Chaetos n Mangroves?

[sambrinar]

Originally Posted by jg2269jg

I have a mix of red gracilis, green grape caluerpa and red mangroves it seems to work good and the gracilis and caulerpa are good tang food. I keep the light on 24/7 though because the caulerpa is sexual from what i hear (if i am wrong please teach me, That is what my friends tell me) and can go down hill if you have a regular light cycle like your fish tank

Originally Posted by panmanmatt

With mangroves, all they need is their roots tro be kept wet. You don't have to bury them in the substrate. You MUST keep the leves cleaned of salt creep or it will kill the mangroves. This can be accomplished with a daily misting from a spray bottle using R/O water or a gentle wiping with a damp clothe.

Any/all of the caulerpa species need to be pruned often to prevent them from going sexual. Going sexual will foul your tank water if you have large amonts of macro in there.

Chaeto and gracillria are great macros that don't normally go sexual.

Halimedia is a calcerous algae that can/will also go sexual and make a mess of the tank. Make sure you keep it pruned back also to prevent this.

Hah, I found it, I knew I saw it somewhere. here is the link to the thread too....

refugium algae

[BigJay]

that says the calupera algae can go sexual not the mangroves. Am I missing something?

[BigAl07]

Originally Posted by BigJay

that says the calupera algae can go sexual not the mangroves. Am I missing something?

that's right Jay... Mangroves don't go asexual where are most macro algae can but Cheato is the least likely to do so. Any macro algae or plant that "expires" and isn't removed from the tank can/will release it's nutrients into the tank. It's all part of the "Circle of Life".

Mangroves are a true plant and not a macro algae at all. I'm planning to try some myself in the near future.

[sambrinar]

Originally Posted by BigJay

that says the calupera algae can go sexual not the mangroves. Am I missing something?

See that is what was confusing me. I wasn't sure what "gracillria" was. when people go from common name to tech name without clarifing it gets me confused (easy to do) and then he started talking about 'caulerpa' so I guess I assumed (you know what happens then ) I'm glad I posted that error, now I know the whole truth. I wasn't for sure. Thanks for the correction guys.

I'm gonna get some now in my 30gal when I get it. I like the looks of plants in the main tank. I's all good