Ultimate nutrient importers for external and internal use.

These are what i use to enable no water changes,not since October 2011.

Main algae area housing the local racemosa and a little chaeto and surge zone taxifolia.



These are the trimmings from one week of nutrient importing.




Other algae I use for importing.










This local sponge has a symbiotic relationship with cyano and is an excellent importer of nutrients, protien in particular.

I love that first photo of the bucket full of algae with the tops just coming out of the water. Where is the chaeto in that liquid jungle?

I went for a low tide walk near my house 2 days ago and saw some of the algae in picture 3 and 4 ( it looked more like brown one than the blue one ), what is that species and what does it import?

That blue sponge is very cool looking as well!

The first photo area has some chaeto in there but I don’t rely on it,I have tried it against the racemosa and its weak at best.

The brown one becomes more blue in high nutrient waters but with out any toxins or nitrates and it takes out phosphates galore, a bit slow though so I use it with others in the mix.
I used to think it was a padina,but it is a bit different, so I don’t know for sure.

The pink/blue sponge is siphonochalina deficiens and has symbiotic cyano in the cells of each individual sponge cell of the community that imports toxins and phosphates converting them via photosynthesis reducing nutrient levels in the waters and growing quickly a result and looking really nice.

It’s a win,win,with the sponge.

liquidg wrote:The first photo area has some chaeto in there but I don’t rely on it,I have tried it against the racemosa and its weak at best.

I think you mentioned that to me before about the chaeto and I guess I keep wanting to use it because that is what I am familiar with.

I am trying to figure out a way to fit some LEDs in the back of my 80L all in one tank so I can get some algae growing back there but its a really tiny space.

liquidg wrote:The brown one becomes more blue in high nutrient waters but with out any toxins or nitrates and it takes out phosphates galore, a bit slow though so I use it with others in the mix.
I used to think it was a padina,but it is a bit different, so I don’t know for sure.

The pink/blue sponge is siphonochalina deficiens and has symbiotic cyano in the cells of each individual sponge cell of the community that imports toxins and phosphates converting them via photosynthesis reducing nutrient levels in the waters and growing quickly a result and looking really nice.

It’s a win,win,with the sponge.

The padina type looks really cool and I might give that a try when I get the fuge going.

The sponge is really cool looking and I definitely want to give that one a try once I am able

kindcorals wrote:
I think you mentioned that to me before about the chaeto and I guess I keep wanting to use it because that is what I am familiar with.

Chaeto is widely regarded and the racemosa morph some of use doesn’t exist anywhere else so it can’t be compared by the ones that promote the chaetomorpha.
It is great with nitrate though, but you should not have any nitrate levels with a decent bio filter.

kindcorals wrote:
I am trying to figure out a way to fit some LEDs in the back of my 80L all in one tank so I can get some algae growing back there but its a really tiny space.

What is the area of this spot you want it in?

kindcorals wrote:
The padina type looks really cool and I might give that a try when I get the fuge going.

This one is a slow as all hell at growing and it needs cool waters.

kindcorals wrote:
The sponge is really cool looking and I definitely want to give that one a try once I am able

This sponge is very common locally and the reason I use it is it is a nutrient importer and looks fantastic, but many life forms eat it and only thrive s in cool waters.
It literally is a great looking form of cyano,lol.

For now, the tank has 3 compartments that are about 8cm x 14cm with about 35cm of height for the algae. I can use at least one comparment, possibly 2 of them if I do some re-arranging.

I would love to try the racemosa if my system would support it, I think it looks really cool too.

When you are talking about cool waters, are these the same temps as the Lateznatus clowns need? If so, that may be another reason to keep a cooler water tank. The blue sponge is much more appealing that typical cyano algae in the tank.

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Anyone has Taxifolia? If you do, could you bring some tomorrow night? Thanks.

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kindcorals wrote:For now, the tank has 3 compartments that are about 8cm x 14cm with about 35cm of height for the algae. I can use at least one comparment, possibly 2 of them if I do some re-arranging.

I would love to try the racemosa if my system would support it, I think it looks really cool too.

When you are talking about cool waters, are these the same temps as the Lateznatus clowns need? If so, that may be another reason to keep a cooler water tank. The blue sponge is much more appealing that typical cyano algae in the tank.

When I say cool water I mean up to 24c and an absolute max of 25c.

These things exist at their best between 22c for maximum importing and exporting to 24c.

24c is the cut off that the latz and some other life forms I have can stand before stress sets in and goes to work at quickly or slowly killing them.
No serious nutrient importing algae functions correctly or can exist above 24c or below 18c for any extended length of time.

They hang on here and there, like the surge zone taxifolia lots of hobbyists use, but sooner or later go sexual as they say, in other words, going sexual means they have had enough and die.

Once you get below 22c tropical fish species suffer hence the heater set at 22c and the chiller set at 24c.

There are always exceptions to anything in marine keeping, but that range keeps all life pretty well.

The coral wholesalers keep corals on average at 22c for sale and exporting and for some reason people think the corals they buy are kept at higher temps, that’s not the case.

They don’t even live in those high temps where they are collected from.

If your heater and chiller is spot on with temp control, it would be great to run them at, the heater 23c and chiller at 24c,but that is to close a tolerance for most gear.

The local racemosa, all it needs is no predators trimming so it does not cover it self, shallow waters with good lighting over it,temps under 25c and some nutrients to feed on and it grows real well!

zhyr wrote:LiquidG - Could I get some racemosa from you tomorrow at the meeting?

It will have to wait for a few days now.i gave a serious total trim to straddyboy some day’s back.

Remind me a couple of days before the meeting after this one.

dendrobate wrote:Anyone has Taxifolia? If you do, could you bring some tomorrow night? Thanks.

I have some in between the racemosa,I pick it out sometimes and throw it in the bin when it comes up,I can leave it for a while and if you want I can pick some out and you can get it going from that.

There was heaps at the last collecting trip up the coast?

Straddyboy got some up there.