Macroalgae Tank

[Cheesus]

Hey Guys!

I have been thinking about turning one of my AIOs into a Macroalgae tank. What light would you guys recommend? Also, If there is anyone else out there doing this are you dosing nitrates? I almost feel like without a lot of fish you would have too.

Any tips appreciated!

 

[Spare time]

Any light that grows coral will grow macro algae.

As for nitrates, many companies make nitrate dosing producst like ESV and brightwell.

It would also be a good idea to dose something like chaetogro or other iron products and maybe iodine if you get red algae (if you do water changes then maybe skip the iodine).


I have a macro grow out with no fish and I use chaetogro (seachems plant fertelizer but I am stopping that until I get mangroves as it has things that could be harmful if built up)

 

[ichthyogeek]

Agreed^^, but for some reason, I get much better results with lower light intensity (unmeasured, unexperimented) than with brighter.

I don't currently dose nitrates. I instead make use of about 30 or so molly fry that are fed baby brine shrimp every day. I never got into the whole high tech planted tank thing, so I'm a big proponent of instead just feeding heavily and doing water changes to keep everything happy (fish, macros, etc.).

 

[Pistondog]

that bright pink horticulture color works best for chaeto.
Very brignt

 

[lion king]

Agreed^^, but for some reason, I get much better results with lower light intensity (unmeasured, unexperimented) than with brighter.

I don't currently dose nitrates. I instead make use of about 30 or so molly fry that are fed baby brine shrimp every day. I never got into the whole high tech planted tank thing, so I'm a big proponent of instead just feeding heavily and doing water changes to keep everything happy (fish, macros, etc.).

Good point about the light level. Of the macro I have in displays; in my low light predator tanks they do well, not fast growth but healthy and deep in color. The macro I have attempted to grow in my reef with higher light hasn't done so well. But it also has to do with the spectrum. 6500k is known to be good for macro, as well as red spectrum. But in your reef these spectrum will also excite nuisance algae and the red has been associated with cyano.

More and more companies are making specific lights designed to grow macro algae, do a search and you'll find the references to the preferred light spectrum.

 

[Seabiscuit]

I am on a tight budget, so I got the kzkr 36" blue and white led for my nano tank. It is very basic, but does have several intensity levels and choice of all blue or blue and white. It was under $40 on amazon. I like it for my red and green macroalgae. As for nitrates, I have seahorses and gobies that are dosing them. Good luck.

 

[vlangel]

I have a lot of fish to supply nutrients for my macros/seagrass/coral. I feed the fish heavy and have a good water change system and this seems to work for me. My display has 10k and actinic t5 bulbs. My fuge has (2) 30 par LEDs, one is a 50/50, the other is more blue diodes.