Help with new macro tank

goody · Mar 14, 2023

I thought keeping a macro tank was going to be easier than my reef tank, but things are not going great.and I'm finding it to be a challenge.

I purchased a decent variety of both green and red macros fairly quickly to add to what I already had- Chaeto, Caulerpa prolifera, and I think Gracilaria Hayi.
All seemed to be doing nicely and then my small frags of Codium and Ulva "disappeared". I thought maybe my pods took care of the Ulva, but wasn't sure if the Codium went sexual. Then my prolifera seemed to be thinning despite no signs of the transparent leaves and my Botryocladia "grapes" started to disappear too. My water parameters that I test for are:
Nitrates 16ppm
Phosphates .08ppm
Salinity 1.023
Temp. 78.2
Alk. 8.4
CA 400
Mg 1200

I have been dosing 1-2 ml of ChaetoGro and Ferrion about every other day, but I don't test for Fe.

I did change my lighting to a Hygger full spectrum LED freshwater planted light. I just turned the intensity down from 90% to 60% thinking my problems were from blasting them with too much light. I run the light for 8 hours.

I did notice tonight several small yellow clumps on my prolifera. Not sure if it's related to the thinning of if these are just sponges. They are not on the prolifera in my display.

Appreciate any help in getting this figured out.

vlangel · Mar 15, 2023

goody said:
I thought keeping a macro tank was going to be easier than my reef tank, but things are not going great.and I'm finding it to be a challenge.

I purchased a decent variety of both green and red macros fairly quickly to add to what I already had- Chaeto, Caulerpa prolifera, and I think Gracilaria Hayi.
All seemed to be doing nicely and then my small frags of Codium and Ulva "disappeared". I thought maybe my pods took care of the Ulva, but wasn't sure if the Codium went sexual. Then my prolifera seemed to be thinning despite no signs of the transparent leaves and my Botryocladia "grapes" started to disappear too. My water parameters that I test for are:
Nitrates 16ppm
Phosphates .08ppm
Salinity 1.023
Temp. 78.2
Alk. 8.4
CA 400
Mg 1200

I have been dosing 1-2 ml of ChaetoGro and Ferrion about every other day, but I don't test for Fe.

I did change my lighting to a Hygger full spectrum LED freshwater planted light. I just turned the intensity down from 90% to 60% thinking my problems were from blasting them with too much light. I run the light for 8 hours.

I did notice tonight several small yellow clumps on my prolifera. Not sure if it's related to the thinning of if these are just sponges. They are not on the prolifera in my display.

Appreciate any help in getting this figured out.

I don't see a lot of fish in your macro tank, maybe 2 mollies? So 2 potential issues come to mind,,,maybe more fish would give off the necessary wastes (through poo) to actually feed your macros. I see that you have some nitrates and phosphates but much lower than my macro dominant reef. My nitrates are 25-35 ppm and my phosphates are .25-.5 ppm. The other thing I am wondering about is if your salinity is high enough. The fact that you have freshwater/brackish mollies instead of true marine fish makes me wonder if you should increase the salinity. I run my tank at a minimum of .023 but I use a swing arm hydrometer and I suspect that it is really higher, .025.

goody · Mar 15, 2023

vlangel said:
I don't see a lot of fish in your macro tank, maybe 2 mollies? So 2 potential issues come to mind,,,maybe more fish would give off the necessary wastes (through poo) to actually feed your macros. I see that you have some nitrates and phosphates but much lower than my macro dominant reef. My nitrates are 25-35 ppm and my phosphates are .25-.5 ppm. The other thing I am wondering about is if your salinity is high enough. The fact that you have freshwater/brackish mollies instead of true marine fish makes me wonder if you should increase the salinity. I run my tank at a minimum of .023 but I use a swing arm hydrometer and I suspect that it is really higher, .025.

Thanks for the reply. I do have 5 fish in what is about a 12 gallon tank. 3 mollies and 2 damsels (came with a used tank I purchased).
Salinity was actually higher two weeks ago at .027 so I brought it over that period through a few water changes which may have also impacted my available nutrients.
Thanks for providing your nitrate and phosphate levels. Maybe I should bring mine up with heavier feeding or NeoNitro and NeoPhos which I have on hand.

vlangel · Mar 15, 2023

goody said:
Thanks for the reply. I do have 5 fish in what is about a 12 gallon tank. 3 mollies and 2 damsels (came with a used tank I purchased).
Salinity was actually higher two weeks ago at .027 so I brought it over that period through a few water changes which may have also impacted my available nutrients.
Thanks for providing your nitrate and phosphate levels. Maybe I should bring mine up with heavier feeding or NeoNitro and NeoPhos which I have on hand.

I am not an expert but feeding a bit heavier seems like a good, simple plan to me. If you feed more flake and freeze dried food, that will increase your phosphates. If you feed more frozen food, that will increase your nitrates. Dosing a little iron could help also but in such a small tank, it would not be much. Just a few drops from a dropper. Here is a pic of my tank: I have about 8-9 different macroalgae.

Diastro · Mar 18, 2023

I would keep the light high and add more nutrients. For my tank I also have a hygger full spectrum light that I run for 9.5 hours a day and then 2.5 more hours in blue moonlight mode. It's at 100% and I regularly dose. Seachem phytoplankton weekly, lots of hikari pellets every day, and then macro and micro nutrients once a week as well.

goody · Mar 18, 2023

Diastro said:
I would keep the light high and add more nutrients. For my tank I also have a hygger full spectrum light that I run for 9.5 hours a day and then 2.5 more hours in blue moonlight mode. It's at 100% and I regularly dose. Seachem phytoplankton weekly, lots of hikari pellets every day, and then macro and micro nutrients once a week as well.

How high above the water level do you have your light? And how deep is your tank?