33L or 40B for a marine planted lagoon?

[kpk]

I'm working on a new tank. I've always kept reef tanks, but I think a smaller planted all in one style would be kind of different/cool.

Either a 33L or 40B, powerhead on both sides, 2-3" of sand, some rock, but not much, different macros, and mangroves as well. I'll let it establish a little and am thinking maybe a few different cool shrimp, crabs, maybe some black clowns and a RBTA or something.

I'll have one 120w evergrow LED fixture for one end and thinking about some 6500K CFL bulbs for the other end for macro, etc.

What's your thoughts? No filter, sump, skimmer, or anthing else. Just a tank, powerheads, and a heater...

Which tank?

 

[Don Quixote]

I'm working on a new tank. I've always kept reef tanks, but I think a smaller planted all in one style would be kind of different/cool.

Either a 33L or 40B, powerhead on both sides, 2-3" of sand, some rock, but not much, different macros, and mangroves as well. I'll let it establish a little and am thinking maybe a few different cool shrimp, crabs, maybe some black clowns and a RBTA or something.

I'll have one 120w evergrow LED fixture for one end and thinking about some 6500K CFL bulbs for the other end for macro, etc.

What's your thoughts? No filter, sump, skimmer, or anthing else. Just a tank, powerheads, and a heater...

Which tank?

High light, 4-6 inch substrate, and some seagrass on top of your macro selections. Live-plants.com, floridapets.com both sell several sea grasses.
Using rooted marine plants will assist this type of setup as in the typical biotheme system in fresh water aquaria. The key here is High light and good flow otherwise growth and nutrient uptake is impaired. If you plan on only topping off the water, i would suggest investing in some supplementation of what can become limiting nutrients. Keep nitrates and phosphates from bottoming out.

 

[Amphiprion]

I'm working on a new tank. I've always kept reef tanks, but I think a smaller planted all in one style would be kind of different/cool.

Either a 33L or 40B, powerhead on both sides, 2-3" of sand, some rock, but not much, different macros, and mangroves as well. I'll let it establish a little and am thinking maybe a few different cool shrimp, crabs, maybe some black clowns and a RBTA or something.

I'll have one 120w evergrow LED fixture for one end and thinking about some 6500K CFL bulbs for the other end for macro, etc.

What's your thoughts? No filter, sump, skimmer, or anthing else. Just a tank, powerheads, and a heater...

Which tank?

I actually highly recommend a skimmer for tanks housing seagrasses, at least later on, anyway. If light is high, then it pushes growth enough that you get a fair amount of organic carbon and debris floating about. This is also why I recommend strong water motion in order to keep all of this suspended. You'll hear the opposite of what I've said sometimes, but I don't really recommend doing it that way anymore, at least not in small systems.

If you want a good starter grass, take a look at shoal grass. It's growth isn't crazy, but it isn't very demanding, either. You can take a look at some of the Halophila species, but many of them grow extremely quickly and can create problems when they do, such as nutrient limitation. They are also a shorter lived genus, which means some portions will eventually die. If this happens a lot over time, it's going to enrich your sand bed too much, making it hard to keep the tank clean. This environment will also discourage filamentous and fleshy algal growth and start to favor cyanobacteria--much like in a real seagrass bed. Not ideal for tanks, though . If it gets bad enough, it will actually start becoming less hospitable to pioneer genera, like Halophila and shoal grass.

Because of all this, I actually recommend Thalassia. Yes, it is more demanding and difficult at first, but it is nice and slow growing, making it much easier to control many of the things that are occurring and is less likely to outcompete your algae. All you need to do is very slightly enrich the area of the substrate the Thalassia shoots will be in and give them time to grow. Make sure light is reasonable, too, as this species likes a lot if you want better growth. Other than that, I find it to be one of the most resilient, pleasant species out there in an aquarium setting. Even when I've lost other species to one problem or another, my Thalassia never even so much as hiccuped.

 

[kpk]

Thank u guys for all the help! Ill ask a few more questions when I get on my pc, but a quick question on my phone lol.

Can I just use normal aragonite sand? Also, how do u enrich the area where the shoots will be? Ill probably add some zoas etc as well.

 

[Amphiprion]

Thank u guys for all the help! Ill ask a few more questions when I get on my pc, but a quick question on my phone lol.

Can I just use normal aragonite sand? Also, how do u enrich the area where the shoots will be? Ill probably add some zoas etc as well.

Yes, normal sand is fine. I use an array of grain sizes for mine.

As for enrichment, the best thing to use is just a cupful or so of aged, well-established sand (and associated mulm/detritus). You don't need or really want a whole lot, but some can help.

Seagrasses, especially Thalassia, actually do well with nice, clean oligotrophic water, but with a slightly nutritive substrate. Contrary to what you may hear, there are beds that fit this description and they tend to to be healthier than algae-smothered mesotrophic (and especially eutrophic) beds.