Macros Competing for Nutrients

[FLARGUE]

I love growing macros and so far, have grown Dragons Breath, Caulerpa Mexicana, and Chaeto. I started by turning a HOB filter into a Chaeto refugium, but I think the system worked too well, and the macroalgae started disintegrating. Then I put Dragons Breath in the display, and it took off. It grew well for months, so I added Caulerpa Mexicana. The new Caulerpa grew like wild, however a couple months later, the dragons breath had completely withered away. I suspect it was being outcompeted for nutrients.

 

It's fascinating how well macroalgaes uptake the excess nutrients in our tanks. I have this perpetual fear of overfeeding my tanks because my equipment is simple, but i'm considering stepping up the coral feeding and seeing how that goes. Currently every 7-10 days, feeding fish every other day. What's your experience with keeping enough nutrients in the system to avoid macro dieback?

 

[Beer]

Macro also utilizes chemical warfare to limit growth of competing algae and is part of why Caulerpa is so invasive.

[Chris's Fishes]

Interestingly enough, I've been having a similar problem lately.

 

I have Codium, Dragon's Breath, and Caulerpa Prolifera in a 10 gallon tank. The Dragon's breath and Caulerpa was doing incredibly well for a while, while the Codium stagnated. Lately, I've had some more nuisance algae growing back, but the Codium is taking off, while the Caulerpa and dragon's breath die back. It's a bit confusing!

[yoshii]

Should like you have a good problem 🙂 I always enjoy being able to feed a tank more and not worry about excess nutrients. Increasing feeding slowly is a good step, then just find the sweet spot where your macros are happy but other pest algae don't show up

[phobos2deimos]

I specifically dosed Nitrates, potassium, and phosphates to feed my macro growth.  IIRC my nitrate uptake was around 16ppm per day in my old 75g tank.

Just got back in after a few years, hope to get the macros started back up.

I had no issues with caulerpas affecting other macros.

[DSFIRSTSLTWATER]

Will pest algae outcompete macros?

I'm following along because I wanna get some in the near future.

[phobos2deimos]

My theory is that, like freshwater planted tanks, if the macros are given enough nutrients/light/etc. that they aren't limited in their growth, they will outcompete microalgaes.  Ultimately this was my experience - even with nitrates around 60-100ppm+ and phosphates around .5-1 ppm, I had excellent macro growth and almost no pest algae to speak of.

But if I let something dip, like phosphate, which reduced the macros' ability to uptake nitrates, then the pests would start to kick in.

[Aurortpa]

On 4/25/2019 at 7:24 PM, phobos2deimos said:

I specifically dosed Nitrates, potassium, and phosphates to feed my macro growth.  IIRC my nitrate uptake was around 16ppm per day in my old 75g tank.

Just got back in after a few years, hope to get the macros started back up.

I had no issues with caulerpas affecting other macros.

Curious, how do you dose phosphates and nutrients for your macros?

[phobos2deimos]

19 hours ago, Aurortpa said:

Curious, how do you dose phosphates and nutrients for your macros?

I mix up a solution of CaNO3 for nitrate, KH2PO4 for phosphate, and a batch of iron.  I'm also trying micros right now to see if it makes a difference.  I get my ferts here http://nilocg.com/

[Aurortpa]

3 hours ago, phobos2deimos said:

I mix up a solution of CaNO3 for nitrate, KH2PO4 for phosphate, and a batch of iron.  I'm also trying micros right now to see if it makes a difference.  I get my ferts here http://nilocg.com/

Interesting, curious of the results—do you have a thread for your tank?

[phobos2deimos]

On 7/14/2019 at 7:57 PM, Aurortpa said:

Interesting, curious of the results—do you have a thread for your tank?

I just got back into the hobby with a 20g and 50g, they're still getting established but the thread is here:

 

My last big macro tank was my favorite setup ever, posted here:

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2500395