Algae Die off?????

[dnatkin]

I've been growing macro algae in my main tank - over the past few weeks, about every 2 - 3 weeks (seems to coincide with moon light cycle) - large chunks seem to die off. Water goes cloudy shortly after light goes on and algae (caulerpa I think) turns white... All levels (pH, Nitrate, Ammonia, Nitrite, Calcium, etc) in tank seem OK -

What could be going on??????

[Fatman]

I think that algea goes sexual and changes sexes causing that.

[Whoyah]

My experience with caelpra is that is goes sexual when it is really dense and fighting for space. Try keeping it pruned so that light penetrates through the bunch. You may also consider changing over to chaeto. It is a different type of macro algae that work very well is refugiums. It does not go sexual. Typecially there is several members on the board that are willing to send some for the cost of shipping, in fact I could probably send you some if your on the West Coast.

[dakar]

What you are seeing is quite normal for most caupera species... We had a tank dedicated to growing it as a food source for our tangs... portions of it would go through the same strange cycle, be it crowded for space or not. Never really did figure out why it did that but it will grow like mad until it runs out of space to grow... the results from a die off can be quite sustantial in large quantities. As Whoyah reccomended Chaetomorpha is a lot easier to deal with if you are using it as a nutrient export and not as a food source.

[Fatman]

From what I understand is to stop this is to leave the refugium lights on 24/7; I know most of you arent wild on it but alot of people swear by this.

[iVgOnMaD]

Yes, I think it would work since most if not all oxigen generating plants go through their sexual cycle (flowering) during the night.

What spectrum of light do your bulbs give in your refugium?

Spectums in the blue side cause vegetative growth in plants, while red causes your plants to flower or produce nodes, seeds, bulbs or whatever. This is because light during the earlier months of the year (spring and summer) have a large ammount of blue in it and this is where the plant would normaly grow heavily to prepare to reproduce in the later months of the year(autumn, fall, winter) when the spectrum turns reddish.

Hopes this helps someone...