What am I doing wrong?

[WVNed]

I have been trying to grow several types of macro algae and the same things seems to occure.
It grows well and then dissolves.
I had this growing

I started it in another tank and it did well

Then it was gone. All of it.
I started this.

and this

Now they are disappearing after growing well.

This is going good now. I have had it a year.

It all seems to go through a fast growth phase and then just declines and diappears.

The bladed stuff was just a few leaves stuck to an urchin I got. I pushed it into the sand and it grew and spread. Now it is doing it too.
I had a growth of bryopsis. It is doing the same thing.

What am I doing wrong?

 

[BloopFish]

Whats your water change and dosing schedule? Macro tend to do that when it runs out of certain micronutrients.

 

[Auquanut]

Are you supplementing iron? Sounds like they are using up some essential elements.

 

[WVNed]

This is part of a 400 gallon system. I have been changing 80 gallons a month. I am going to try not doing them and am dosing alk, mg, ca plus Tropic Marin Trace 1 and 2.

Those picture are spread over the last several months. The growth/decline happened sequentially, not all at once.

 

[WVNed]

No I am not adding iron. It is listed to be in the TM Trace 2

 

[sixty_reefer]

What is macro algae is growing better at the moment?

 

[WVNed]

This system is 3 tanks
240 with mostly fish, a 75 I want to grow macro in and a 30 in the fish room.

 

[Auquanut]

Awesome tanks!

 

[WVNed]

Thank you
I got this from Gulf Coast last year.
It's what is growing good at this moment. This all grew out from a grubby grey twig.

 

[WVNed]

My next water change was due today.
My parameters are all stabilized on the doser and I am adding 20 ml of TM trace 1 and 2 daily and am about to put up a slave doser to add it.
When the first kind of algae became prolific and then dissolved it raised my nitrates and phosphates way up. I am still fighting that.

 

[Auto-pilot]

No I am not adding iron. It is listed to be in the TM Trace 2

Even though it's in the trace elements you dose I don't think its enough. I have to dose iron to get my alge to grow

 

[WVNed]

I will try that.

 

[Auto-pilot]

Once it runs out in my tank my alge stops growing

 

[WVNed]

I chucked 2 iron tablets into the sump.
that's 90 mg of iron (according to the label) into 400 gallons.

I will see what that does.

 

[WVNed]

I probably should have crushed them . I will do that next time.

 

[Auquanut]

I chucked 2 iron tablets into the sump.
that's 90 mg of iron (according to the label) into 400 gallons.

I will see what that does.

I guess it's a little late now, but hopefully encouraging the growth of macro algae in one tank won't encourage the growth of other algae in the connected tanks.

 

[Auto-pilot]

You might see an explosion of unwanted alge...

 

[WVNed]

That was the question I had when I started this. How do you grow the kind you want and not the others.
It hasn't happened so far. I have a little bryopsis. A little is fine with me.

 

[WVNed]

You might see an explosion of unwanted alge...

Explosions are always fun.

There is always Vibrant. I have it here already.

 

[Bryce M.]

I'm following, all my macros die off too