Cooking Ulva lactuca

Schnizzle · Feb 14, 2019

I purchased a Kessil H380 for my fuge as I had planned on growing chaeto but it didn't work out. After speaking with @AlgaeBarn they really helped me out and I moved to Ulva lactuca, "Sea Lettuce". It is growing great but I'm overpowering it with the Kessil. If I don't remember to "stir" it everyday it gets bleached and dies in the center of the beam. I travel a lot and tank-sitters seem to forget this part. I only have about 8" from the lens to the water and I have it mounted as tight to the ceiling as possible. Knowing that I have about 12" from water to plywood ceiling, what light would you guys recommend? H80? Zetlight 200S? Something completely different than I have thought of? HELP! lol

AlgaeBarn · Feb 14, 2019

Schnizzle said:
I purchased a Kessil H380 for my fuge as I had planned on growing chaeto but it didn't work out. After speaking with @AlgaeBarn they really helped me out and I moved to Ulva lactuca, "Sea Lettuce". It is growing great but I'm overpowering it with the Kessil. If I don't remember to "stir" it everyday it gets bleached and dies in the center of the beam. I travel a lot and tank-sitters seem to forget this part. I only have about 8" from the lens to the water and I have it mounted as tight to the ceiling as possible. Knowing that I have about 12" from water to plywood ceiling, what light would you guys recommend? H80? Zetlight 200S? Something completely different than I have thought of? HELP! lol

Glad to hear its growing well. Please keep us updated if you notice a lack of dinos/diatoms.

A couple things you can do.

You can reduce the photo period.
A H160 or the new AI Fuge light should do it just fine.
If you want a cheaper option, we can send you our perforated PVC sheets. These cut down the light pretty significantly (we haven't measured PAR), we just ask that you pay shipping.
You can add an airstone below the sea lettuce to move it around and aerate.

Schnizzle · Feb 14, 2019

AlgaeBarn said:
Glad to hear its growing well. Please keep us updated if you notice a lack of dinos/diatoms.

A couple things you can do.

You can reduce the photo period.

A H160 or the new AI Fuge light should do it just fine.

If you want a cheaper option, we can send you our perforated PVC sheets. These cut down the light pretty significantly (we haven't measured PAR), we just ask that you pay shipping.

You can add an airstone below the sea lettuce to move it around and aerate.

I didn't even think about an airstone. Great idea. I'll give that a try and reduce the photo period, it's pretty long right now.

Can you think of a benefit as to when my fuge light is on during a limited cycle? Currently it's on reverse of the tank, 16 hours from 2000 to 1200. Tank runs blues 12 hours from 1000 to 2200 and whites from 1200 to 2000. I'm curious if it would be best to run the fuge lighting from 2000 to 0400 or from 0400 to 1200. How long does nutrient consumption occur after lights off on the Ulva? Does it soak up more at the start of the photo period, the middle or the end? I'm thinking out loud here but now I really have myself wondering about the biology behind this one...

AlgaeBarn · Feb 14, 2019

Schnizzle said:
I didn't even think about an airstone. Great idea. I'll give that a try and reduce the photo period, it's pretty long right now.

Can you think of a benefit as to when my fuge light is on during a limited cycle? Currently it's on reverse of the tank, 16 hours from 2000 to 1200. Tank runs blues 12 hours from 1000 to 2200 and whites from 1200 to 2000. I'm curious if it would be best to run the fuge lighting from 2000 to 0400 or from 0400 to 1200. How long does nutrient consumption occur after lights off on the Ulva? Does it soak up more at the start of the photo period, the middle or the end? I'm thinking out loud here but now I really have myself wondering about the biology behind this one...

I like longer photoperiods (the 16 hours is about max) as it keeps the pH higher. You are already overlapping time periods. I would assume that nutrient consumption still happens as the ulva is still metabolically active during the dark period. You might also be able to use a clamp light for a few hours, then bump it up to the H380 for something like 8-10 hours, and then return to the clamp light?

Greybeard · Feb 14, 2019

Airstones in saltwater tend to cause salt creep.

Reduced duration, some sort of diffuser...

I use a Zetlight E200S, dimmable, 20W, in the 'right' spectrum for macro algae.

They've got a larger version, 55w. I've been thinking about going to it, see if I can get a bit better growth on my mix of Chaetomorpha and C. Mexicana.

Both use a wifi setup utility from your phone.

Schnizzle · Feb 14, 2019

Greybeard said:
Airstones in saltwater tend to cause salt creep.

Reduced duration, some sort of diffuser...

I use a Zetlight E200S, dimmable, 20W, in the 'right' spectrum for macro algae.

They've got a larger version, 55w. I've been thinking about going to it, see if I can get a bit better growth on my mix of Chaetomorpha and C. Mexicana.

Both use a wifi setup utility from your phone.

That’s a good point too about the salt creep. I’ll try it out. If the salt gets unruly I’ll give the E200S a shot with it running 2000 to 0000, the H380 from 0000 to 0800 and back to the Zetlight from 0800 to 1200. I don’t think I can squeeze a clamp light in to the stand.

Schnizzle · Feb 21, 2019

@AlgaeBarn
I’m no expert but I’m assuming the brown patches on my sandbed is diatoms. I have not touched my sandbed and I’m noticing the brown is going away on its own.

For anyone else interested as well, the Ulva is growing very well. I cut back to an 8 hour period on my light, built a cage for and added a power head to the fuge to keep the Ulva moving a little. I can go without touching it several days now before “cooking” a spot.

I’m still fighting off the hair algae. Weekly rock scrubbings along with my Foxface and sailfin blenny are keeping it from taking over. I need to expand my clean up crew as well. Currently I only have about a dozen snails that leave the sandbed, one emerald crab, 2 large and 5 tiny blue leg hermits.

AlgaeBarn · Feb 21, 2019

Schnizzle said:
@AlgaeBarn
I’m no expert but I’m assuming the brown patches on my sandbed is diatoms. I have not touched my sandbed and I’m noticing the brown is going away on its own.

For anyone else interested as well, the Ulva is growing very well. I cut back to an 8 hour period on my light, built a cage for and added a power head to the fuge to keep the Ulva moving a little. I can go without touching it several days now before “cooking” a spot.

I’m still fighting off the hair algae. Weekly rock scrubbings along with my Foxface and sailfin blenny are keeping it from taking over. I need to expand my clean up crew as well. Currently I only have about a dozen snails that leave the sandbed, one emerald crab, 2 large and 5 tiny blue leg hermits.

Do you have any photos of the sandbed? Ulva grows very fast and will be able to outcompete the diatoms for nutrients.

Glad to hear it is growing well :-D. Can you post a photo of your cage? You will want to make sure that you keep up with trimming (your foxface will likely eat it) as the ulva can only get so dense in the fuge. Once it really takes off, your hair algae will dissipate and you may be forced to feed more or dose nitrates (oh the pain...

). You can also trim your ulva back more so there is less biomass consuming nitrates and phosphates.

You may want to try out some of our trochus snails (cough cough going back in stock tonight).

Schnizzle · Feb 21, 2019

AlgaeBarn said:
Do you have any photos of the sandbed? Ulva grows very fast and will be able to outcompete the diatoms for nutrients.

Glad to hear it is growing well :-D. Can you post a photo of your cage? You will want to make sure that you keep up with trimming (your foxface will likely eat it) as the ulva can only get so dense in the fuge. Once it really takes off, your hair algae will dissipate and you may be forced to feed more or dose nitrates (oh the pain... ). You can also trim your ulva back more so there is less biomass consuming nitrates and phosphates.

You may want to try out some of our trochus snails (cough cough going back in stock tonight).

I’ll definitely be looking at the site tomorrow! I have a before pic. I’ll get a “now” pic tomorrow evening when I get home and do some trimming for good measure. The lights are blue now and off in 30 minutes so it wouldn’t be a fair comparison.

Cage/algae baffle. I needed the power head for two reasons. Motion and getting the Ulva off the grid. It was raising my water level in the fuge because it grew so well it covered the entire grid. Haha

Growth = insane

Marine pure blocks were previously covered in hair algae. I scraped the majority off but you can see that the block is nearly clean again. I can assure you it was fuzzy green when I was done. I didn’t want to cut the material off the block scraping too hard.