M6S1K3 Posted August 10, 2015 Share Posted August 10, 2015 I have a fuge as most do. And I am running a light to grow the macro algae. My macro algae grows like the weed it is. About every 2-3 weeks I remove half of it and it grows back that fast (roughly a 10g fuge). What I remove is the top half which always seems to be mushy/soggy and not green. It's more of a brown color. Not white like its being bleached or it of the water growth that's died off. My question is this. Is this brown soggy cheato/macro algae normal? If not what would remedy this change. I have experimented with my light thinking it was too powerful and lowered the intensity from roughly 80-90% to about 40% and it happens just as rapid as before with no noticeable difference. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted August 10, 2015 Share Posted August 10, 2015 Toss up a picture if you can Matt. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
M6S1K3 Posted August 10, 2015 Author Share Posted August 10, 2015 Will do as soon as I get home. At work right now and haven't snapped one to post Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
M6S1K3 Posted August 11, 2015 Author Share Posted August 11, 2015 Not the best pictures but I had to turn the fuge light off because it strobes my camera. Hopefully the sogginess and brown color comes through. If you notice it's almost mushed together instead of individual stands of cheato if that makes sense. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted August 11, 2015 Share Posted August 11, 2015 Looks like too much light to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sascha D. Posted August 11, 2015 Share Posted August 11, 2015 Chaetomorpha shouldn't look that color. The top part is probably dying and adding nutrients to the tank. How long are you running your lights? What kind of light or bulb is it? I found the best results with 12 hour photoperiods using a 5k twist CFL bulb. Macroalgae will grow in 3k and 6500k as well, but I think the 5k works the best. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
M6S1K3 Posted August 11, 2015 Author Share Posted August 11, 2015 When you say adding nutrients to the tank you mean...? Good nutrients or bad? And it's a Chinese pos but it has both 3k and 6500k so I blend the two with intensity. And it's running 12 hrs and primarily opposite my MT light Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted August 11, 2015 Share Posted August 11, 2015 Bad. Its releasing bound nutrients back into your water. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
M6S1K3 Posted August 11, 2015 Author Share Posted August 11, 2015 Good to know. I'll cut the intensity in half again and remove the top brown half. Thanks guys! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sascha D. Posted August 11, 2015 Share Posted August 11, 2015 It sounds like you have one bulb too many. Try cutting one out and see if the coloration improves. I run mine on a 12 hour period opposite of my display and I've never had a problem with one bulb. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
M6S1K3 Posted August 12, 2015 Author Share Posted August 12, 2015 So I cut the light in half and removed one of the lights completely and removed all the bad macro algae (almost 4lbs of cheato!!) and I was interested to see my apex graphs afterward so maybe someone else will be too. ORP and pH mainly. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sascha D. Posted August 17, 2015 Share Posted August 17, 2015 Hmm interesting graph. Why do you think that is? I would venture to say that most people don't know what ORP is and most of those that know what it is don't test for it. The drop in ORP could be due to the reduction of macroalgae that was converting CO2 into O2. That would make sense because the decrease in pH would be because of an increase in CO2. Definitely cool stuff! Did the nitrate go down? Did you water become more clear? How do the corals look? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
M6S1K3 Posted August 17, 2015 Author Share Posted August 17, 2015 Thanks for following up. I thought it was interesting. And water didn't clear up as much as I would have hoped but I also had a terrible mishap. I bought the afs Neptune feeder and it dumped a whole container of pellets into my tank. I tried to turkey baister each individual one out but now I have a nitrate spike and such. So mad. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sascha D. Posted August 17, 2015 Share Posted August 17, 2015 Oh no! I think we've all had that happen at least once. I'm sorry to hear about that, but at least you know what to do to correct it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
M6S1K3 Posted August 17, 2015 Author Share Posted August 17, 2015 I'm definitely not an expert reefer yet but I'm learning fast. I'm only at 8 months in this hobby/lifestyle haha. I have been having trouble with phosphate tho. I am changing gfo weekly (way faster than its actually getting used up) just to ensure 100% effectiveness and I've limited feeding (before this mishap) but phosphates are still up a little higher than I'd like Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sascha D. Posted August 17, 2015 Share Posted August 17, 2015 Dying macro will increase phosphates. How much are you feeding and what methods are you using to export other than GFO? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
M6S1K3 Posted August 17, 2015 Author Share Posted August 17, 2015 I haven't done water changes. I don't do them often since I'm dosing. But gfo mainly and sponge swap outs. And I feed 3 days a week twice a day and then the other 4 days once a day Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sascha D. Posted August 17, 2015 Share Posted August 17, 2015 Why do you think you're having trouble with phosphate? You've said that you have a refugium, GFO and you probably have a skimmer in there. That combination should remove most of the PO4 from the water. Are you seeing cyano or elevated microalgae growth? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JasReef Posted August 22, 2015 Share Posted August 22, 2015 How is your macro looking after a couple of days? I suspect you may just have to trim it more often. It has exhausted the ability to keep processing nutrients in the small environment and is starting to give it back. I have seen this in planted tanks over the years, it is part of the reason I decided to stop and switch over to saltwater, trimming gets old after awhile. I have a small planted still and I just gave the java fern a long overdue haircut. I could see in the tank that more of the nuisance algea was growing and the other plants were sagging. Three days after the trim and the tank turns the corner back to looking like it is actually scaped and not just weeds in a water bucket. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jestep Posted August 22, 2015 Share Posted August 22, 2015 I think your lighting is fine, you just need to trim more often to keep it below the waterline. Mine starts looking like that if I let it grow enough so that it's out of the water. Otherwise it stays normal dark green while submerged. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
M6S1K3 Posted August 22, 2015 Author Share Posted August 22, 2015 Mine starts turning brown though. It doesn't break the waterline. And it still is skittle and I've reduced my light from 60-80% down to one color white at 15%. I've been trimming. Not sure what's happening. The bottom of the fife is vibrant green and looks healthy. The top 1/3rd looks brown ish. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sascha D. Posted August 24, 2015 Share Posted August 24, 2015 Chaetomorpha is a high metabolizing macro that will process nutrients at full capacity as long as it can. If it runs out of food and the plants start to starve then some of the strands will die in order to feed the others. I don't think that's the case with you because you would see die off at all levels of the refugium. From what you've said the die off is just at the top. Healthy Chaetomorpha will always be a vibrant green. Some strands of the species are better than others, but none should be brown. If it were me, then I would take out all of the brown and throw it away. Then I would take out all of the green until I got down to a baseball size portion and take it to the fish store for credit. From there you can see how long it takes for the macro to turn brown again under the new light intensity. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
M6S1K3 Posted August 24, 2015 Author Share Posted August 24, 2015 I'll try that! Thank you! I did remove all the brown but I still had 50% ish left. It was all healthy Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
M6S1K3 Posted January 9, 2016 Author Share Posted January 9, 2016 To update whoever is interested. I did what some said to syphon out as much as possible and it still kept coming back. Not sure if I've killed it all but my solution was more frequent water changes (didn't seem to help) so I kept my fuge light off for a few days and it seemed to help. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Isaac Posted January 9, 2016 Share Posted January 9, 2016 looks like its cooking off. imho, its best to trim off half top to bottom, then flip/rotate it a bit, allowing newer growth to stabilize away from the strong light. by doing this, after a few rotations, the new is covering the outside, with the old in the middle. chaeto that looks "bleached" and not burnt/mushy like yours is about to spawn. yank that out quick. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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