Detrivores

[DHyslop]

Are we sure this is coralline algae? - I've never had any form on the sand, although it will cover almost anything else: rocks, shells, snail shells, glass, etc.

Nancy

I'm starting to wonder this, too. The stuff that's on the sand cements the grains together, which is presumably consistent with what a coralline algae would do. In a few spots where its particularly thick--especially on one of my pieces of live rock--it has pink wavy filaments coming off like you usually see with green algae. Its hard for me to imagine something calcareous waving with the current.

My test kit is a brand new FasTest kit from Aquarium Systems. The chemicals come in individual foil pouches. I still have my old Tetra kit that just expired. I'm using both for redundancy.

My light is on for 12 hours. I'm sure that's a culprit, and tonight I will cut the timer down to 8. I don't expect that will be an end-all? I was going to make a run to the LFS tonight. I'm planning on getting a brittle star and an army of crabs and snails. Its a little easier for me to spend for them now since I know it'll be at least another month before they become meals

Dan

 

[chrono_war01]

Let's hope that what you bought helps

 

[DHyslop]

Lets hope so. Right now its only one one piece of live rock, so I like to consider this "early stage" prevention.

Dan

 

[Jean]

In my experience coralline can grow ANYWHERE!!! Especially if the sand is static. Dan you may want to think about adding some burrowers (burrowing worms etc) to keep your sand churned up. I would imagine a sea cuc would help there too. (We have worms, burrowing brittlestars, and sea cuc's in any tank that has sand)

Can you post a pic of the stuff???

Cheers

Jean

 

[DHyslop]

I know I've got a few burrowers in there, tiny brittlestars and live rock hitch-hikers, but not an amount proportionate to the size of the tank. I've also been focused on moving burrowers that I see into my refugium's DSB. I'll see what I can get at the pet store tonight.

One of my housemates has a digital camera, so hopefully I can have some pics up tomorrow.

Dan

 

[Jean]

BTW Coralline can have an erect phase, although it doesn't move with the current, tis a lot more "tufty" maybe there's more than one alga in there .......or I could be completely off base!

J

 

[DHyslop]

Algae update

OK, I finally got a picture of the stuff in my tank. I apologize if its slightly blurry.

You can see that it tends to grow up as well as out, in the form of filaments. I've heard of people getting algae in areas where the water isn't moving, however from the motion of the filaments I know there's plenty of current here.

Here's what I've done so far to inhibit growth:

a. reduced light from 12 hours a day to 8 hours a day.
b. purchased some sifters and burrowers: a serpent star and 10 large nassarius snails
c. occasionally I'll stick my hand in and mix-up the sand (the red stuff comes through again overnight)

My levels are all still good. I read on some reef bulletin board that levels can look good because the algae is using up what would otherwise show up as excess ammonia and nitrite.

My next course of action is to get a nice big clump of caulerpa and plant it right where this stuff is growing--hopefully it will outcompete it for those nutrients?

Dan

 

[Octomush]

This looks like a job for... SEA HARES!!! Seriously...

 

[DHyslop]

I know they eat algae, but it seems to me that would be a band-aid solution: This must be caused by some sort of imbalance in my tank, and just removing the algae wouldn't solve that. Also, if I removed the sea hare when the octo came (or let it be eaten god forbid!) the algae would come right back.

Dan

 

[Octomush]

All very good points except for your last one.... I had a sea hare and an octo togther, and the only time I ever saw them interact was when the Hare crawled into the octos den and was sent flying back when the oto blew water out of its funnnel! LOL!

 

[DHyslop]

Yeah, but I wouldn't want to take the chance

Dan

 

[Jean]

Hi Dan, you've got some coralline there, but also some sort of filamentous red algae (we call it sea hair, kind of a generic name for all the red filamentous stuff we can't ID ) You sound like you're taking all the right steps. The other thing you can do is to manually pluck the worst of the hairs off. The problems are

a) very tedious!
b) algal life cycle. Algae have a multi stage life cycle and one stage is microscopic. Which is why invading seaweeds are a real prob for an ecosystem (or a tank )
c) vegetative reproduction, the blasted stuff can regrow from a broken bit so if you pluck you must be sure to get rid of all the "bits"

Good luck....keep us posted

J

 

[Jean]

wow, scrubing the tank..still sounds like an awful lot to do.
P.S: I've got this green alage/bacteria/seaweed thing on my tank! I hve no idea what it is and it just keeps coming back! #*$&$^&#*$!!!!!

Sorry CW not ignoring you!

Hmmm check your nutrient levels in your tank (nitrate/nitrite etc) and your light levels (even what's coming in through the window could be a problem) Course algals spores wil be present in rocks etc so scurbbing the glass isoften the only way... sorry. If you keep on top of it though it shouldn't be too huge a job (I used to do my cichlid tank once a week)


cheers

J

 

[DHyslop]

Thanks Jean,

I'll physically remove as much of the stuff as I can and plop a nice big caulerpa in the middle to see if it will conquer it. I might even reduce my light cycle to 6 hours a day. Oddly enough I haven't gotten any of it in my refugium, which is now lit 16 hours.

Right now I've got about 60 lbs of live rock. That's probably a little low for a 75 gallon tank, but I've been building up slowly. If I went ahead and picked up another 15 or 20 lbs would that be at all helpful as a nutrient sink?

Dan

 

[chrono_war01]

Hm....hope you plan works. Stalingrad of the saltwater tank, eh? Battle to the very last plant cell.