Iron dosing for macroalgaes

basile · Aug 13, 2014

i have a 75 G starfire display refugium FULL of macroalgaes and i can't seem to supply enough iron to it.

I've been dosing seachem iron , full dose once a week, then twice a week still at 0ppm. Now i'm at every 3 days. I'm constantly testing of course; but i can tell you, the algaes are consuming it. They're perkier, the colors are much more pronounced, they grow faster, i did't get algae bloom in my main reef. I do have a good CUC , i have 3 urchin that are phenomenal algae eaters, plus a sailfin and 2 tangs. The fuge its self has a seahare that eats only nuisance algaes and nibbles a bit at the macro but don't do serious damages, thats my pal ! If you do start a big macroalgae tank get a seahare, they clean your tank of nuisance such as hair algaes and other, because with large refugium you get dead spots no matter what. I have 2 Tunze 6055 at max (1,450 USgal./h) and still get still water because of the macroalgae growth.

If you don't dose i notice the macro's just stop growing. Iron seem to be essential to that growth. As far as algae bloom; the photoperiod is more important i think. I added one more hour to mine and the balance was tipped. I had cyano and an algae bloom, as soon as i returned to my original setting i had no more problems. By the way conch are very useful too in a fuge they don't eat macroalgaes and eat cyano

Only one per 60 gallon or they starve, they need huge amount of algaes to survive. I have only 3 conch in my 150G reef and still supplement with dry seaweed, they're great sand movers too.

Ulva is one of pods favorite foods they go throught like tissue paper.

The experiment continues. I'll see if the green tank will require as much iron. I found that iodine , although i did dose didn't go as fast as i though it would. Hight calcium is also needed for macroalgaes for good health. Hight calcium actually discourage microalgaes from blooming from my reading, the reverse of macroalgaes who needs it for their different cell structure apparently.

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basile · Sep 14, 2014

High iron dosing for my refugium facts.

Here some of my data i've colllected to base my course of action regarding my iron dosing for my refugium, their are others but its one that after i had started confirmed i was in the right direction.

Article Citation:
Y. Suzuki, K. Kuma, I. Kudo, and K. Matsunaga (1995) Iron requirement of the brown macroalgae Laminaria japonica, Undaria pinnatifida (Phaeophyta) and the crustose coralline alga Lithophyllum yessoense (Rhodophyta), and their competition in the northern Japan Sea. Phycologia: May 1995, Vol. 34, No. 3, pp. 201-205.
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Iron requirement of the brown macroalgae Laminaria japonica, Undaria pinnatifida (Phaeophyta) and the crustose coralline alga Lithophyllum yessoense (Rhodophyta), and their competition in the northern Japan Sea

Y. Suzuki*, K. Kuma, I. Kudo, and K. Matsunaga
Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Fisheries, Hokkaido University, Hakodate, 041 Japan
Abstract
The iron uptake rates of the brown macroalga Laminaria japonica Areschoug and the coralline alga Lithophyllum yessoense Foslie were determined using 59F (15Â°C)e as a tracer. The uptake rates of Laminaria were saturated at a higher level of iron than Lithophyllum. Furthermore, the saturated uptake rate of Laminaria was approximately 50 times higher than that of Lithophyllum. The growth of Laminaria, the brown macroalga Undaria pinnatifidaHarvey (Suringar) and Lithophyllum was compared in iron-rich and iron-limited media. A medium enriched with iron promotes the growth of Laminaria and Undaria. In contrast, Lithophyllum grew even in an iron-limited medium <1 nM Fe). The iron concentration in coastal seawater collected from the Japan Sea, where rocks or rock beds are covered with coralline algae, is extremely low <2 nM Fe). This may explain why coralline algae (Lithophyllum) dominate, whereas growth of brown macroalgae is severely limited.

Accepted: November 10, 1994 ;Published Online: May 1995

* Present address: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Miyazaki University, Miyazaki, 889-21 Japan.

Source;

Undaria pinnatifida

Laminaria japonica Areschoug

Lithophyllum yessoense Foslie

I'll say this however iron dosing applies only if you have a big refugium that contain other algaes than Caulerpa and chaeto. Its not for a 6X6 under the tank for a ball of cheato that will grow anyway, I have a 75 G tank refugium with now 37 diffrent species all which have different needs and consume at various rates. I dose every second day and i can't keep up. I need to keep my nitrates at 5ppm and phosphates at 0.4ppm for the tank to survive. If i don't maintain this i'll loose the tank i did once, $195 worth of macro algaes gone, they starved and died. They basically sucked up all nutrients and rot because they didn't have enough to eat. The bigger the ball gets; the faster it extract the nitrates... it goes exponentially and with 37 species you have to suppliment other things for those different and rare ones.

I started with this small refugium

to this

[video=youtube;ffHvjmrf35Q]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffHvjmrf35Q&index=10&list=PLk_Pw-jAYdFfzK1jNhN7rAilGwHaEzvH5[/video]

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