MACROALGAE pros/cons in the reef tank?

[Anonymous]

There is another con. If allowed to grow unchecked, it can grow on and damage coral.


Ken

 

[Anonymous]

i just want to know what are the benifits and drawbacks from getting macroalgae (halimeda, caulerpa etc.) in the reeftank? is it necessary?

Thanks,
quest

------------------
<A HREF="mailto:[email protected]">[email protected]</A>

 

[Anonymous]

The benefits are primarily that it looks good (to most people), it is a readily-available meal for various grazing species (ie., tangs), and it can sequester nitrates and toxins. Also, they introduce dissolved oxygen through photosynthesis, and compete with less desirable microalgae species. The potential drawbacks are that some species may have periodic die-offs, especially if their growth goes unchecked or if iron is in short supply. If this happens they sporalate, and that can deplete dissolved oxygen. Also, if it gets too weedy it can compete with corals for lighting. I have it and like it. It came on my live rock and took off once I bought some proper lighting (4w/gal). It isn't necessary; it is more a matter of taste. I like some greenery. So does my purple tang.

 

[Anonymous]

The above just about covers it. I agree that it can look very nice - check out my home page, I have lots of higher order algaes growing in my tank, the green ones grow fast, and cause the most problems with die-off, the red ones are the most beautiful (IMO), grow slower, thus they dont threaten your corals so much, and are less likely to die off after a time.
HTH

------------------
Home Page at: http://home.gardenet.co.za/landman/index.html

 

[Anonymous]

Once more on the benefit bandwagon...
I've got several beds of caulerpa racemosa growing in the aragonite beds of my tanks that function as a refugium of sorts. I've noticed, esp at night, that they harbor oodles of microfauna critters. My mandarin patrols the beds in the 75 gal in the evening and seems to enjoy successful hunting. The beds seem to be thick enough to provide some protection for the critters, yet open enough to allow certain fish to penetrate occasionally and get at some of the organisms.

 

[Anonymous]

I just had my first caulerpa die-off. Nothing bad happened, but the stuff turned white and the water went cloudy. I stuck on a filter and pulled the white caulerpa out. I noticed it did this after my purple tang fed on it agressively for several days. Is there some sort of causal relationship here? Any suggestions how to prevent this from reoccuring?

 

[Anonymous]

Flounder,
This is common if you have tangs. The fish graze and so take a bite out of each leaf which causes it to bleed. The best approach is to raise the macroalgae in your sump or refugia or another tank and just take some of it at a time and put it in your tank with the fish to graze on. They will eat it all this way. I use macroalgae in our 400 to uptake nutrients and then feed it to the tangs in the 200. If you do this you will notice that the macroalgae will grow at different rates as there is more or less food for them from time to time.

 

[Anonymous]

I think that is exactly what happened. I am also going to start a little macro-algae farm (a smaller scale than what you have).

Thanks for the advice.