Poll: Preferred Macro Algae

[Gareth elliott]

Currently using chaeto. Had better luck with gracilaria when i had that(killed by mistake). I might try ulva with the chaeto next since can also feed with that as well.

 

[Cubano32]

Like I said I grow so much hair alage in my fuge I been thinking of going with a algae reactor ..and even with hair alage in my.fuge I still get some hair alage in my DT

 

[RussiReef]

I run chaeto,caulerpa and ulwa.

 

[rstrann]

I previously used only red grape, it grew like crazy but seemed like it needed more height in the sump than I could afford, and out of the blue this hairy red algae came through and choked it out. Switched to halimeda and the stuff took off...too much so. It drained my sps tank of calcium so i had to increase my dosing schedule. Then the problem came... Dead Halimeda leaves decaying. It seemed to be the culprit of my pH spikes. I was hitting 8.7 for weeks before I got all of of that "leaf litter" out of there. My calcium levels were over 500 during that time as well. Switched to dragons breath and couldn't be happier.

 

[don_chuwish]

I've been growing 3 different types from @AlgaeBarn - Pom Pom Gracilaria, Red Ogo Gracilaria, and Green Ogo Gracilaria. So far so good in my small sump section. Best part is, I can pull some out and attach it to a nori clip for the hippo tang and scribbled rabbitfish to graze on. They LOVE it. Fascinating to watch them munch it down to nothing in no time.

 

[jdogclif]

+1 for the dragon's breath and chaeto. My dragon's breath grows way faster than the chaeto. I just let it tumble in the fuge. I started with a 3 inch piece about 3 months ago and I've pruned about a soccerball size three times now.

 

[sghera64]

Oooooo, Ya'll are going to looooove this.......

That's my little tank of horrors. That's all hair algae and bryopsis. My chaeto never took off, but these guys (who plagued my tank early on) have thrived here and remained out of the DT. Very low maintenance and I can throw out handfuls weekly.

So, "clearly", you clicked the "other" category in the survey

 

[lake985]

Anyone else using ulva? I’ve had a difficult time getting chaeto to grow and recently made the switch to ulva and it’s really taken off. I pull a handful out every couple of days.

 

[carbene]

my chaeto wouldnt grow because nitrate always zero but caulerpa does though.

 

[sghera64]

Anyone else using ulva? I’ve had a difficult time getting chaeto to grow and recently made the switch to ulva and it’s really taken off. I pull a handful out every couple of days.

Yes. I started with ulva which had a couple of small pieces of chaeto in it. I simply threw the ulva in my sump and put a horticulture lamp on it. It took off dramatically. I then moved the ulva (and slow growing chaeto) to it's own 18 gallon tote. I wanted it to have room to grow and to tumble. It started to grow out, but then crashed. I think my nutrients got too low and it starve. I tried adding NO3 and PO4. It started to green up again, but then just started to wilt and turn to mush. HOWEVER - - the chaeto took off and never looked back. I forgot about it for a couple of weeks until 2 days ago. When I opened up the chaeto fuge, I found it had filled the tub and started to rise out of the water (turning white above the water).

I know algae farms sell combo packs: different types of algae for different circumstances in order to provide stability. Some grow fast, some survive famine, etc. My guess is that the chemistry in my system and maybe the water movement in my 18 gallon algae refugium is simply providing one algae (chaeto) a better condition than another.

I do have to say that chaeto tends to clog my over flow less than the ulva. Ulva sheds these small bits or the leaves simply mat over the drain screen. No problems with chaeto.

 

[jefra]

Where is the pic from the Facebook post from? Wanted a closer look.

 

[jefra]

Where is the pic from the Facebook post from? Wanted a closer look.

 

[GingerMurse]

Right now with carbon and gfo, low... 2ppm nitrate and trace phosphate. It was around 10ppm and 0.08 without, and I had algae and cyano in the display soaking up some extra nutrients. The carbon and GFO is working, but I'm out of carbon and about out of GFO. I'd rather use chaeto so I dont have to keep buying media. I feed LRS reef frenzy, pretty heavily for my stock list.

I'm thinking its my sump that's causing the issue with chaeto. It's got a split flow path design where some water goes thru the fuge and some water goes thru the filter sock into the skimmer chamber. I'd wager that 90% of my water goes thru the filter sock as I only see a trickle of flow coming out of the fuge.


This is my sump.
https://www.marinedepot.com/Eshopps...m_Sump_Units-Eshopps-QH15704-FIFRBSCU-vi.html

You cannot grow cheato with GFO!! The GFO will kill it off in a matter of days. I don’t have the science handy to explain this, but guys like BRS and FisofHex has found this out the hard way. Remove your GFO and it will go nuts

 

[SashimiTurtle]

You cannot grow cheato with GFO!! The GFO will kill it off in a matter of days. I don’t have the science handy to explain this, but guys like BRS and FisofHex has found this out the hard way. Remove your GFO and it will go nuts

Hey @GingerMurse, That old tank had serious problems stemming from high metal contamination from black sand. Not much would live in there.

I have a new SCA 90 cube tank that is doing very well. I also have some chaeto in QT right now that is doing very well. No more GFO to control nutrients. Chaeto chaeto chaeto.

 

[GingerMurse]

So after my post I dug and found that GFO is aggressively removing PO4 and other metals that cheato actually needs to grow. Here is a good arrival on the use of GFO. As a scientist and a reef keeper who runs a refugium I personally do not see the point in Running GFO. The Algae will be way better at pulling out the pO4 and the nitrate then anything else. Especially if the refugium is of proper size and has proper flow through it.
http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-11/rhf/index.php

 

[SashimiTurtle]

So after my post I dug and found that GFO is aggressively removing PO4 and other metals that cheato actually needs to grow. Here is a good arrival on the use of GFO. As a scientist and a reef keeper who runs a refugium I personally do not see the point in Running GFO. The Algae will be way better at pulling out the pO4 and the nitrate then anything else. Especially if the refugium is of proper size and has proper flow through it.
http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-11/rhf/index.php

On my new set up I do not have GFO. I am well aware at how aggressive it pulls PO4. I may add a small carbon reactor if I see a problem with yellow tint in the water, but my plan is to use chaeto that I can harvest and either give away or just throw away instead of buying other products to control nutrients.