Ska's 28 Macro Algae Display

[skabooya]

My bulbs are almost a year old so im thinking that is more than likely the problem because ive never had this problem before. Ive read a bunch of threads about cyano and mine seems to be the low nutrient loving cyano that looks like hair algae but very whispy and pink/brown. Its very easy to remove manually. Coral snow isint doing a thing to it. Im going to try dosing it at night when the lights are out.
Im putting the lights back a few hours too.
Im going to order new bulbs soon as well.
At least my corals are looking FAB now. Im in love with them.
I was reading somewhere that it helps if your rock is 60% covered with coral. hmmmm well im putting in 1 coral order soon with Carrera75

I dont want to add anymore chemicals to my tank after my last experience with it. My tank went green for months. Its only clear now because of UVS i got from thegrizz.
Adding anything will be an absolute last resort.

[skabooya]

*sigh* Life sucks sometimes.
First my dad passes away suddenly from lung cancer July 6, 2009. 7 months later my grandpa (Vavo) that helped raise me passes away from diabetes (kidney failure). My uncle passed away this valentines day from a sudden heart attack and brain anurism (the doctors know both happened at about the same time) and now my grandma (Vavo) whom i was very close too and also helped raise me is in the hospital dying. Her heart is very weak and they are expecting heart failure.

I feel horrible for my mom. Her husband dies, then her father and now her mother is going to go all within the span of 3 years. I cant take this anymore. So many emotions and family politics.
My familys history is all leaving us faster than we would have liked. There is still so much more i want to learn from my Vavo. She was supposted to teach me how to make octopus stew on the weekend Im the one carrying on the portuguese way. Its just my mom and me doing it. No one else in the family is or wants to carry it on.

Im so lost.

[skabooya]

Tank update. I did take a pic of my nice clean and clear tank but i havent uploaded any pics from my camera since valentines day. The family has been in a bit of turmoil.

I decided to pull up some of my grape calpura from the sandbed and a big plume of green mushroomed into the water column. greeeaaat.
So guess what. Green water once again. I pluged in the UVS and after a few days i saw the water slowly get worse... hmmm
I checked the light and found the uv light wasent working. I had to tinker with it a bit and i found that its very tempermental. I moved the uvs to the back of my tank so its not im my direct view. Its working now but its going to be at least a week before my tank clears up again.
This time im seariously considering leaving it on and i will just replace the bulb every year.
Now however i need to put in a background to hide that ugly piece of equiptment. I really liked my grey wall neutral background. Now i dont know what to put there. It needs to be paper thin. I know i dont want blue. Black is okay and is usually my default but i wanted a clean look.
White may be too white. Maybe mirror paper?

Any suggestions?

Im still looking to add more macro algae this time i dont care what kinds, calcium suckers or not im dosing calcium weekly and params are stable.
Ive started dosing KNO3 again to get my macros up to their former glory. I wish i could try red gracillera again (long stringy and bush like... kind of purple) I loved it. The sargassum was awsome too but i dont think i had enough light for brown algaes.

I am also looking for mushrooms of various colours and patterns. I had a really nice green mushroom with orange spots and a nice orange rhodactus that didnt make it through the green water outbreak. My other mushrooms are doing very well.
Does anyone know where i can get the following colours (red coral online has some of them but i cant afford that big stunningly beautiful rock or the shippping for it)
green marbled
green striped
green with orange spots
red with white stripes
red with blue dots
blue dot


I also really want to try cloves again. The blue cloves i always ordered never came to me alive.. well one did but it was on its way out.
I am also looking for different varieties of xenia to attach to my back wall.


I wish my corals would grow faster. My lps are growing very well but my mushrooms are very very very slow. Only one has split.

[Madreefer]

So when are you coming to PG? I have been holding on to that frogspawn for you.I also have some shrooms if you'd like them. My clove polyps are slowly going away from from main tank but I have a very large rock that i took out and put in my refuge. It still has alot on it. LMK

[hillegom]

I would think twice about xenia. I had it for a while, but found it too prolific.
I like blue or black for a back wall.

[skabooya]

Well, my bulbs finally came in and i just installed them. WOW what a difference. You never truly appreciate the change in spectrum until you re install new bulbs after a year.
I thought my lights were still putting out an okay spectrum... minus the cyano that has been slowly spreading through my tank. But now with my new bulbs. Holy Blue Batman! My old bulbs went white/pink on me by comparison.

Im hoping now that this will help with the cyano bacteria fight.

[skabooya]

tank is getting more stable now. I turned the uvs off again. Its been off for almost 2 weeks and everything is going well. I pulled a bunch of green grape and now i have a bunch of white buds (new growth) My dragons breath is suffering but im hoping that it will come back.
Im thinking of getting another light fixture. Either a single or a double fixture to put some 6500k bulbs for my macroalgae. Im looking into an LED fixture too for the plants. I wonder what will work.

[MKLKT]

I remember when I switched from the old Coralife bulbs that the previous owner of my light hood had to KZ coral 1, 2, fiji purple and blue+ and I could barely look at the tank it was so intense, haha.

[Edit] Oh, and I have Botryocladia macro if you're still looking for it, but not sure how to effectively frag it if you were interested in some. Mine is almost big enough to split up.

Originally Posted by skabooya

Well, my bulbs finally came in and i just installed them. WOW what a difference. You never truly appreciate the change in spectrum until you re install new bulbs after a year.
I thought my lights were still putting out an okay spectrum... minus the cyano that has been slowly spreading through my tank. But now with my new bulbs. Holy Blue Batman! My old bulbs went white/pink on me by comparison.

Im hoping now that this will help with the cyano bacteria fight.