Need ideas for Macro forest/refugium in 50g tank

[sfsuphysics]

Eventually I'm going to be moving my main tank 135G into a dedicated tank room in my house (currently in living room) and I have a 50g tank laying around I'd like to turn into a nice visible type of refugium, or macroforest. Now I don't want wall to wall plants so the tank is just full of green crap (and I realize pruning will help that). The tank is 20" tall, and I plan on using 2 55w pc bulbs as the lighting, in addition to whatever indirect light it gets from the window. Also plan on essentially making it into a massive overflow for the main tank (but that's another thread).

Now my question is what sort of plants would be good for this tank? I was thinking start at the sand with some shoal grass and/or turtle grass. I would also keep some red graciliara in there since something in my main tank likes eatting it whenever I put a sprig or two in there. Also having seeing floridapets.com I might be interested in some C.prolifera, and even though I'm not quite sold on the "healing natures of it mentioned on the webpage" I have heard its one of the nicer Caulerpas to have. But as mentioned I dont want a huge mass of green in there, just enough so that it looks good, there will be a DSB as well as some baserock (that's probably technically "live" from my main tank that's been in for a bunch of months, just no coraline growth on it). So I'm thinking chaeto is probably not a good thing because it grows too fast and gets quite bunchy. Does anyone have any other personal advice, with some pictures too so I can get an idea

Also are there any other places other than floridapets.com that sell the stuff online? I'd like to have some options even though I've delt with Floridapets and they are fabulous. I'd go grab some seagrass myself out of the ocean, but being as I live in San Francisco I'm afraid i'll kill anything since the water is quite a bit colder here than my tank

 

[xcreonx]

turtle grass is nice. i have lots of it if you'd want some... just PM me. i also have shoal grass and manatee grass. also, mangroves are great (but they need an open top and would be burned by the lights needed for seagrass). any macro algaes would work too: i have several species of caulerpa and some other.

just make sure to not put any big herbivours in there! my tang chomps down on my caulerpa!

 

[sfsuphysics]

Wow that's great, thanks for the offer, I'll probably take you up on it in a month or so, I'd like to get the tank ready before I get macro, although I could put it in my 18g long refugium, that one is kinda crowded with graciliara & chaeto (I think).

Wasn't really planning on making it a fish habitat, but who knows, 50 gallons is alot of space, I definately will put SOME critters in there (hence why I said a pseudo refugium).

 

[xcreonx]

i have some pipefish in my refugium and they are perfect for it. they eat little pods and crustaceans that live in the macros.

remember, turtle grass and other seagrasses needs LOTS of light!

PM me when you might want some. I have quite a bit left from setting up my tank for a good price just PM me.