John, figured I'd tap into your expertise on this one. I have a nice chunk of flame algae that I recently acquired from mnherper. I wonder if you (or anyone) could help out with these questions:

1. What is the scientific name?
2. What is the best way to see fast growth?

For coloration, I know that the less light, the deeper red the algae (even getting the flaming orange tips). Any other strategies for maintaining and propagating this stuff is appreciated. It's currently not attached to anything but stays in one place in the corner of my tank.



Thanks!

I WANT SOME!!!!!

Yeah, it's pretty hot.

I have a ton of it! It loves nitrates and phosphates. I get about a golf ball size growth per week. The coloration is amazing under 70w 20k mh. This is an old pic, i'll post a new one later.

it is a species of halymenia. would like some closeups of the base, origin info to get you a species id.

BTW - they already got a flame algae....I am on to this hobby name change, you, mrnherper, and co....are up to. not a big fan though... They call Halymenia with these general features as "dragon's breath".. I don't come up with them, just try to keep it straight....

growing tips - if it aint broke dont fix it. Looks fine to me.

Well coloration is fine, but I don't get much growth. I'm about to add another T5 light with 2 actinic bulbs right above it, so maybe that will give growth with good color (currently under an 18" Nova Extreme with 1 10k and 1 actinic). And I'm changing the name to Maloney's Devil Hair algae.

Algae really doesn't grow much the first month or two in a tank. It establishes holdfasts, acclimates to the surroundings and then grows. it may just be a matter of time. More light might help, but it may shock it, or make it go pale. It will certainly add more expense, and if more heat, (not likely with T5 but you may not be the only reading this either I figure), that might cause problems. How long have you had it?



different, but very nice. cryptonemia maybe? hard to tell the texture from a photo...

Had it several months - I had the 2 nova extremes over that tank to begin with before a ballast blew on one and I took it off. When both were going with the daylight bulbs, the algae paled out a bit. It's never established a hold fast. Can I help it along by supergluing it to something? Where does it grow in the wild?

on rocks usually in areas with a good amount of current. without going into too much detail, they come in murky water and clear water, I usually find it in 20 feet.

I put some in different areas but the best growing is top outflow head on my nc24 - just ziptied around the nozzle - bright & dark red mixed and growing almost linear 3" a week - crazy. Another handful on a powerhead seemed to expire alot of gas bubbles so I moved it into the frag tank and it's more behaved

Halymenia durvillei is the best i got for you dhaut. sorry about that. It looks closest from the Pacific in the pictures I have.

no need for apologies, lol. thanks for all the help. I'm going to try to get it some more flow to see if I can up the growth.

is that the mnherper strain?

Na- local to DC - seriously put some
on my nc24 nozzle maybe 4in about 2
weeks ago and now it's almost to the front glass- actually starting to shade out stuff

how rigid is it? if you pushed some water towards it would it bend over? i think it isnt halymenia still, but good to her about the growth..

lemme see if mherper knows where he got his...

I have some of that too, just sold a bunch off, have it hanging from my overflow in my DT. its a nice deep red colour and I have it under a 150w MH.

oh and mine doesn't really establish a holdfast, it was once attached to a rock but I took it off since it was shading out the palys.

when it attached to the rock that is the holdfast. is it inconspicuous?