Macroalgae beginning question

S

sublime-1

Membership Expired
Ok,

I have my tank at a relatively stable condition now with only minor daily variance in temp and nitrate.

Although I am planning an eventual replace and upgrade of my current Trigger Sys Refugium, I would like to try to develop my hand at keeping an operation fuge.

My wife really fell in love with a Blenny and a Mandarin at the LFS, and I know eventually it's going to come time for me to invest in one. The spotted mandarin, being notoriously hard to keep is a very tempting choice but there is no way in hell I would try to keep one until I had the ins and outs of Pod development and a working and functional fuge going.

Having said all that, is it simple enough of a proposition to just get a wad of Chaeto or Caulerpa from another tank and toss it into my fuge with a couple cupfulls of sand to begin the experiment ?

Or, could I possibly use a QT tank as a breeding ground for Pods?

I have read some of the docos on fuges and the like, but nothing directly answers the best way to start a culture or implement macroalgae in the marine aquarium.

Thanks,
Brad
 
I've recieved Cheato from two other members and both were full of pods. I'd recommend getting little clumps from a variety of members and tanks so that you get the most diversity. You can also order them online and some lfs has some for sale (with markups appropriately placed). I had some in my big tank (tiny wet specks on the glass) about 6 months after it being set up. In my pico tank I seeded it with sand from the large tank and bought some very nice live rock from Petorama. Within a month theres a huuuuge amount of pods. Its insane.
 
go with chaeto...i am in the process of replacing all my caulerpa...thing with caulerpa you have to keep it trim or rearrange it once in a while as the caulerpa. so that the caulerpa that does not get any light wont go asexual...the chaeto in of my tanks i have on reverse cycle lights on at night...while in my opinion caulerpa needs lights on 24/7 just in case it doesnt go asexual.

If you go to the meetings i can give you a good bag of caulerpa if you want to try..


you can throw it in right now in your sump. i threw mine in right when i started my tank.
 
If you've already got a fuge chamber, then all you need is a good light over it and a chunk of chaetomorpha.

Folks have had good luck with the spiral compact flourescent screw in bulbs of a daylight spectrum.
 
Hrmm.. it can clog up the teeth of the overflows and cause a bit of fluctuation in the water level, but that's not very common.
 
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