My 75 gallon macro tank

[mcdonous]

Great looking tank man and great idea making it as low maintenance as possible. I'm trying to go that route but its hard to find nice Macros Locally.

Thanks.
If I only shopped for macros locally I would only have <10 species after a lot of searching. That is with me going to all stores within 2.5 hours drive (at least 9 or 10 stores). Most LFS close to me might carry red gracilaria or might carry chaeto or might carry a caulerpa but they certainly don't carry all of them at once (or even on purpose).

I can't recommend Gulf Coast ecosystems enough for ordering online from. They have always shipped everything fast and well packed. I recommend their variety packs, a quick way to get lots of variety.

Every time I do go to a LFS though I look for any type of algae hitchhiker and will often comb through any live rock pools for the rare treat. I go prepared to buy a whole rock/coral if it has a hitchhiker that looks cool. My three coolest ones I got were just tiny starts on rubble. Found a few others that never made it in my tank.

Make sure you watch your tank levels much more closely when you have less algae to use all those extra nutrients, especially with a newer tank.

-Steve

 

[joejoe1055]

your tank looks great
what kinda flow are u getting?

 

[SantaMonica]

What happens if you don't trim?

 

[mcdonous]

I've never calculated flow. I have an overflow box and matched return plus 2 maxijets and another pump burried in the rocks. Sorry I don't remember which models I have. I just went to premium aquatics for the pumps and just told them my tank size and setup and said give me pumps.


If I don't prune then the algae grows so thick that the tops often are exposed above the water. It messes up the surface cleaning action of the overflow and the micro bubbles from the return start to collect into a brown foam. The algae and the foam start to block the light of the lower tank and some of my corals don't like that. When I move the tank I am going to remove a layer of the rock to drop the height of the tank down or maybe upgrade the 75 to a 120 for the extra height.

Currently the tank needs a large pruning I just haven't had a change to tackle it yet.

-Steve