I have purchased a clump of gracilaria macroalgae to feed my hippo tang.
What I did was tie a small clump to a small piece of rubble and dropped it into the aquarium. I then separated the rest of the gracilaria and also tied them to small rubble and kept them in a separate grow out bin.
The bin is just a shallow plastic bin with a small powerhead and a curly PC bulb above it. The new growing tips are very delicate and can break off easily so I need to use a very low flow powerhead.
I use old water from my display tank as the "new" water for the gracilaria bin, and toss out the old water.
Here's a picture of the growout bin in my garage.
The hippo tang loves to nibble on the young tips of the gracilaria, but leaves the thicker stems alone. So after a while, the gracilaria in the tank ends up being a bunch of stubs.
When this happens, I take out the stubby gracilaria and toss it into the growout bin and put in a replacement clump into the display tank.
I rotate new clumps approximately every 3 days.
So far it has been going great.
I have not used any fertilizers yet. It seems like the old water from the display tank feeds the clumps just fine.
The only issue I have observed so far is that the water in the growout bin seems to get slimy (clear, but a little snotty) if I do not stay on top of water changes.
I am not sure if this is due to some form of sap being secreted by the gracilaria or some other biological buildup.
I also set up another bin outside, under partial shade just to see if the gracilaria outdoors would have a better growth rate under sunlight.
So instead of paying $10-$15 a month for fresh macroalgae to feed my tang, I now have a regular renewable supply right in my garage.
I am researching other easy to grow macroalgae that I can culture as well so that I can mix up the algae diet a bit.
What I did was tie a small clump to a small piece of rubble and dropped it into the aquarium. I then separated the rest of the gracilaria and also tied them to small rubble and kept them in a separate grow out bin.
The bin is just a shallow plastic bin with a small powerhead and a curly PC bulb above it. The new growing tips are very delicate and can break off easily so I need to use a very low flow powerhead.
I use old water from my display tank as the "new" water for the gracilaria bin, and toss out the old water.
Here's a picture of the growout bin in my garage.
The hippo tang loves to nibble on the young tips of the gracilaria, but leaves the thicker stems alone. So after a while, the gracilaria in the tank ends up being a bunch of stubs.
When this happens, I take out the stubby gracilaria and toss it into the growout bin and put in a replacement clump into the display tank.
I rotate new clumps approximately every 3 days.
So far it has been going great.
I have not used any fertilizers yet. It seems like the old water from the display tank feeds the clumps just fine.
The only issue I have observed so far is that the water in the growout bin seems to get slimy (clear, but a little snotty) if I do not stay on top of water changes.
I am not sure if this is due to some form of sap being secreted by the gracilaria or some other biological buildup.
I also set up another bin outside, under partial shade just to see if the gracilaria outdoors would have a better growth rate under sunlight.
So instead of paying $10-$15 a month for fresh macroalgae to feed my tang, I now have a regular renewable supply right in my garage.
I am researching other easy to grow macroalgae that I can culture as well so that I can mix up the algae diet a bit.
