Caulpera has lost color! warning sign?

[sharps]

My caulpera has almost lost all its green color, i have been messing with the photocycle because im trying to get rid red slime. Should i remove the discolored caulpera before it releases its nutrients? is this a sign that it is dying? TIA

 

[Curtswearing]

It has gone asexual.....pull it quickly.

 

[sharps]

yikes, thanks for the heads up

 

[gary shandling]

What do you use for a light?
Wheres the red slime , in the main tank or the fuge?
Do you have any water readings?

 

[sharps]

red slime algea has been in both, but more so in the fuge now. Fuge lighting I have a 13w (60w equivalent) energy efficient bulb in a construction light reflector. Definately bright!

No test for phosphates, ph 8.2, ammonia <0.25, nitrate 5-10 ppm, nitrite 0

I had tried 24 hr fuge cycle with the caulpera for several days, than opposite day cycles with the tank, and finally yesterday turned off tank lights and fuge lights for 24hrs. In the morning i noticed the caulpera lost most of its green color. The slime is suppsiding a little, i have been using a powerhead on part of the substrate and syphoning sections of the fuge. I only have about 4-5 snails, 1 hermit crab, and 1 decorator crab and its a 40gallon tank. Thanks for your attention and recommendations.

 

[gary shandling]

The switching around could effect it some.I leave my fuge light on 24/7 with great growth.

My guess would be the ammonia and nitrate levels. You need to get the ammonia down. Do you have a skimmer? Do you perfrom water changes and the amount and scedule?
How many fish?
Whats the water source?
Any powerheads and there rating?

 

[atlantisaquatic]

As far as I know, the caulerpa sporing out is largely due to giving the macro a dark cycle... I run mine 24/7 and it hasn't gone sexual in several years... versus fairly often prior. I don't know of any magic light/dark cycle that would prevent the caulerpa from sporing out... but that's one of the perks of using chaeto.
As far as I know, the only drawbacks to the caulerpa doing that (other than having no more macro) is the likelyhood of it sprouting out every nook and cranny (hope you have herbivores), a possilbe "nutrient" spike and having to yard-out the dead snot-like macro. Filter feeders love that kind of event, though...

 

[sharps]

i dosed a cap full of amquel plus to lower nitrates and ammonia, im going to restock my fuge with chaeto when i can get my hands on some.

I have several powerheads, a koralis nano, and a penguin 115 with wavemaker wheel. I run a seaclone 100 skimmer, and i use filtered water from the aquafina fill stations (it is reveresed osmosis and uv light filtered, not sure about de-ionized though). I only have three fish, a maroon, damsel, mandarianfish. Need to stock more, its a 40gal. Heres a pic.

 

[atlantisaquatic]

Rock on man! You're off to a good start... in my experience, constantly running powerfilters with that much liverock can be conterproductive in regards to your nitrate level (I feel a controversy coming on). What happens is your powerfilters out compete with the bacteria in your rock for ammonia and instead of the anaerobic bacteria in your rock breaking the nitrogenous waste down into free nitrogen, it is converted into nitrate. That being said, excess food and particles get trapped in the powerfilters and there converted to more nitrate... versus a healthy sand bed and rock doing most of that in the afore mentioned manner as the liverock.
Experimentation here will lead you to the best answer for your particular system and methods... but its worth making note of.

If you find yourself in need of any chaeto, please let me know and I'll shoot some off to you if you pay the shipping.
BTW, isn't it kinda "difficult" to get caulerpa in CA?!

-Bill

 

[sharps]

Interesting theory with the powerheads, i agree the rocks and sand should be doing more denitrification at this point. Bill, i will definately take you up on that offer and send you a pm.

 

[gary shandling]

High ammonia levels will kill all life starting with the older and weaker ones. So you could lose alot more then you think. The more flow you have the less nitrate and phosphate problems you will see and healthier coral and fish with less unwanted algea growth and a better population of bacteria and increased bio filtration from LR and LS and less algea on glass and better PH control and ALK. control and , and , and.

Of course to much flow can be bad but this hardly ever happens.

But with so much importance on flow amount , flow is only as effective as its placement and your LR placement.

 

[atlantisaquatic]

Just to make sure there was no confusion... I said powerFILTERS, not powerHEADS...

 

[gary shandling]

Powerfilters wont do it. Your best bio filter are your LR and LS but with low flow then they only collect unwanted elements.