Marine Plants / Algae

[Ram_Puppy]

ok, so down in the Nano area I have been tossing around the idea of setting up a 'planted' marine tank.

this would in essence be a display refugium... so it's really nothing fancy.. i just want it to focus on macro algae and marine plants.

So...

I am thinking to myself, what do I want to put in it?

I know for sure I want:

Algae:
Red Grape Algae
Ochtodes

Plants:
Mangrove


I am thinking maybe a shaving brush, and some maidens hair but totally unsure.

has anyone kept maidens hair before? how long do the 'fronds' grow?

[cpreefguy]

bryopsis too!

I like shaving brush, check out codium also. Maybe it cold be a dwarf sea horse tank?

[Ram_Puppy]

mm.. maybe.. but that runs into all new issues of it's own and I am not sure i want to go there... I am very curious about sea horses but not enough to take the plunge.

[Richard]

http://www.marineflora.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=2

Seahorses aren't that difficult.

[Ram_Puppy]

i have been looking at seagrasses, they require at least a 6" bed, and preferrably 24" of water over that... decidedly out of the realm of 'nano'... I would LOVE to do a tank like that, but it would be a few years down the road.

thanks for the links guys, I will run off and investigate now...

oh.. and bryopsis... heck no! just caught that!
Dead Mand Fingers? yes, I like! some info I have seen shows them to be intertidal - but i think they can probably do just fine in a tank... probably to large for a nano though.

this might be something that just can't be done 'well' in a nano... but I am not bowing out yet. I think maidens hair stays short, if that is the case, it would make a nice 'ground cover' looking sort of like sea gras..

I am also faltering towards brakish, as i could keep a dwarf puffer in there... but i think they can be acclimated to full strength sea water. so still not sure.

[Ram_Puppy]

found bills reef www.billsreef.com

they sell lots of seagrass and manatee grass, looks like it might be a decent source for spaghetti worms as well.

[Ram_Puppy]

christine,

I think the best way to go about doing a full blown system would to be to plumb it into that 300 gallon monster! ;)

[Ram_Puppy]

oh, I found a cool kit for CO2 on ebay made by redsea, it's perfect for any type of nano, whether it be planted, or you want to drive a calcium reactor... it's a little fella that uses paintball co2 co2 bottles.

just search for redsea co2

[Bill S]

Have SEEN what happens to a planted tank? Check out my 55:

http://www.maast.org/modules.php?set_albumName=bstreep&op=modload&name= gallery&file=index&include=view_album.php

I throw out a about a gallon bag a week from this tank! Oh yeah. It has seahorses too.

[Richard]

lol...same link richard. Yeah I dont think the larger species would be difficult but how difficult are the dwarfs?


I'm going to do a little 10 gallon dwarf seahorse/planted tank in the near future. Other than hatching bbs for them daily they are the easiest sh to keep. Just have to do some qt on everything (lr, macros etc.) before it goes in the tank because pests like hydriods, aiptasia etc. will kill them. Hacthing bbs is easy so not a big deal to me. I also am setting up a 10 gallon as a culture for some little calaniod copepods that I have in a fuge. They are about the size of newly hatched bbs, so will be perfect for dwarfs. These will be used to supplement the dwarfs for times when I just can't hatch the bbs like vacations or what not. Dwarfs have large fry that can eat newly hatched bbs so it's easy to raise them in the same tank as the parents. So they kinda resupply you with new horses, good thing since they have fairly short lifespans.

I'm setting up a 210 sh tank now plus tanks to raise the fry so it'll be a little while before I do the dwarf tank. SH's can become addictive just like corals I have found out.

[Ram_Puppy]

Richard, is that the tiggerpod culture you have been thinking about?

I swear if you set one up commercially i will buy from you!

- subliminal message - DO IT -

[Richard]

Steve - no these are tiny copepods, no bigger than newly hatched bbs. I have a tigger pod culture going but I won't be selling them although we do have the tigger pods in stock again. They are SO easy to culture all you need is a 5 gallon bucket, a cheap light, some dt's live phytoplankton, and some liquid Miracle Grow plant food to keep the phyto growing. They reproduce like crazy.
The little copepods that are thriving in my fuge have been tough to culture so I have to figure out WTH they need to thrive and reproduce.

On another note, I ordered my dwarf seahorse tank :)
http://www.cadlights.com/product_info.php?cPath=2&products_id=34

[erikharrison]

I am also faltering towards brakish, as i could keep a dwarf puffer in there... but i think they can be acclimated to full strength sea water. so still not sure.

I have a dwarf puffer! They are FULL of personality, and the reason that I had been inspired to buy a s/w tank in the first place. A little 1/2" fish got me to this??? HUH?
You can do some other puffers, as I am sure you know, in brackish, but you have to consider space! Looks like that's why you went with dwarves? IDK about the whole s/w switch with them though. The shaving brushes look pretty sweet too!

[brewercm]

I've been thinking about turning my 14 gallon biocube into a seahorse tank since I can't seem to find anyone that wants to buy it at a decent price (just want me to give away a two month old tank, no thanks just go buy full price then). OK, that was my rant but was curious about the smaller horses myself and am wanting more info on the smaller versions that can go in this since it would be a seahorse only tank.

What should I stay away from as far as clean up type critters go for this type of system. I'm also a little worried about putting live rock into it after reading about the aiptasia now, seems every piece of LR I've every bought probably had some in it somewhere.

Any further info.

[Richard]

Cliff, a 14 gallon isn't really a good size tank for seahorse's. Too small for regular sh's and a little big for dwarves. You would have to keep a very large herd of dwarf's to make that work well. Usually people stay under 10 gallons to keep dwarfs. The only sh that might work would be a pair of breviceps but they are temperate so then you'd have to get a chiller to keep the temps in the mid 60's. So it would be better to get a smaller tank for dwarves or a bigger tank for normal size seahorses.

Alot of people will not use liverock with dwarves because of the pests. I'm going to use some tonga branch since it is not full of holes so it's easy to spot aiptasia and remove any you see. I'll treat it with panacur also just to make sure I don't get hydroids in the tank. Most people will also treat any macro algaes with panacur before they put them in the tank since hydroids can tag along with macros also..