Will "Mass-Produced" Caulerpa be healthy

[keddre]

Will I figure this would work, I don't know if it would have adverse reactions on my fish.

I was thinking of setting up a separate tank to quickly grow Caulerpa. To do this I would have sea water made up, and dose it with Miracle-gro (maybe 5ml for a 20 litre tank), Essential Elements, and KNo3 (to increase Nitrates in the controlled tank). While I can't see why there would be problems (I use Miracle-gro for phyto and KNo3 is safe for people), I wanted to see what you all think.

Side Note:
All Caulerpa would be washed before going in the tank

Back Story:
I brought my foxface as a juvenile, to feed eat Caulerpa; however after going through the whole forest, he no longer eats dried seaweed (clipped or tied to a rock) and while my tank can grow Caulerpa, it doesn't grow fast enough to feed him.

Thanks in advance

 

[Brew12]

I don't see why that wouldn't work.

 

[keddre]

Just finished. With, home depot being out of the sump remover...i spent an hour in the fertilizer section until I stumbled across this. Being labeled as fish waste and containing mainly nitrogen and phosphate, I thought this would work. What's best, it's been lab tested for no metals!

So when I got home, I set up a little five gallon and used dirty water from my tank...it was time for a water change anyway. The instructions say 1 tbsp (14 ml) for every gallon of water.... Uh no. In a 20 liter tank, I put only 5 ml of the fertilizer and got this brown mess.

Not only does it smell horrid, but light can barely penetrate it and I have almost 1500k lighting over it.

My hopes is that it can grow through the low lighting and with the fertilizers claim to "slowly release nitrogen", the caulerpa will get the nitrate it needs to thrive.

Until later, SCI

 

[K. Steven]

A friend of mine had a setup like this. He took the skimmate from the main tank, diluted it up to 1 gallon, then dosed it slowly into the macro algae tank. Growth was pretty good.

 

[keddre]

A friend of mine had a setup like this. He took the skimmate from the main tank, diluted it up to 1 gallon, then dosed it slowly into the macro algae tank. Growth was pretty good.

Nice, that's be a good idea if I had a skimmer. Thanks for the input

 

[keddre]

Update: I feel like I need to add a heater to accelerate the growth rate, as my basement is just too cool for no heater. While I'm talking about changes, I would also want to increase lighting -maybe something reflective on top of the cabinet- as the water is too murky for complete penetration.

Otherwise, it is definitely growing faster than it was in my tank, but not enough to harvest daily. Also, the fertilizer is doing a good job with growth. Maintenance is minimal, just adding more fertilizer when the water becomes too clear. I'm also not testing for nitrates, I'm just blindly dosing based on murkiness and have found that sweet spot between clear and brown where the growth is the fastest. Will report back after heater and lighting issues are solved; also, I may add more caulerpa to increase my starting population