Macroalgae and moss ball are pale?
Moderator: Mustafa
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o.Ohill
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Macroalgae and moss ball are pale?
I have been noticing for a while how pale my plants are. They both came from Mustafa green but aren't as vibrant anymore. I tried looking at other forum posts to see if it's too much light/too little light/not enough nutrients/too many nutrients but really can't tell. The mossball seems to be slowly growing, with a pale outer layer and the inner core still green...? Does anyone know how I can restore their color/health? Thank you!
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Mustafa
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Re: Macroalgae and moss ball are pale?
Is there a lot of surface algae growth in your tank? If so, that may mean that your tank has too many nutrients. Paradoxically, these two species thrive in a medium to low nutrient environment and get outcompeted by surface growing algae in high nutrient environments. If you have been feeding, stop feeding until the surface algae decrease/disappear. The shrimp and snails will take care of them over time. If you haven't been feeding, then your tank started out with lots of nutrients which need to decrease over time (plants will take them up).
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drsk
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Re: Macroalgae and moss ball are pale?
For my tank, I believe it was too much light that caused my mossball (from petshrimp) to start to go pale green (not to the point of being white like yours though). I was using a plant grow light from Amazon on a low setting on a 12 hour cycle, and what I found was the mossball pieces that were exposed to light consistently for 9 months started to go pale green. Whereas that mossball chunk that went missing months ago (underneath and between rocks), I dug out recently and it was a vibrant green like when I had received it.
Anecdotal of course, but I would suggest playing with your light settings. You can think of it in a way where if light is constantly shining at high intensity on your macroalgae, then the cells never get much rest and are constantly photosynthesizing and running through metabolites, causing it to go pale. As an example, in your picture you can see how the outer portion of the mossball (which receives the brunt of light) is more pale than the inner. I'm currently experimenting with a shorter and less intense light cycle to see if color will recover for the mossball pieces.
Anecdotal of course, but I would suggest playing with your light settings. You can think of it in a way where if light is constantly shining at high intensity on your macroalgae, then the cells never get much rest and are constantly photosynthesizing and running through metabolites, causing it to go pale. As an example, in your picture you can see how the outer portion of the mossball (which receives the brunt of light) is more pale than the inner. I'm currently experimenting with a shorter and less intense light cycle to see if color will recover for the mossball pieces.