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Cultivated Reef

Trouble with Macro Algae


nawilson89

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Let me tell you a bit about my tank, I run a 29g tank with about 20lbs of live rock and 30lbs of sand.

 

Stock List:

Fish

Pair of clowns

Royal Gramma Basslet

Swalesi Basslet

Hector's Goby

pair of Greenbanded Goby

Masked Goby

Tangaroa Goby

 

Macro and plants

manatee grass

halimeda

gracilaria

dragons breath

caulerpa prolifera

fern caulerpa

grape caulerpa

 

The problem im having is growth and stability. Growth is incredibly slow and the caulerpa species go sexual (that problem was probably by my sea urchin who is now gone).

 

The secondary issue is that Green Hair Algae runs rampant on my back wall. Even when scrubbed off and taken out it still out grows my macros. (Could that be the main issue that stops my growth? Would ridding my tank of GHA make my seagrass and macros take off?)

 

 

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Let me tell you a bit about my tank, I run a 29g tank with about 20lbs of live rock and 30lbs of sand.

 

Stock List:

Fish

Pair of clowns

Royal Gramma Basslet

Swalesi Basslet

Hector's Goby

pair of Greenbanded Goby

Masked Goby

Tangaroa Goby

 

Macro and plants

manatee grass

halimeda

gracilaria

dragons breath

caulerpa prolifera

fern caulerpa

grape caulerpa

 

The problem im having is growth and stability. Growth is incredibly slow and the caulerpa species go sexual (that problem was probably by my sea urchin who is now gone).

 

The secondary issue is that Green Hair Algae runs rampant on my back wall. Even when scrubbed off and taken out it still out grows my macros. (Could that be the main issue that stops my growth? Would ridding my tank of GHA make my seagrass and macros take off?)

 

 

Have you tested for Phosphates and nitrates?

 

There might be an excessive amount of nutrients that feed the GHA. No matter what, GHA will always be more dominant with macros. Unless kept on check.

 

Also, try testing for Iron, it plays an important role in successfully growing Macros. But you must be extremely careful when dosing as it can easily crash your tank.

 

Before testing for Iron however, make sure you fix the GHA issue.

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And please test for Phosphates and Nitrates.

I definitely will. My question is to you, if I run a phoszorb like chemiclean or something to lower my phosphates and nitrates would I not essentially be removing the nutrients out of my water to feed my macro's?

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If you run a phosphate and/or nitrate remover, you'll never get down to 0 but you'll be making it more difficult for nuisance algae to get a hold of the nutrients. In order to give your macroalgae a boost, you need to make their efforts easier. Depending on the macro, that'll involve bringing up iron levels, cacium levels, magnesium levels, etc. Or changing the lighting or position in the tank. When the macro settles in and begins to grow quickly, it'll easily outcompete nuisance algae for nutrients.

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If you run a phosphate and/or nitrate remover, you'll never get down to 0 but you'll be making it more difficult for nuisance algae to get a hold of the nutrients. In order to give your macroalgae a boost, you need to make their efforts easier. Depending on the macro, that'll involve bringing up iron levels, cacium levels, magnesium levels, etc. Or changing the lighting or position in the tank. When the macro settles in and begins to grow quickly, it'll easily outcompete nuisance algae for nutrients.

This.^^^ 1+

 

Macros not only need nitrates and phosphates. It's more than that as Maria said.

 

The reason why I ask to test for those is because they might be in really high levels. You need to control the nuisance algae first.

 

 

I would do the following.

Remove rocks (if you can) scrape the nuisance algae. Put back rock. Blast them with a powerhead or a turkey baster. Test for No3 and Po4.

Do some Water Changes for a few days.

Test again.

 

You just want to gey rid of the algae. There is no such thing as 0 nutrients. There are just Undetectable levels.

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  • 3 weeks later...

This.^^^ 1+

 

Macros not only need nitrates and phosphates. It's more than that as Maria said.

 

The reason why I ask to test for those is because they might be in really high levels. You need to control the nuisance algae first.

 

 

I would do the following.

Remove rocks (if you can) scrape the nuisance algae. Put back rock. Blast them with a powerhead or a turkey baster. Test for No3 and Po4.

Do some Water Changes for a few days.

Test again.

 

You just want to gey rid of the algae. There is no such thing as 0 nutrients. There are just Undetectable levels.

 

 

That's actually what i've been doing. Since I've been working alot of overtime I've been doing big water changes once a week, I scraped about 80% of the GHA off my back wall and been doing scraping since. I've seen a bit more growth from the halimeda and sea grass since then. Thanks for the help!

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That's actually what i've been doing. Since I've been working alot of overtime I've been doing big water changes once a week, I scraped about 80% of the GHA off my back wall and been doing scraping since. I've seen a bit more growth from the halimeda and sea grass since then. Thanks for the help!

 

Sounds like good progress! Keep it up, and eventually the macros will take over. The water changes will help, too, because of all the trace elements your macros will need that the microalgae mostly wouldn't (iron and all that good stuff). :lol:

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