Marine Plants

[Rudolph]

Since I came from a heavily planted Discuss tank (before switching to SW) I miss dealing with some marine plants, so I am going to play around in my QT tank. So for a few bucks I ordered some Mermaids, Halimedia and Shaving Brush and someone at the frag swap handed me a bag of some red variety. It is sitting in my 29 for now until I revamp my QT with some more sand.

I will receive them next week, so I will be reading up on them, but anyone else here locally have any words of wisdom? Anyone have any in their main tanks? I have read some risks of doing so, therefore I will just limit to my QT tank for now.

 

[ducklabdad]

Most likely the Red is the Red Gracelaria that I gave away!!

 

[grannybj]

It was Bill, I remember handing some to Rudolph while I was in the sharing mode...

 

[Rudolph]

Thanks Bill and grannybj

 

[neuroslicer]

I've had mermaid's shaving brush and Halimeda in the tank as well as mangrove shoots in the sump. They are nice while they lasted but eventually either died off or got grazed down. In terms of plants to reduce nitrogenous waste, nothing grows like Chaetomorpha!

 

[Rendos]

Technically, aren't all those algaes? They differ from true plants. A true marine plant would be a mangrove. I can't think of any others.

 

[Rudolph]

Yes, my understanding is they are algaes, but I believe an algae is a plant? Why do I feel Jay is typing a correction to my statement as I am typing this?? LOL

Here is an interesting link:

http://marineplantbook.com/marinebookpage7.htm "The term “marine plants” is often used loosely in the aquarium trade to describe both macro algae and sea grass."

I have chaeto, but my primary goal was to aquascape with them. Chaeto does not lend itself to much aquascaping....anyway just playing around....didn't know if anyone else had some more marine plants/algae experiences to share...

 

[Rendos]

Either way, I did a algae tank a few years back. I used caulerpa species, halimeda, and sargassum which was my favorite. It creates little balls along the structure of the algae which help it stay afloat. It grows very quickly. Here are a few pics of the tank..

I found it hard to keep up with the needs of the algaes once they started growing. All the caulerpa species turned clear and clouded the tank, and the sargassum took over. It can grow upwards of a foot per day.

 

[Rudolph]

.....thanks for the input Richard. It will probably be a short experiement, but I can at least cross that off my list...

 

[jabo]

Here you go Kerry

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2080164