Dictyota question

[honeybee]

Hello,

As many of us know this algae can be really hard to control. It grows will in reefs using VHO and MH with actinic VHO.

Question: Does anyone have a reef under power compacts with a Dictyota problem?

Honeybee

[mike89t]

It grows really well in my tank with T5 lighting.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=803711

My new rabbitfish is slowly knocking it down though.

[honeybee]

Hello mike89t

I have a research project, how to completely remove Dictyota from an established reef without turning off the lights for six months.

How many watts per gallon and what percent of that is actinic?

Honeybee

[mike89t]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7572686#post7572686 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by honeybee
Hello mike89t

I have a research project, how to completely remove Dictyota from an established reef without turning off the lights for six months.

How many watts per gallon and what percent of that is actinic?

Honeybee

I've got six of the 80W T5 bulbs overdriven to 100W each by an Ice Cap 660 ballast for a total of 600W. Eahc bulb has a sunlight supply reflector attached to it. The tank is 150 gallons. So I guess that comes out to 4W per Gallon.

One bulb is a Pure Actinic
http://www.reefgeek.com./product_images/ati/actinic_03_b.jpg

Two bulbs are Blue Plus which is very blue in spectrum:
http://www.reefgeek.com./product_images/ati/blue_b.jpg

The Actinic and two Blue Plus lights are on from 7am-8pm

The other 3 lights(1 sun, 2 aquablue) are on from 8am-1pm.

[honeybee]

Hello Mike,

It will be interesting to see if this algae can spead through your reef. The image in your photo is what I call the reproductive vegetative form, its purpose to rapid reproduction. Sexual reprodution almost never occurs in a reef. It usually sits in the reef as a modest clump accumlating nutrients and producting small reproductive cells in the leaf-like structures. At some time it will start to break up into very small fragments that drift around, attach to rocks, and develop invasion filaments or strands that product the reproductive form. Physically removing it from the rocks increases the fragmentation and speeds it's invasion.

I have two reefs, one with 10 watts per gallon of VHO light, half the bulbs are white actinics and half are blue actinics. Lights are on 12 hours. This algae now covers almost all of the surfaces.

The second reef has about 5 watts per gallon of power compact light, half blue actinic and half 10,000k white light. Lights are on 12 hours. Each time this algae was introducted into the reef it died.

The question is why did it live in one reef and die in the other. I have some thoughts on the answer and I am going to set up a test reef and see it I can frorce it to die off.

Honeybee

[HowardW]

I had 2 large clumps of Dictyota growing on a large piece of live rock in my 55g. with 4 X 65 PC lighting, and my 3 large mexican turbo snails wiped it out totally in 3 days. Unfortunately they also wiped out the other macro they weren't supposed to :-(

The only thing they didn't eat were the shaving brush plants and the halimeda.

[mike89t]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7575431#post7575431 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by honeybee
Hello Mike,

It will be interesting to see if this algae can spead through your reef. The image in your photo is what I call the reproductive vegetative form, its purpose to rapid reproduction. Sexual reprodution almost never occurs in a reef. It usually sits in the reef as a modest clump accumlating nutrients and producting small reproductive cells in the leaf-like structures. At some time it will start to break up into very small fragments that drift around, attach to rocks, and develop invasion filaments or strands that product the reproductive form. Physically removing it from the rocks increases the fragmentation and speeds it's invasion.

I have two reefs, one with 10 watts per gallon of VHO light, half the bulbs are white actinics and half are blue actinics. Lights are on 12 hours. This algae now covers almost all of the surfaces.

The second reef has about 5 watts per gallon of power compact light, half blue actinic and half 10,000k white light. Lights are on 12 hours. Each time this algae was introducted into the reef it died.

The question is why did it live in one reef and die in the other. I have some thoughts on the answer and I am going to set up a test reef and see it I can frorce it to die off.

Honeybee

Yep the stuff grows fast. It fragments very easy. The one time I tried to manually remove it I spent an hour chased down fragments that floated away. That's when I decided to add the rabbitfish.

I no longer try an manually remove it because that just seems to help it spread. I've decided to just let the Rabbitfish take care of it. So far he is doing a great job and it hasn't spread outside of the large clump I have.

I don't mind the look of it as long as it doesn't take over the entire tank.