Red Feather Kelp need help / advice

[hayes112]

Hi all,

I have some red feather kelp that I picked up a couple weeks ago . A few days after it was in my tank I noticed some of the stalks and leafs were starting to turn green not all the way, some are just green on the tips some are green in the middle but now there are some leaves turning all the way green. Problem is this plant has pretty firm stalks and leafs but the green parts are soft and break from the mother plant easily. Does anyone have any experince with this macro? Does it need more light or less light I have it under 260 watts of PC lighting. I have it postinoed mid way up. Any help is appriciated.

Thanks, Hayes

[Samala]

I have had this happen with Gracilaria in some cases. Usually it occurs after I have changed the lighting in some way. Either the photoperiod is longer or shorter, the light is more intense, or less intense, or I have somehow otherwise messed with the amount of light the algae is exposed too.

In my tanks the green tinge usually indicates providing too much light to the red algaes. The new growing parts of the plants tend to adapt well to the new environment, so I dont typically lose the whole algae when this occurs. The green, soft parts will usually die off the plant in small chunks.

Its nothing to get too worked up about but if you know you will be changing an algae/plants' environment significantly from the LFS/grower to your tank, try to plan ahead for it in the future. They are not terribly unlike corals in this respect. :)

I hope that helps.

>Sarah

[hayes112]

Thanks for the reply. Actually yeah the LFS where had it under very low level lighting and the macro was even positoned pretty far away from the dim light in the store. I will move it away from the light a bit and give it some time.