up tonight. Link to comment
travisurfer Posted January 20, 2007 Share Posted January 20, 2007 Awesome macro; all I have is caulerpa and chaeto Link to comment
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