My Macro Lagoon

[phobos2deimos]

This is my third macro-heavy tank. *I upgraded to this from my old 60 in February 2015.*
(I'll start off with a backlog of info/pics, then keep updates!)

48" x 24" x 14"
70 gallons
1.5" drain


Didn't want to drill another hole, so I used the single 1.5" drain (still need to add a durso or something similar. *I love herbie setups, but am going the lazy route this time!)

And how's this for cheap... ordered a couple of these $9 powerheads for circulation.
I have three of these in the 70, in addition to the Eheim1000 return. *Just* enough flow, but it works well.

Only complaint is that they don't always start up in the right direction, but good flow (~500gph is about right), easy to position, quiet, moderately-wide flow (between an MJ and a K2).

My RBTA that moves every day seems to have finally found the perfect solution to his wanderlust... attached to a piece of macro that was floating around the tank!

Cleaner in his new home:

The RBTA looked kinda cool since I half-****ed it off.

Added a tiny little Diamond Goby too. *This guy is cool and keeps the sand *super* clean, but because of that I always have a thin layer of silt on everything in the tank. :/

 

[phobos2deimos]

Current collection: (I'll try to keep this up to date!)
All pictures are mine.

Blue Scroll (Padina sp.)
Gracilaria Hayi
Gracilaria Mammillaris
Gracilaria (Unidentified)
Gracilaria Parvispora (?)
Dragon's Tongue
Dragons' Breath
Mermaid's Wine Glass/Tea Cup (Acetabularia sp.)
Cladophora sp.
Palm Tree Caulerpa (Caulerpa Paspaloides)
Caulerpa Serrulata
Caulerpa Brachypus
Caulerpa Prolifera
Tufted Joint Algae (Cystoseria Barbata)
Eucheuma Spinosum
Codium sp.
Galaxaura sp.
Nemastoma sp.
Red Fern (Haliptilon sp. or Gelidium Serrulatum)
Red Branch (Scinaia Huismanii or Ahnfeltiopsis?)
Rose Petal (Halymenia Porphyraeformis or Dilitata?)
Scinaia Forcellata or Tsinglanensis
Bryothamnion sp.
Neomeris sp. (Annulata?)
Enteromorpha sp.
Halimeda sp (Opuntia?)
Red Mangroves



Acanthophora Spicifera
Red Grape (Bortyrocladia sp.)
Sargassum sp.
Codium sp.
Dictyota sp.

 

[phobos2deimos]

We're looking good!

Scinaia sp.:

G. Hayi:

Bryothamnion sp.:

Galaxaura Sp.:

Mangroves doing well. *Hoping for branches soon!

 

[phobos2deimos]

New green lettuce sea slug! *Cool little bugger.

I made 250 DIY root fertilizer tabs yesterday and buried them in under the mangroves, Brachypus, Serrulata, and Prolifera. *Hoping to see good results with that. *(well, then I learned that macros don't obtain nutrients through their 'roots' at all, so most of it was wasted effort!)


Porcelain Crab!

Scinaia Forcellata (or Tsinglanensis?) Seems to be doing well in medium light and medium-low flow.
I need to learn my camera better so I can get a proper depth of field on some shots.

I think I lost one of my three green bubble tips, dropped a rock on it and then had a temp spike. *Here's one that's happy at least.

Nitrate today is 50ppm, phosphate was .25. *Dosed 1ppm of phosphate. *
Starting to consider maybe keeping my phosphate levels around 1ppm regularly, sort of like EI dosing for freshwater planted. *Idea being that you never short your plants of fertilizer, and they will (in theory) almost always outcompete undesirable algaes. *It's when things get out of balance and the plants become nutrient-limited that microalgae takes over.

I'm wondering if the same would work for macroalgaes, but I don't know what their uptake and dependence is compared to freshwater plants. *Plants want a balance of NPK (can't remember the ratios though), but do macroalgaes expect the same? *Or would they thrive even if one of the nutrients was close to 0?


Sweet pic of my Blue Scroll rock that has finally grown in and colored up! *This macro is especially perfect in a shallow tank since the color comes out when you look topdown at it. *From an angle it's still mostly brown.

Target Mandarin came out to play, needed a tripod but this one came out okay without.

Had a few minutes for some quick shots!

Added Nemastoma last night:

Unidentified (gracilaria?) and Rose Petal (Halymenia porphyraeformis or dilitata?)

 

[phobos2deimos]

Red Fern - Haliptilon sp. or Gelidium serrulatum, Mermaid's Wine Glass/Tea Cup (Acetabularia sp. - DOA from reef2go but may be recovering), Red Branch - Scinaia huismanii or Ahnfeltiopsis?

(probably) Gracilaria Parvispora that grew out from a tiny year-old nub, and the Dragon's

 

[phobos2deimos]

Shaving Brush (Pencillus sp.)

New Melanarus Wrasse. Very nice orange under the LEDs and great personality.

Clowns always up in yo face!

 

[hobbzz]

Very nice! I'm just about to set up a 15g macro and ordered one of those pumps, but the 500gph one. Are you saying you think the 1300gph one only puts out 500? Where do you get all your macros?

 

[phobos2deimos]

Very nice! I'm just about to set up a 15g macro and ordered one of those pumps, but the 500gph one. Are you saying you think the 1300gph one only puts out 500? Where do you get all your macros?

Thanks! I'm using the 530gph ones too - they're pretty much accurate, as advertised.
I have been getting tons of stuff lately, mostly from trolling ebay but also reefs2go (prepare to waste a lot of money on shipping DOAs), live-plants, trolling LFS and sometimes local hobbyists on our awesome board.

 

[Preyou]

I love this setup. I have wanted to build out a macro tank for a while and this may be just what I need to push me over the edge.

 

[phobos2deimos]

Just imagine how much faster your tank will grow in!

 

[shah1]

Really nice and natural looking set up, I love the macro algae collection

 

[mzkrista]

Can I say that your tank is awesome! Where are you getting all this awesome macro from!? Is it a California thing lol.

 

[Reefer140]

Thanks! I'm using the 530gph ones too - they're pretty much accurate, as advertised.
I have been getting tons of stuff lately, mostly from trolling ebay but also reefs2go (prepare to waste a lot of money on shipping DOAs), live-plants, trolling LFS and sometimes local hobbyists on our awesome board.

 

[Big Hank]

I love your tank! I am dealing with the realities of a very active one-year-old at the moment, but I someday aspire to try some new projects. You've provided some great inspiration.

One question, though, really for anyone... Is there a secret to keeping acetabularia (mermaid's wine glass)? I have never had any luck, which is too bad, because I think it is absolutely beautiful. I have done well with a lot of other macros, but this one absolutely thwarted me...

Big Hank

 

[phobos2deimos]

Can I say that your tank is awesome! Where are you getting all this awesome macro from!? Is it a California thing lol.

Thanks Krista! Not much of a California thing... there's only one vendor on the West Coast (as far as I know) and he's out of stock 90% of the time, although he does have cool stuff (tiny portions) somewhat regularly.
PM incoming!

I love your tank! I am dealing with the realities of a very active one-year-old at the moment, but I someday aspire to try some new projects. You've provided some great inspiration.

One question, though, really for anyone... Is there a secret to keeping acetabularia (mermaid's wine glass)? I have never had any luck, which is too bad, because I think it is absolutely beautiful. I have done well with a lot of other macros, but this one absolutely thwarted me...

Big Hank

Thanks Hank! Considering kids soon as well... can't imagine keeping up with that, my tank, a 30 and 50 year old truck, two dogs, three cats, a wife, work, other hobbies, traveling... I don't know how people do it!
A macro tank is about as low-maintenance as it gets though! Dump some nutrients in every night, get an ATO, do a water change every three or six months, you're golden! Get herbivores and you won't even need to feed the fish!
I just received the Acetabularia, so I'm not sure what the key is yet. They looked great on arrival, and all of their tops went translucent overnight!
I've read that they're single-celled, and that cell exists in the rhizome, so they can completely regrow without their tops... we'll see! I'll be sure to keep y'all posted on my experience with this, because I'd love to see them flourish.

 

[Devaji108]

Nice setup!
cant wait to get a tank up and running.
I"ll be checking your site often. and hitting you up for macros...haha

 

[phobos2deimos]

Nice setup!
cant wait to get a tank up and running.
I"ll be checking your site often. and hitting you up for macros...haha

Thanks! I'll do my best to keep this thread updated. Get in touch whenever you're ready, always cool seeing people's new macro tanks!

 

[Devaji108]

what lighting are you using?

 

[phobos2deimos]

what lighting are you using?

Display is a 36" full spectrum chinese LED unit, the sump is two 17w 3k CREE PAR38 lamps from home depot. I get better growth for most stuff in my sump, but I need to dial my display light levels in better.

 

[mzkrista]

My macro tank Andrew

My macro tank Andrew