Caribbean Biotope Seagrass Tank

I just returned from a two and a half week vacation. During that time, my tank was completely unattended. All fish are accounted for. As expected, the caulerpa really took off. The only real surprise was all the coralline algae on the front glass.

Here are a few pics, showing the tidying up I need to do:

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Full tank shot. Sorry about the reflections.


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Caulerpa gone wild. Also note the coralline algae spots.


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Another bad pic, but you can see the caulerpa overhang. It extends about two-thirds across the tank!

I am now in the process of cleaning up/exporting. Will post "after" pics soon.
 
I'm interested in doing a similar thing in my tank, just have to buy some macro algae. I was just going to buy it off Gulf Coast Ecosystems. Any advice as far as purchasing before I take the plunge?

I was going to do the red sampler, the halimeda sampler, and some chaeto for the sump. Was thinking a photosynthetic gorg or 2.

Thanks
Steve
 
Welcome StephenRU!

I bought the red sampler too. It's excellent. Halimeda needs supplemental calcium, like corals. So if you don't want to mess with that, skip halimeda. You don't really need chaeto in the sump, as it competes for nutrients, with your display plants. Are you avoiding the fast-growing caulerpas? They require more pruning, but they gobble up nutrients quickly, if something goes wrong, like a fish death or over dose. Gorgonians, even photosynthetic ones, require feeding, and are tough to keep alive long term. If you have success with them, please share your methods!

When I first set up my tank, I was keeping nutrients very low. All my macros gradually vanished. It wasn't until I had a decent fish load that they came back. Planted tanks are almost the opposite of reef tanks-instead of struggling to keep nutrients low, you struggle to keep them high enough!

I'd love to hear more! got a thread?
 
Love this thread so much, such a unique build and biotope you just don't see in the hobby much, I'm sure I said something similar a few pages back, just haven't been on much lately. Love the way this has developed. Me personally- when I neglect my tank a bit and see coralline rapidly growing on the glass it's just reassuring to me that my calrx and kalk rx are doing their job.
 
Kind words, C.Eymann, thanks!

It was just strange to get a burst of coralline growth, right on the front glass, where it usually doesn't grow. My calcium supplementation is limited to one compartment of my canister filter. So why the increase? What changed? It generally grows on the fringes of the light. The lighting changed when the overhanging caulerpa grew about two-thirds of the way across the tank, back to front. That's probably it!

And that's the beauty of forums-talking about stuff leads to figuring stuff out. Yay!
 
Well, I got a bucket load of caulerpa out, but there's more tidying to do. I uncovered a lot of red macros that are coming along nicely! The grasses look good too.

It's nice to be able to take trips and leave the tank for a while. The only automation I used was the timer for my singe bulb. By allowing Mother Nature to look after my tank, I get free automation! I step out of the way for a few weeks…and it flourishes.

Building my little ecosystem from the ground up, is the key.
 
Looking great! I love all the caulerpa! Having it grow out like that and it still looked amazing

Sent from my SM-N900T using Tapatalk
 
Michael Hoaster said:
Gorgonians, even photosynthetic ones, require feeding, and are tough to keep alive long term. If you have success with them, please share your methods!
Click to expand...

I got a photosynthetic Gorgonian from Gulf Coast Ecosystems a few months ago and there's no picture proof but I'm pretty sure it's doubled in size (it's the Purple Ribbon). It's in my 40 breeder with 5 T5-HO bulbs above it. I do feed frozen rotifers 3-4 days a week for my Goniopora, so I'm sure it gets some of the leftovers. I have no mechanical filtration except for my skimmer.

I keep it in a very high flow area of the tank. It has shed it's skin a couple times already, which is normal for them. I know that 4-5 months isn't long enough to be considered success, but the thing is growing like crazy. I will definitely order a couple of the other varieties when I get my new tank set up.
 
Also how's your tang doing with the macro algae would love to have a tang but I was wary of them munching...


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
nawilson89, thanks! So, you like the overgrown look, huh? Me too, but that was a bit much.

Darth_Tater, thanks for sharing your successful experience with gorgonians! Very impressive. I've added rotifers to my tank brew (food) as well.

StephenRU and jraker, I was really missing the atlantic blue tang Sunday, when I was ripping out caulerpa!
 
Man, there are a lot of cool planted tanks, here in the macro section! It's such a pleasure to have a great group, pushing the limits of the hobby and making some real progress in our niche. It's important that we keep a dialog running, sharing our successes and screw-ups. Without the glut of information that reefers enjoy, we all need each other, as a source of up-to-the-minute information.

My tank is approaching its second year. It's pretty stable now. Many of you guys' tanks are new, with their ecosystems still in development. Some of you will struggle in the coming months. Don't be embarrassed, ask for help-that's why we're here, right? About 50 pages back, I went through 3 months of cyanobacteria hell. It was rough! Water changes every weekend, along with tedious manual removal. Yuck. I guess my point is, we all struggle at some point, but at least we have each other to help. So don't hesitate to ask. There's some pretty smart guys hanging around…
 
Michael Hoaster said:
Man, there are a lot of cool planted tanks, here in the macro section! It's such a pleasure to have a great group, pushing the limits of the hobby and making some real progress in our niche. It's important that we keep a dialog running, sharing our successes and screw-ups. Without the glut of information that reefers enjoy, we all need each other, as a source of up-to-the-minute information.

My tank is approaching its second year. It's pretty stable now. Many of you guys' tanks are new, with their ecosystems still in development. Some of you will struggle in the coming months. Don't be embarrassed, ask for help-that's why we're here, right? About 50 pages back, I went through 3 months of cyanobacteria hell. It was rough! Water changes every weekend, along with tedious manual removal. Yuck. I guess my point is, we all struggle at some point, but at least we have each other to help. So don't hesitate to ask. There's some pretty smart guys hanging around…
Click to expand...

In my interim in checking reefcentral (I guess you can say I just go dormant for a while on the web, I've also been working alot and helping out my friends shop when i can, I do a lot of web stuff and writing) I went through a crazy (also amazing) bacterial bloom in my 29. Which then turned into fern caulerpa going sexual. It's been a wild ride, but I did take a page from your book and let "nature take it's course". Only adding an aquaclear filter with carbon, I waited. As the tank cleared up (took more than a week) my grape caulerpa had taken in almost all the excess nutrients and had exploded in growth all over the tank. Then a dark red/ brownish macro that I had found while in the gulf had also exploded in growth and does to this day ( I pull large amounts almost weekly). Then a few weeks later the grape went sexual, again I just waited it out. When the tank cleared up, prolifera had taken that nutrients and was everywhere! Again the brown algae also had become large bushes.

My red grapes have gotten larger. Ulva is growing off the back walls and on the outtake of the aquaclear. With just some pulling of heavy plants and dosing, it's really taking care of itself! I haven't run into cyano yet with this tank (last time I ran into cyano was years ago in a much older tank), but I am prepared to combat it when it rears it's head.
 
It's sounds like all is well, nawilson89!

One macro's loss is another macro's gain. And nice job, sitting back and letting Mother Nature do her thing!
 
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