Phosphate sponges hurting caluerpa

jagermeister

jagermeister

Member
Has anyone used an aluminum based phosphate sponge (Phos-zorb, Kents phosphate sponge, etc.) and noticed a die off of their caluerpa in their fuge?
I used a phosphate sponge last week and noticed most of my caluerpa turned white and started wasting away. At first I thought it went sexual and was wondering how that happened since the lighting is 24/7 and the fuge isn't overcrowded with the stuff.
I started doing searches on various boards and started finding posts where the question was 'why is my caluerpa turning white'. One of the coincidences with many of these posts is that the caluerpa turned white while a phosphate sponge was being used. And the people who were experiencing this weren't sure if it was the sponge causing it or just coincidental.
Has anyone had this experience?
 
buzz

buzz

Active Member
Haven't experienced it, but it makes sense. Caulerpa is an algae just like any other. It feeds off of phosphates...that is why it reduces the amount in the tank, because it uses them.
If you take it's food source away, I would expect it to die off.
 
sammystingray

sammystingray

Active Member
I DO NOT believe the 24/7 lighting thing has any effect on whether or not algaes go sexual. It has more to do with size, and pruning them regularly usually will stop it. Not always I guess, but I still really don't believe the light thing being passed around. I understand land plants are effected by the light cycles and know when to bud or whatever by the length of daylight, but I am not convinced that algaes go sexual by the length of day.
 
hairtrigger

hairtrigger

Active Member
That's a really good point plum. And I have been wondering the same thing too sammy. Glad you addressed that. :cool:
 
jagermeister

jagermeister

Member
I have a very high concentration of phosphates and I don't think the caluerpa itself can take them down quickly so I'm supplementing them with a phosphate sponge.
The phosphates came from overfeeding with my homemade food.
 
barracuda

barracuda

Active Member
Instead of using some kind of phosphate sponge, you can do a water change. By adding that media to your system you took away the "food" for macroalgae. Macroalgae won't survive without nutrients.
 
jagermeister

jagermeister

Member
Well.....I don't think I took away all the food. My phosphates went from around 4-5 mg/l to around 2 mg/l. Still plenty of phosphate to munch on.
I was planning on stopping by the store today to get some more phosphate sponges.
Would I be able to lower the phosphates dramatically by having my refugium with the caluerpa and doing a weekly water change? What's the maximum water change that can safely be done? I have a 55 gallon. I've done 2 - 5 gallon water changes over the past two weeks.
 
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