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Ulva grow tank?


dgphelps

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My urchin is ravenous and instead of putting raw dried nori in, I'd like to supplement with Ulva macro algae. I have a few smaller pieces, one does really well in a jar on the fence outside. I just do a water change once a week with old tank water. Definitely, not fast enough to keep up with the urchin but a cool experiment all the same.

 

I decided to setup a 6 gallon tub in the garage with a 24 hour 100W Equivalent 6500k CPF bulb. I have one piece of live rock in there and some crushed coral for a shallow substrate. It has flow, about 20x an hour and similar to the jar, I started it with old tank water with a plan to switch it out every week or so.

 

Should I plan to supplement with KNO3 and Monopotassium Phosphate? Anything else I can do to encourage good solid growth?

 

The urchin demolished the chaeto I had in my tank - didn't seem like the tastiest stuff so I'd like to provide something more enticing.

 

Bonus, I should probably get some nice pod populations in a safe sheltered environment like that. Appreciate any advice!

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What kind of urchin is it? You could probably use the same tub for pod production as ulva production. You probably could also cultivate the ulva and pods in a refugium.

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Tuxedo urchin. My tanks are small, too small to add a refugium - in fact one might argue I have two refugiums with a little coral added in. :P

 

I thought about an Aquaclear but I don't have the space right now. We're planning a move in the next year and I don't want to go overboard - I like the idea of something easy to pick up and move which both of my tanks suit nicely.

 

When I do move I am thinking of going up in size at least for one tank and continuing on the idea of built to a refugium style. While I like corals and anemone, I really like encouraging the diversity of the smaller life like pods, worms, tunicates, sponges, microstars, etc. The amount of clear tunicates in my 5 gallon tank right now is amazing, they keep popping up everywhere along with some cool yellow sponges.

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  • 5 weeks later...
phobos2deimos

Phosphate seems to be a big limiter with Ulva sp. I started keeping my levels at ~.5-1ppm and growth took off. But eventually it crashes, almost all dies off, and then starts regrowing. I suspect the issue is some trace elements that are being depleted (I never change my water). You might need to dose some sort of trace, perhaps CSM or CSM+B, I have no idea. Thinking of doing that myself, but there's a bit of copper in it.

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Interesting. I simplified significantly - I essentially have a small jar on a fence board outside. Every time I do a water change for my tank, I flush it out and do a few back to back 100% water changes in the jar. And from time to time I add some phyto drops. The ulva just grows and grows - it's looking very nice actually. Not enough to feed an urchin with this system but strong constant growth of the ulva.

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