Algae Competition

[jduong916]

I really don't understand why people keep saying one type of macro algae will out compete the rest. Why would two algaes not be able to live in the same system a long as nutrients are being provided? Even if all of the phosphate or nitrate is being consumed. Why would one algae be able to take it all up before another, they both have the same water running past them so both types of algae can consume whatever they need from the the water it is in direct contact with. I have three types of macro: calurpa, chaeto and some kind of moss hair algae in my refugium. I've never seen one completely disappear. Yes, one may get a little smaller, but it'll come back. None of the algae ever gets eliminated. So why do i always hear one algae will win in the end. To me its ridiculous and the and even common sense says this isnt the case. One forest, multiple trees. One ocean, multiple fish. And so on and so forth. Am I wrong? Please let me know if I am, cause I'm tired of scratching my head about the what ifs of my macro algae.

 

[Smite]

If left unchecked I could see one type out competing others but if you are referring to display macros that you are trimming back when necessary I don't see what you need to worry about. If you throw a few types in the sump refugium and let it go one will come out on top more than likely.

 

[jduong916]

If left unchecked I could see one type out competing others but if you are referring to display macros that you are trimming back when necessary I don't see what you need to worry about. If you throw a few types in the sump refugium and let it go one will come out on top more than likely.

Im talkin about sump algae for nutriend reduction. How does one out compete the rest? I have three types in my sump and no indication that one is going to overtake them all. I still dont understand how one would do that. Ive see multiple plants in one pot. Why wouldnt this be the case in a fuge. I mean now that i think about it ive seen only one plant survive in a pot with two (im talking soil and pot type plant). Nirmally though when both have grown and are out of the little plant stage they both do well.
Maybe eberyone who says one algae will take over was dealing with a handful (small) portions of each algae. In my experience when dofferent types of algae get going they stay going

 

[Smite]

Some algae will be more efficient than others under the same light and nutrient levels. That results in a faster growth rate. In a lower nutrient system the more efficient algae will consume the available nutrients quicker possibly starving out the a slower growing algae. A faster growing algae also reaches the light source quicker getting the advantage of shading the other algae out.

In my experience I've had cheato drowned out dragons breath. I've had a horrible green hair algae outbreak in my display brown out my chaeto in the sump and stunted it's growth. Once I got GHA taken care of my chaeto started to grow again.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

In a refugium, such as mine, if you start with multiple type of macroalgae, you often end up with one, and that one has effectively outcompeted the others. In mine, caulerpa racemosa won out over everything else I tried and eventually it was the only one present.

It might be competition for N, P, iron, other trace elements, etc, but it might just be competition for light and space.

 

[jduong916]

Ok, points taken. You guys are making a lot of sense. I do think its more of a conpetition for light and space than a nutrient battle, but thats just my experience. It just seems weird to me that one algae can take up so much N and P and starve the other out. Well, I take that back, some species of alage may just need higher concentrations of N and P to survive. Ahh I guess i was wrong to begin with lol