Start of the UGLIES…

[niccumec]

2 months in so I ramped up Mitras lights from 0-30% over the past 2 weeks. Starting to see some bright green algae. I was surprised to see some “leafy” green growth though. One is an inverted cone shaped petal - no stem. Just this translucent green stuff.

Assuming this is all part of the uglies, but just to be safe, I thought I’d post a pic. Normal?

Just have a couple clowns, and tons of pods in there right now and dosing phyto. External Refugium has had lighting for a while and has a lot of algae and small ball of chaeto. Nitrates have been running 5-10 ppm and Phosphate ~0.02 ppm.

 

[ryanjohn1]

May be sea lettuce

 

[niccumec]

May be sea lettuce

It does sort of look like an early form of sea lettuce, but not sure how it got in there…. No live rock, only adding phyto and a small ball of chaeto from Dr. Reef.

 

[Levinson]

It does look like Ulva (sea lettuce).
I have a lot of those growing in my ATS. I sometimes pull some out and feed it to my emerald crabs and urchins. They love that stuff.

 

[Nano_Man]

Yep looks like sea lettuce good stuff
I collect it for my shrimps and hermits they love it
From your pictures you haven’t seen a proper ugly stage yet

 

[niccumec]

From your pictures you haven’t seen a proper ugly stage yet

Haha, yeah I know… just inching towards it’s initiation . I have been keeping lights at 10-20%, delaying the inevitable. It has allowed me to get some algae going in my refugium ahead of DT. Not sure that that will help much, but I’m taking it slow.

Still debating on whether or not to add some live rock rubble to my sump and refugium. Scared of pests and hitchhikers.

 

[Nano_Man]

Haha, yeah I know… just inching towards it’s initiation . I have been keeping lights at 10-20%, delaying the inevitable. It has allowed me to get some algae going in my refugium ahead of DT. Not sure that that will help much, but I’m taking it slow.

Still debating on whether or not to add some live rock rubble to my sump and refugium. Scared of pests and hitchhikers.

I understand what you’re saying but live rock rubble I would use but I’ve never used any thing else since I started years ago. In the nineties I used a canister full of live rock rubble and a bit of floss at the top worked great never had a problem with that reef.

 

[Dan_P]

It does sort of look like an early form of sea lettuce, but not sure how it got in there…. No live rock, only adding phyto and a small ball of chaeto from Dr. Reef.

Algae reproduce via microscopic cells. Likely suspect carrier of these cells was the Cheato. Everything added to a system inoculates it with many new things.