Macro Feast - Anyone growing it?

[kgoldy]

Reef Nutrition Macro Feast

 

 

I'm curious if anyone else has bought a bottle and saw if it actually grew out... I figure for the $12 price tag, it was worth picking up and throwing in my tank. It was certainly cheaper and larger than most macro frags I could have gotten in the mail (when you include shipping).

 

It looks pretty awesome under actinic lighting... Just about glows orange. Definitely display worthy. When I learn how to take pictures of stuff that's fluorescent, I'll try to capture what the naked eye sees.

 

The jar was marked "Bottled on March 14th", and it's got a shelf life of 4 weeks, according to Reef-Nutrition, it's manufacturer.- so i got it half way through to "going bad" (today is April 1st). After doing a quick temperature acclimation... I pulled it out of the jar and immediately noticed that it had a healthy texture to it, not the rubbery goo that I was expecting to feel. How they keep this stuff from falling apart after no exposure to light, and in a refrigerator, I can only guess. I tossed the water out, not knowing what chemicals might be in there to preserve the stuff.

 

For now I've got most of it isolated from any possible predators in an in-tank refugium (a reef gently acclimator). It says on the bottle that it "does best under strong lighting in swift current" so I placed it relatively close to the surface of the water, near my MP-40. The acclimator diffuses the blast of the vortec, so that the strands of macro gently sways.

 

The rest, I'm going to throw in the fuge. My CUC has been devouring all the soft macro that they can possibly digest, so I'm not sure if it'll survive in there.

 

I'll try to keep this thread going with updates on whether this stuff dies or flourishes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mmcguffi]

Very cool, thanks for the review!

[Weetabix7]

I've never heard of anyone trying this.

From my own experience, when Red Macros turn that fluorescent color, the fluorescent parts are dead or dying.

[kgoldy]

From my own experience, when Red Macros turn that fluorescent color, the fluorescent parts are dead or dying.

 

Boooo. Anything I can do to increase chances of survival/growth?

 

Edit- If it matters, that photo was taken under 90% Royal Blue, 10% Violet LEDs. Even my clownfish glow under it.

 

It says on the label that it'll grow. If under the same conditions as my other macros, it dies away, I'm totally writing Reef Nutrition and trying to get a refund. It will be the second item off their product line that I've been disappointed with.

[kgoldy]

Here's an update on my adventures with Macro Feast:

 

Kept under the same exact conditions as my other green and red macros (including the closely related "brown/red" gracilaria from Reef Cleaners), it appears to have died away almost completely. There may be a tiny little bit that's still viable, and I'll try to do what I can to separate that which is white or "melted" to see if I can get any to grow back at all. After tonight it'll go unobserved and untouched for 10 days while I'm on vacation.

 

The pics below are before trimming back the obviously 100% dead stuff. The pics of the refugium with zero macro feast... Well, that's exactly what I found when I got home from work today. There were tiny bits and pieces of completely dead/transparent Macro Feast stuck on some alga that's downstream from where I put it... but nothing worth photographing.

 

 

02 April 2011:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

04 April 2011:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ulva, Reef Cleaners' Gracilaria, and Chaetomorpha under the same exact lighting, and similar flow conditions.

 

 

 

[kgoldy]

Looks like the Macro Feast is beginning to grow back. Pics will be posted when I get a chance.

[Fish Bowl]

From my experiences of growing Gracilaria, it does significantly better under very high flow rates compared to Chaeto or Ulva and like lower salinity than you would probably like to use for a reef (1.019-1.016) and also, its slower growing than Chaeto and Ulva and is easily out competed by them which is why if you plan on using them in a fuge together, a sectioned out refugium is best with them first in line for nitrates and po4.

If you don't want to grow it for display or use it for nutrient export, I highly advise going to Walmart or something and buying a clear plastic tub, fill it with saltwater and then throw a powerhead/long air line/stick and some market shrimp in there. You'll have a forest by the end of the month if you keep the salinity constant guaranteed.

#1 Tang/Angelfish food I've ever used in terms of macros + my population of pods seem to like living in there better.