a while back my husband went to our favorite LFS (first mistake - I let him go shopping unattended!!!) Along with the addition - can't remember which one it was - he came home with some macroalgae. I looked it up on the internet, found a picture that matched, and identified is as razor Caulpera.
somewhere in my readings I had come across a passage that indicated some controversy about macroalgae in a reef tank, but I don't remember all the details, and can't relocate what I had read before. But at any rate, as we have a lingering low level of phosphate in our water source, I thought this couldn't hurt. The algae was placed, and actually took root.
All was well for about two months. Over the course of that time I did have a cyanobacteria bloom, which I kept under control with daily physical removal, critters, increased flow, a skimmer, just plain diligence. some did get on the macro algae, and I did my best to gently sponge off the worst areas.
We got through that. all was well in our peaceable kingdom, until one day I got a phone call, at work, from my daughter at home. She said this green slime was coming off the algae. As she tends towards the theatrical side, I minimized her concerns. 15 minutes later my son calls, telling the same story. He said it started shortly after the lights came on, which is about the same time they get home from school. He said the algae was "shooting out" this green slime stuff, and the water was quickly becoming very cloudy, and that they couldn't see two of the fish. This got my attention, and I left work. Fortunately I live only 10 minutes away, and got home only 45 minutes after the first phone call. Good thing, because by the time I got home the water was literally like pea soup. Your worst nightmare! After a frantic phone call to the LFS, they advised getting rid of the algae, and a partial emergency water change. The water was so cloudy that it was very hard uprooting the algae w/o totally disrupting things, but I managed. The green strands were white in my hands - the green slime seen "shooting out" must have been the chlorophyll content of the plants!
Amazingly, no one - fish or invertebrate - died, and we are a week out from our panic attack. I took out about 25% of the water, added back half later that evening,(after several hours of aeration of the freshly prepared salt water) and the remainder the next morning. In 48 hours the water was crystal clear.
In talking again to my LFS, to try to figure out what had gone wrong, he mentioned calcium levels, and had I recently added calcium. I had, but several days prior, a small amount gingerly added. He said that this phenomenon can occur if the calcium goes up too quickly, over 400. My calcium has never been over 380 (see my previous post chemistry 101).
I am wondering if the cyanoabacteria bloom might have contributed to the gradual demise of the algae.
I am wondering if it just reached a weakened enough state, that on that day, the light going on just triggered some kind of internal reaction and ejection of chlorophyll.
if anyone has seen this happen before, and can give me an idea of what the heck happened, I sure would appreciate it.
guess its not easy being green......
somewhere in my readings I had come across a passage that indicated some controversy about macroalgae in a reef tank, but I don't remember all the details, and can't relocate what I had read before. But at any rate, as we have a lingering low level of phosphate in our water source, I thought this couldn't hurt. The algae was placed, and actually took root.
All was well for about two months. Over the course of that time I did have a cyanobacteria bloom, which I kept under control with daily physical removal, critters, increased flow, a skimmer, just plain diligence. some did get on the macro algae, and I did my best to gently sponge off the worst areas.
We got through that. all was well in our peaceable kingdom, until one day I got a phone call, at work, from my daughter at home. She said this green slime was coming off the algae. As she tends towards the theatrical side, I minimized her concerns. 15 minutes later my son calls, telling the same story. He said it started shortly after the lights came on, which is about the same time they get home from school. He said the algae was "shooting out" this green slime stuff, and the water was quickly becoming very cloudy, and that they couldn't see two of the fish. This got my attention, and I left work. Fortunately I live only 10 minutes away, and got home only 45 minutes after the first phone call. Good thing, because by the time I got home the water was literally like pea soup. Your worst nightmare! After a frantic phone call to the LFS, they advised getting rid of the algae, and a partial emergency water change. The water was so cloudy that it was very hard uprooting the algae w/o totally disrupting things, but I managed. The green strands were white in my hands - the green slime seen "shooting out" must have been the chlorophyll content of the plants!
Amazingly, no one - fish or invertebrate - died, and we are a week out from our panic attack. I took out about 25% of the water, added back half later that evening,(after several hours of aeration of the freshly prepared salt water) and the remainder the next morning. In 48 hours the water was crystal clear.
In talking again to my LFS, to try to figure out what had gone wrong, he mentioned calcium levels, and had I recently added calcium. I had, but several days prior, a small amount gingerly added. He said that this phenomenon can occur if the calcium goes up too quickly, over 400. My calcium has never been over 380 (see my previous post chemistry 101).
I am wondering if the cyanoabacteria bloom might have contributed to the gradual demise of the algae.
I am wondering if it just reached a weakened enough state, that on that day, the light going on just triggered some kind of internal reaction and ejection of chlorophyll.
if anyone has seen this happen before, and can give me an idea of what the heck happened, I sure would appreciate it.
guess its not easy being green......
