Reef Discussion
Where are you located? Maybe a Reefuge member could visit and help get you on track or perhaps we could steer you towards a reputable local fish shop.
If you can get it, the best result you will get is with Caulerpa taxifolia but it is illegal and for good reason, as it escapes into the environment very easily. I experimented with it then baked it at 250c for 2 hours in my oven to be sure it was dead, before disposing of it. It is however a nitrate eating monster.
Failing that it seems to depend a bit on sump setup. Chaeto is good if you run it under intense light, ie Kessil, Coral Flare, etc. For most applications I had best success with Dead Mans Fingers (codium fragile) and it is what I use in most cases. I currently have it growing (experimentally) under only 6 watts of white LED's. It can escape into your tank if the grill on your return pump is big enough, but it is rare and easily netted out. It also generally won't go asexual.
I am about to dump all the stuff in my sump. It's all small colonies that I was going to attach to holdfasts but I'm now tearing my tank down for modification and will be binning it tomorrow. There's probably a good couple of handfuls. If you want to try it, PM me a mailing address and I'll send it Monday as I have to go to the PO anyway.
NB. Sorry everyone else, I'm not looking to widely distribute this as it would much up another guy's business.
Failing that it seems to depend a bit on sump setup. Chaeto is good if you run it under intense light, ie Kessil, Coral Flare, etc. For most applications I had best success with Dead Mans Fingers (codium fragile) and it is what I use in most cases. I currently have it growing (experimentally) under only 6 watts of white LED's. It can escape into your tank if the grill on your return pump is big enough, but it is rare and easily netted out. It also generally won't go asexual.
I am about to dump all the stuff in my sump. It's all small colonies that I was going to attach to holdfasts but I'm now tearing my tank down for modification and will be binning it tomorrow. There's probably a good couple of handfuls. If you want to try it, PM me a mailing address and I'll send it Monday as I have to go to the PO anyway.
NB. Sorry everyone else, I'm not looking to widely distribute this as it would much up another guy's business.
Hi @Susan Bates , this is my sump
This is my filter bag in position and currently overflowing!!!!! Time to change it.
Not much room in there. Just dump it in with or instead of the other macro.
Is that chaeto in there? If so, it really needs room to tumble otherwise dead spots develop and create nitrates. One of the reasons I no longer use it much. Although it works fine when tumbled and really well if tumbling under intense light. My whole coral flare globe & gooseneck corroded then shorted out so I'm into macro with lower needs atm.
Also what are the balls under the macro, marine-pure or similar? It's hard to tell from the pic but they 'appear' to have trapped a lot of detritus. I personally would reduce the quantity but slowly, bit by bit and give them a good rinse off in the salt water you remove during your next water change..
Lastly, I freely admit that up until now I have done the same, however you really need to change out filter socks before they overflow. Otherwise the sock itself become a nutrient sink and once overflowing, starts spewing particulates back into the water column. They are a great way of exporting nutrients in the form of particulates, but only if you change them religiously.
BTW I didn't get to the PO this week. My two little ones were sick but I should get there in the next few days. Don't worry about postage. Pay it forward some time. :)
To quote my oldest son, "I'm a silly old bugger sometimes".
Okay, your sump is actually better suited to chaeto than Ezza's if you ever want to run it - under good light. There is ample flow into the middle chamber for it to tumble. You'll still need to remove some of the marine pure though to make room for macro, you might have room to just transfer some of them to another chamber.
The dead man's fingers can tumble and over time it will attach to some of your marine pure balls. That's a good thing as at that point it will not only grow, but potentially reproduce as well. At least I believe that is what happened in my macro tank. It doesn't create deep roots and is easily plucked off any holdfast if you want to.
Like any algae the better the light, the better your growth, but Codium fragile does just fine under a lamp in to 6000 kelvin range (cool daylight/ daylight) and needs as little as 250 lumens so any old globe will do. It also tolerates long periods of extremely low light.
I'm running two trials with it at the moment that appear to be proving it's agility in surviving.
I will repeat theses trials & measure nitrate take up later this year when I have access to lab grade nitrate testing equipment.
Okay, your sump is actually better suited to chaeto than Ezza's if you ever want to run it - under good light. There is ample flow into the middle chamber for it to tumble. You'll still need to remove some of the marine pure though to make room for macro, you might have room to just transfer some of them to another chamber.
The dead man's fingers can tumble and over time it will attach to some of your marine pure balls. That's a good thing as at that point it will not only grow, but potentially reproduce as well. At least I believe that is what happened in my macro tank. It doesn't create deep roots and is easily plucked off any holdfast if you want to.
Like any algae the better the light, the better your growth, but Codium fragile does just fine under a lamp in to 6000 kelvin range (cool daylight/ daylight) and needs as little as 250 lumens so any old globe will do. It also tolerates long periods of extremely low light.
I'm running two trials with it at the moment that appear to be proving it's agility in surviving.
- I have decommissioned my DT, there is no power connected to any part of it and I have removed the doors from the front. The sump receives no direct sunlight, no heating, no anything. After 4 weeks of sitting there in cold dark water with no flow, I can see no visible change to the codium and there has been no change by weight.
- I am running another lot under a cheap 30cm white LED fitting of only 6 watts total. The codium appears to be growing and has increased 3% by weight over 8 weeks.
I will repeat theses trials & measure nitrate take up later this year when I have access to lab grade nitrate testing equipment.
Sorry to be a bit short, but duh!
I have no more room, the water flows pretty quickly through this compartment which generally keeps it pretty clean. Yes it's marine pure, yes, they are dirty in the pic because it is due for a clean. I have an angled piece of egg crate in the bottom so the detritus flushes through and around into the skimmer chamber. It has been working successfully this way for a year now. I'm happy with the quantity. My nitrates are undetectable. I bought a weatherproof external spotlight which I use for light over the chaeto. Works fine. Won't rust, cost less than $20 from Bunnings.
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