Ska's 28 Macro Algae Display

whatcaneyedo · #1 01-23-2012, 06:25 AM

Hate to rub it in but...

Quote:

Originally Posted by whatcaneyedo

Gracillaria is pretty non invasive and is a great source of red color. Thats the only one I would dare put into a display tank. Halimedia, chaeto, caulerpa, etc all have a way of taking over and are better suited to a refugium section of a sump.

Twice I've accidentally ended up with caulerpa in my display and it took a long time to get it out. Removing a few pieces of rock at a time and leaving them in a dark tub of water for a while worked alright. Some manual removal with tweezers was also necessary. There is no guarantee that a Tang will eat it either. They're hit and miss like most fish.

EDIT: J&L and Progressive Reef both have several varieties of photosynthetic gorgonians for sale right now.

skabooya · #2 01-24-2012, 01:57 AM

:P Yea I know. But I wanted and still would like a macro algae tank. Unfortunately it is much more management than I believed. You MUST trim weekly, no ifs and's or but's. Its gotta be religious trimming.

I can handle dosing and topping off no problem but weekly trimming took some time. I was in my tank for 30-45 min at least once a week trimming. Thats not including top offs and measuring the proper dosing amounts.

The grape weed just grows too fast. Everything else (except for pest algae) is pretty manageable. It grows slow enough or is strong enough where I could grab a chunk and rip it off the rock without much difficulty.

MKLKT · #3 01-24-2012, 02:32 AM

Foxface can also do massive clean-up of macro algae, any time I've had a frag or coral colony come in to my tank with any sort of macro hitchhiker it's gone within a day.

skabooya · #4 01-24-2012, 03:23 AM

Yup Ive been thinking about them but im worried about their poison as well as their ability to munch on lps and softies. I have some corals and I would like to keep what I have.

skabooya · #5 02-16-2012, 05:13 PM

The more I look at the tank, the more I just want to tear it down and start over. I have algae growing on everything and its not the pretty stuff either.
My husband does not want me to tear it down at all and just leave it as is because I did like it.
DID is the term to take note of. It depresses me now.

Im gonna see if the lfs will trade my rock for some of their rock and Im thinking of maybe getting all new sand as well to make sure there is no green grape in there at all. I just dont know.

The rocks I am almost positive on. I think it will be cheaper to trade it if I could.
Im also going to pick up another big jug of vinegar and soak my powerheads in it for a few hours to get rid of macro and such. Same thing with my skimmer.

So sad.

skabooya · #6 02-18-2012, 04:27 PM

Well, my stubborn side took over (that would be my dads genes). I am ordering 5 trocheus black foot snails, 1 emerald crab, 6 mexican red leg hermits and 2 more blue leg hermits. (to make 4 hermits) I will continue with manual removal, large water changes, no dosing any ferts, and only feeding two or three times a week and only a small amount. We shall see how this goes

On a side note I am also setting up a Hawaiian volcano shrimp species tank aka opae ula. Should I set up a separate thread/nano journal for this or just keep it here? hmmm ponder ponder ponder.

skabooya · #7 02-25-2012, 05:25 AM

BOOYA! CUC is ordered plus some photosynthetic gorgs

YAY! Major WC is in the future for my tank tomorrow as well as a MAJOR pruning. Gotta get things presentable.

Then I think I will start dosing again to get the macro growing and hopefully it will starve out the nuisance algae.
Gonna start off really slow.