two questions

[daisy]

First, how does one know when (if) caulerpa in the fuge has gone sexual? What does it look like? What happens in the tank?
Second -- In my 58 oceanic with three powerheads (in addition to the return from the fuge of the Mag 5) and 2x96W PC lighting, some surfaces are becoming covered with brown gunk. One of my crabs' shells is totally covered with the stuff. It doesn't look slimy -- it looks kind of hairy. I have noticed this brown stuff in other places as well. High current, low current, high light, low light. Any guesses as to what it might be and how to get rid of it? It's in the sand as well as on the LR, too.
And finally, will it make a difference in the light that reaches the corals if I put the glass top back on the tank? I'm losing over a gallon a day! And I'd like to add some fire fishes, and I know they're jumpers.
Thanks for your input!
-Tahl

 

[rwhite]

Wow, thats a lot of info for a person whos had a few glasses of wine. But I'll give it a shot, none the less.
As far as the caulerpa, I THINK that when they turn clear, thats the best determination. We had 3 patches in our display, 2 low and 1 middle. The middle grew a lot, but started going clear. Tried trimming, didnt work; eventually died off. The 2 lower are still with us, but dont grow fast and havent seen any go clear. JME.
Sorry, dont know anything about the brown stuff..:nope:
The glass tops can be an issue...How light demanding are your caorals? From what I've read here, there is loss of spectrum/or something?(help here) with the use of glass tops.
We have always had tops on ours, so its hard for me to say whether or not theres a difference. We're running 4 x 65w pcs and have been successfully keeping blue shrooms and polyps for about a year (maybe less), Hairy shrooms say 6 mos., rics and GSP around 4 and a toadstool and bubble about 2 wks. It is very new for some, but I try to keep up reg. changes and tests to make sure there is water stability is okay. I can say that we havent had any coral losses, at this point, but the tank is still young as far as I'm concerned. The point is, the selection of corals we made is in line with what we were fairly sure we could keep. So I guess the question is what kind of lighting do you have and what kind of corals are you keeping?

 

[daisy]

I'm keeping only softies, so in theory, they're less light-demanding. I have 2x96W PCs (one blue, one white) on top.
Clear means they're going sexual? Then what happens?

 

[gdamador]

waterfaller posted a reply to my refugium question and said that that type of plant once it goes "sexual" may release toxins into the water "When caulerpa and other types go sexual..they will turn white,and release toxins stored,back into the tank." I don't know by experience but be careful, maybe run carbon to soak up any possible intoxication.
The glass top shouldn't really affect it in anyway unless you allow it to get really dirty with salt buildup or any type of mineral calcification. What affects the light spectrum is the depth of the water. If your tank is very deep (more than 2 feet) then you place lights closer to water and get more wattage.
The brown looking algae is hopefully only brown algae and not slime algae. The reason is that the slimy kind suffocates polyps and if left to spread will kill them. If it is jus hairy brown algae then your hermits should clean it up or maybe you need to get more emeralds and hermits and snails. Well, that's my input, hope it helps.

 

[daisy]

Any idea how to tell the difference between brown slime algae and brown hair algae? The algae is short and waves in the current, so I'm hoping it leans toward the hair variety. The funniest thing is that the place it is the most prevalent is on the shells of the hermits!