Did I get ripped off?

[discuspro]

I went to the Aquadome today and picked up some caulerpa. I asked for a good bunch of it, because I need to soak up some nutrients in my tank that the cyanobacteria are thriving on. Well I get up to the register and the guy says $16.50!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was like "what" in my head but I still paid it. That place has got to be using tap water for water changes or something because they always have mad algae growing. And they don't have any prices posted to as not to scare you and so that they may change the prices.

Wow! I'm still ****ed! Is there some new tax that the retail shops have to pay to get caulerpa?

The clump I got was about a good softball and a half size.

Did they take me behind the shed and have their way with me or was this legitimatly priced?

[JimD]

ummm, mighta shoulda asked how much before buying it! Also, the prices are on the clip board on the table upstairs. If you paid the price, you obviously needed it, you could have always put it back. Next time I suggest placing a want to buy ad here on maast,. Theres always someone willing to give some away.

[Ed]

FWIW, unless things have changed, Coral prices are in a notebook kept near the coral tanks and other SW price sheets are on a clipboard usually found near the bagging station.


Edit:
Jim beat me to it. I agree.

[oceancube]

yeah they took you to the back shed and did what they wanted with you!!

[hammondegge]

well you're not alone. i paid the same for some gracileria a while back. i too was shocked at the time (still am). i have learned since to expect that they will be very high on pretty much anything but fish, and there they are about average. i really havnt found any of the austin stores to have attractive prices. SA is much better with such deals as 100 glass shrimp for $10 at Aquatic Warehouse and $15 acro frags at Finaddict.
Austin, take notice! If you price attractively speak up! otherwise we will continue to drive for 2hrs for better product at better prices.

[subber]

Yep, I'll bet they didn't even kiss you first,,,,then they ......you know....

[hammondegge]

BTW, i do like aquadome and i do buy from them. i would like to see austin stores try harder though. it seems like we have to pay about 3 times the price to get the same quality here.

[cpreefguy]

you probably could have gotten it for free here on MAAST, never underestimate the generosity of MAASTards :)

[Ram_Puppy]

you PAID to put caulerpa in your system? :)

I know people on here will practically shove a ball of cheato in your hands for free if you ask.

(I know I gave 5 bags of it away last year.)

[cpreefguy]

I know I got a big bag of it from you...for free :)

[discuspro]

Actually, I know the prices are on the clipboard, but I had to make it quick and was thinking I would spend a little less. It was my fault not to look at the clipboard but in my mind I figured it would be a quick buy and I wouldn't have to THINK TWICE ABOUT GETTING SOME EXPENSIVE CAULERPA. I haven't bought caulerpa in years so I wasn't expecting it to be a little $$$.

I have had some good buys from Aquadome and they have some good customer service but I think places should have their prices right out in front and obvious.

I don't want to make this much of an issue about it, I just thought it was expensive and it caught me by surprise. I'm sure I will go back to Aquadome and buy again but I'll have to be a little more careful and proactive at looking for prices.

[Ram_Puppy]

hey Cpreefguy, how is theat Cheato doing BTW? since my 30 crashed I am fresh out... soon as I get my refugium up, if you still have some, I might hit you up for a re-fill. :)

[Ram_Puppy]

discuspro,

what are you using the caulerpa for?

[GaryP]

BTW, I doubt that Caulerpa is going to do much to prevent cyano. Hair algae yes, cyano is doubtful.

[discuspro]

Well it was a good sized clump and I kept on going back and forth in my head after I bought it whether it was priced right or not. This is all probably more blown out of proportion to me because I have pennies left to fund this research and cyano is getting me crazy. I probably shouldn't have even brought it up because I really shouldn't trash talk anyone.

The reason I got it was a dire effort to absorb some stuff that the cyano may be feeding on.

Also, I got rid of my last clump a while ago after reading about how it can release toxins but soon after I removed it cyano started to show up. It may not be the cuase or it might.

I do notice something odd, during the night the cyano gets really red but when the light comes on the cyano gradually seems to go away and all that is left is cyano in the shadowed areas in my tank. I switched to Reef Crystals and have replaced my DI media.

What I'm probably going to do tomorrow is take out all of my sand in my sump. It's not looking good, becoming anoxic. Maybe that is helping?

[GaryP]

You want your sand to be anoxic. That's where the denitrifying bacteria hang out. Denitrifying bacteria are are facultative or anaerobic and need a deep sand bed with low oxygen levels to do their thing. That is to eat nitrates.

[Ram_Puppy]

well, like Gary said, I don't think the caulerpa is going to help your situation any. Personaly, I feel it is to much of a ticking time bomb to be in anyones tank... will it go sexual? probably not, but it only has to once.

Cheato is a much better macro for nutrient control.

As for taking your sandbed out of your sump, it may agrivate the problem as will be releaseing nutrients and detrius into the water column.

Remember, that no good thing happens fast in this hobby, and be patient.

[Richard]

Well, I have "red seaweed on rock" for $25. You have to remember that when you buy livestock, much of what you are buying is shipping costs. Xenia are a great example, if I order it from most wholesalers then it would range $40 to $60 for xenia. I know I can't sell it here for that price so I get it from local sources. It doesn't matter what is on the rock, shipping is shipping. In the case of xenia you add wholesalers losses on it (not exactly a great shipper) and they have to charge $$$ to make worth getting in.

If they are growing it themselves then there isn't any reason for them to sell it for less than what their market will bear. If people buy it for that price then why not sell it for that price, business is business after all.

Personally, I hate caulerpa so to me the question is why buy it at all?

[Instar]

On the other hand, did you know that a healthy thriving Caulerpa bed means that the fish will have a much more robust immune response? Caulerpa does things for your water chemistry that can't be had in other ways. Its release of simple vitamin (amino acid) complexes is great for a tank's overall health. It makes a great refugium and is extremely effective if given a ton of light. NOT Grape Caulerpa, racemosa or maidens cup. The broad leaf feather Caulerpa or Caulerpa prolifera is the very desirable stuff. It does not readily go asexual like the other species. I have no doubt, given the correct lighting, that it will balance the tank and help illiminate some, if not all of the Cyano providing other system parameters are generally where we keep corals at. So, if it was this feather or broadleaf species and cost $16.50 for a softball size clump, that's well worth it.

[discuspro]

Well, it sounds like it wasn't too much then. I take back some of my complaining then.

I know the sandbed needs to be anoxic to consume nitrates but I think it is going slighlty anoxic right on the surface of the sand, if that is possible. It smells alot like a Corpus Christi marsh. The flow in the sump is super-super-super-super slow because of my return pump. The water flow over the sand is really slow if anything. There is detritus on top of the sand and it is turning blackish :( I've tried to have a sand sifting star, nassarius, fighting conch and hermits in there from time to time to move the sand but everything seems to live poorly in there. I've got a bunch of tiny mysis and gammarus running around the sand but that is it right now, I don't want to kill anything.

So, here is my H2O chemistry:

s.g. 1.024(unadjusted) with a glass hydrometer calibrated at 15celsius (reading was taken at 26.3celsius)
alk around 3meq/L
pH 8.234
Ca 420ppm
temp 26.3 celsius

Haven't taken phos recently but I will tomorrow. I would think that it would be low because I've used RO-DI water and Reef Crystals to make a 50% water change over a period of a week. I've also been super-aggresively skimming and have been getting a bunch of brown liquid throughout the day.

What about my light? I put an Ushio 10000K bulb back into my pendant after figuring my XM 15000K had really low intensity and not helping growth. The Ushio is definitly not as blue as the XM but it is not yellow either like an aging bulb. Although my eyes difinitely aren't as accurate as a light meter could be. Like I said it seems like the cyano doesn't like the light because it seems to disappear where the light may hit it, but thrives in the shade :huh

[Ram_Puppy]

Richard, the red seaweed on rock...

Botryocladia sp :)

my favorite macro so far. (not becuase it's good at sucking out nutrients, but because it's perty!)

[brewercm]

Ram_Puppy
If Cpreefguy doesn't have any give me a yell. My Cheato doesn't grow as fast but I do have enough I can spare some. Now if you decide you want some razor caulerpa I usually have some that can be pruned. I don't do grape caulerpa any more since I had an outbreak get into my main tank one time.

Warning: I have seen some aptasia on some of the caulerpa from time to time when pruning, can probably just remove that section though.

[GaryP]

Well here are a few things I noted from your last post.

I thinned out my fuge the other day and found I had some cyano growing on top of the caulerpa. So much for that theory. Since it was isolated in the fuge I wasn't worried about it. and manually removed it. I have a mixture of macros in my fuge. Maiden's cup seems to have out competed 2 other types of caulerpa (feather & bubble) in there. I also have Chaeto in the fuge.

The mysis and pods are probably feeding on the detritus in your sump. I would consider just siphoning out the detritus and leaving the sand bed alone. You don't want to make that sort of major change in the middle of your experiment anyway.

Testing for phosphates - Unless you are using some sort of instrumentation besides a regular hobbyist test kit, testing will only give you results for ortho phosphate. The real culprit is usually meta phosphate. If you get a positive for ortho you usually have a really big problem.

Cyano - the cause of cyano is usually detritus buildup and a resulting decrease in localized Redox in areas where detritus accumulates. The best solution for this is detritivores (small hermits, microstars, nassarius, Kole Tangs) and increased circulation. The cyano may be getting the phosphates directly from the source (detritus) and not from phosphates in the bulk water. Circulation is a bit tricky because where you need it the most is in areas that are protected from flow such as the base of rockscape and in recessed areas of the rockscape. In addition, especially in the case of at the base of the rockscape, increasing flow here can result in blowing sand. HTH

[GaryP]

One more thing. You mentioned tap water as being a source of phosphates. Tap water may have a small concentration of phosphates. However, that is microscopic in comparison to the amount you put into your tank in the form of food every day. Food containes around 1% phosphate on a dry weight basis. Uneaten food and fish waste are the real culprits when it comes to phosphates. Not tap water.

[discuspro]

I don't have anything to feed so nothing is put in, so I wouldn't know where extra phos gets into the system. The only thing that goes into my tank is new water for water changes, kalkwasser, RO-DI topoff.

[discuspro]

Just had an idea. Maybe a whole bunch of aerobic bacteria died when little oxygen had been provided on the sand bed, creating the detritus in the sump, and has thus provided nutrients or something to feed cyano? Also, what are the effects, on the tank, of Sulphur or what ever sulphur product the anoxic zone may make?

[cpreefguy]

hey Cpreefguy, how is theat Cheato doing BTW? since my 30 crashed I am fresh out... soon as I get my refugium up, if you still have some, I might hit you up for a re-fill. :)
It did great, but I sold it along with my 58 gallon, sorry :(

[Ram_Puppy]

no biggie! there are plenty of people I can get some from! :)

Brewer, If you like Macros for being pretty, the Botryocladia is a grape algae, but it is NOT related to caulerpa, it is infact a red algae. It's slow growing (from my experience). just a very prety macro.

I want to get ochtodes as well, just cause it's perty. :)