Lets Share Some Pictures

[Joe Kelley]

Hi,
Nice idea for a forum. I really love the idea of including algae and plants in salt water aquaria.
My favorite book on this topic is Dynamic Aquaria.
So to show some support I'd like to share some pictures with you and maybe get things going.

Joe

 

[Project Reef]

I'm w/ you Joe, gotta love the greenery. It adds a lot of harmony to our tanks. Especially turtle grasses and uncommon algea growths.

 

[Joe Kelley]

What are your experiences with mangroves PR?
I thought you had some?

j

 

[eddie]

joe
those are some good pics
great mix to..

 

[Project Reef]

I had about 20 or so mangroves until I decided to disassemble the little mangrove project due to the need for extra space. I gave the majority of them to the LFS, they didn't look good for a few months, (dormant I believe), then all of a sudden they started to look great at the store, they had them under Halides originally, then transferred them under P.C. lighting.

IMO, mangroves are pretty hardy and can grow as long as they are kept in a stable environment and they are not moved around and relocated often. Basically as long as you let them chill out, they will become accustomed to their environment and will adapt and grow in that environment.

Same thing w/ sea grasses.

 

[Joe Kelley]

Thank Eddie!~)

Yes PR, I agree. I had a mangrove and it grew well but when I moved it, it died!~(

The sea grass really does best left alone. I have some that grows so much faster, seemingly under away from and in less light. Perhaps they are picking up organics in the substrate. Hmm.

Another,

Joe

 

[billsreef]

Nice pictures Joe. The organics could well be why your sea grasses do well even in the shaded areas. I find that seems to be more important that light intensity.

 

[skylsdale]

Hey Project Reef, I should be setting up a mangrove tank in about a month or so(my plan is all layed out in a thread up in the Advanced forum...) If you have any bits of info or tips I would love to hear them. Feel free to PM me--I don't want to hijack this thread.

 

[dattack]

Would it be an unnatural to put mangroves in the main tank?

 

[Scleractinian]

Would it be an unnatural to put mangroves in the main tank?

Dattack, the main tank's unnatural!

Actually, I've been waiting to move to a climate where I could replicate some of the hyper saline lakes that I spent too much time in on San Salvador... the bottom is mostly calcareous and organic ooze, very unstable, so almost all of the sessile life uses the available stucture: mangrove prop roots! Very cool.. but It's be hard to have a tank filled w/mangroves in the living room (at least at my house), so it'll have to wait until I can move south or build that greenhouse.

I believe that J. Sprung has maintained several small coral tanks with mangroves featured, and TRA and MCRA have several pics of such systems.

 

[kmk2307]

This is a cool pic from the Shedd aquarium in their Sea Horse exihibit. It's just Caulerpa prolifera but IMHO it looks really cool.

Kevin

 

[Joe Kelley]

That is nice. When was that taken?

Joe

 

[kmk2307]

It looks like they were uploaded to my computer on October 11th so they were probably taken about a couple days or so before then. I love that fish too

My plan is to set up a 20 XH w/ 250 watts of MY and get a nice forest of Caulerpa prolifera like that and get a mated pair of banggai cardinals in there. And trim like crazy!!! I'm tempted to get it going and then get a pair of sea hares ("sea bunnies") from IPSF to keep the growth down but then I would have to worry about them getting scared and putting out that nasty dye. I'd like to put a big scolymia or solitary polyp in there too.

Anyway that was probably more than you cared to hear but I'm a big Caulerpa prolifera fan

Kevin
----
edit: originially i said "...have to worry about them going sexual too." I just wasn't thinking. Actually, they apparently produce lots of tasty larva that corals enjoy consuming.

 

[Dragonlady]

Here is an interesting red-maroon macroalgae.

 

[Joe Kelley]

Oooo nice Dragon Lady!
Bill this is kind of what I mean by shaded growth. The main plant is under quite a bit more light. It shoots out a rizome(spelling) and the new growth heads for dimmly lighted territory.

Joe

 

[chicki]

I'm trying to grow some macroalgaes in my tank. I bought some of this a few weeks ago and it doesn't look like it's getting roots?? does anyone know if this type likes to grow in substrate or rocks? I have it on the rock right now. I think it's a red algae of some sort?
thanks
p.s. neat thread!

 

[Joe Kelley]

Oooo, I like that Chicki, not sure what it is though. I have not seen that in person. Can you ask your LFS where it may have come from?


HTH
Joe

 

[chicki]

I'll ask when I'm in there next. In one of my books it looks to me like a Rhodophyta algae?? (grateloupia filicina)??thats the closest in type but the color is a little different, in the book. Or halymenia sp.??

 

[Dragonlady]

Here is an interesting red-maroon macroalgae.

*
I forgot to add that the attached picture of the red macroalgae in my other post to this thread might be
Plocamium,
Halymenia, or
Gracilaria textorii.
Maybe that will help someone else trying to ID the same macroalgae.

* It would have been so much easier to read to just edit the above post, but oh well.

 

[Joe Kelley]

Dragon lady and Chicki,
I have had some beautiful red algae come and go that just grew from live rocks. I mean really nice stuff. It grew best under less light and who knows what nutrients were thier fuels.
Look behind the eels there is some red algae that was named dragons tounge,

I think that I have more pictures of it somewhere.

HTH

Joe