Sudden Death & Degeneration of Red Ogo

Apollo7235

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Hello All,

I noticed what looks to be the beginnings of green hair algae in my display tank (oh goodie) and, upon further investigation, I found my formerly thriving red ogo completely disintegrated (and possibly strangled by green hair???)

Any idea what the heck can cause this?

I had the red ogo in my sump refugium with my MarinePure cubes with a ChaetoMax light that I run from 10PM to 8AM (if I remember correctly). There is currently nothing but copepods in my system right now as my tank is only a few weeks old and I have been dosing 1/4 ounce of OceanMagik every evening since I added them and the red ogo on 03/23. I cycled my tank using TurboStart 900 beginning on 03/14 and parameters have been relatively stable since. I will test the water in the morning and report back with current parameters.

I pulled all of the dead stuff that I could out of my sump, but it is seriously everywhere. Sprinkled all over my tank and running through everything. I cut the lights completely, but is there anything I can do to get rid of this stuff before it turns into a major ammonia problem if it hasn't already?

Thanks in advance!

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F i s h y

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GHA will grow and out compete the red ogo. Once the GHA starts consuming nutrients it will do so faster than the ogo. Thus starving it. As it decays this in turn can add nutrients that accelerate the GHA.
 
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Apollo7235

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GHA will grow and out compete the red ogo. Once the GHA starts consuming nutrients it will do so faster than the ogo. Thus starving it. As it decays this in turn can add nutrients that accelerate the GHA.
I see, so that's what happened here. I am curious to find out what it was that caused the GHA outbreak to begin with considering I have no fish or corals in the system yet, so I am not feeding anything. I will run some water tests and report back.

Thank you!
 
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Apollo7235

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There is no need for macroalgae for a tank thats only a few weeks old.
I cycled my tank using the Ultimate Refugium Pack from Algae Barn and the reason I decided to use macroalgae was to hopefully outcompete nuisance algae from the get-go. Unfortunately, they were out of chaeto when I placed my order, so I tried the red ogo and these are my results. Ah well. Try and try again.
 

CMMorgan

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I cycled my tank using the Ultimate Refugium Pack from Algae Barn and the reason I decided to use macroalgae was to hopefully outcompete nuisance algae from the get-go. Unfortunately, they were out of chaeto when I placed my order, so I tried the red ogo and these are my results. Ah well. Try and try again.
I don't think you did anything wrong. I'll disagree... nothing wrong with Macros. In this case, you could probably have just put it in your DT and let it get the water flow. The potential problem is that you have nothing feeding your tank but light. The GHA is photosynthesizing but you have nothing to outcompete it. If your parameters are otherwise stable, get a CUC in there. Maybe jump in with inhabitants.
This is part of the ugly stage. Sorry.... it was unavoidable.... but hang in there. If you have basically an empty tank, stop the lights and remove what you can.
 

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I cycled my tank using the Ultimate Refugium Pack from Algae Barn and the reason I decided to use macroalgae was to hopefully outcompete nuisance algae from the get-go. Unfortunately, they were out of chaeto when I placed my order, so I tried the red ogo and these are my results. Ah well. Try and try again.

Its very hard to outcompete micro algae with macros. Not sure where you got that idea from.
 
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Apollo7235

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I don't think you did anything wrong. I'll disagree... nothing wrong with Macros. In this case, you could probably have just put it in your DT and let it get the water flow. The potential problem is that you have nothing feeding your tank but light. The GHA is photosynthesizing but you have nothing to outcompete it. If your parameters are otherwise stable, get a CUC in there. Maybe jump in with inhabitants.
This is part of the ugly stage. Sorry.... it was unavoidable.... but hang in there. If you have basically an empty tank, stop the lights and remove what you can.
Well, that's good to know!

I have a dendro in my coral QT that has a bit of GHA on it currently, so I am toying with the idea of grabbing a few astrea snails for my display and adding one to my QT to try and get rid of the little bit of yuck on the dendro.... What do you think? Then maybe add a few nassarius snails after I move everybody over? Or maybe I can do that now since I target feed daily?
 
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Apollo7235

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Water tests came back clear, the only off thing was the pH being a tad low. No phosphates or ammonia, nitrates around 5.0ppm.

Honestly trying to figure out what caused these shenanigans. Going perform a 25% water change, try to vacuum the substrate a bit and see if I can't get rid of any of the decomposing red ogo that got blasted all over my tank when I was trying to scoop it out of the refugium, and hopefully that corrects the pH and helps with the hair algae.

Any advice or insight is very much appreciated!
 

CMMorgan

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I think you are doing everything right. Throw a CUC into your DT. They will clean up the mess for you. Definitely keep an eye on that PH. Plants can be sensitive.
Hang in there.... you got this!!
hang GIF
 
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