plant tank

[fishking]

my teacher wants me to start a plant tank with a couple of damsels, what is the best sand to use, is internal hang on filter sufficent enough for a tank approx. 30-40 gallons and is a floodlight sufficent enough to support the light need of chaetos and other plants

 

[Fishfreak218]

depends, are you talking Macro algeas OR Seaweeds or both??

 

[fishking]

macro only

 

[Samala]

Macro only tank will let you get by on a lot less in terms of light and substrate. I wouldn't do a floodlight though, I'd get one of the still-cheap but nice looking Coralife normal output T5 strips they're selling and pack on enough to reach 2wpg. Macros will grow well under that amount of light, but they wont be annoyingly fast growing either. Hang on style filter is probably fine.. do get some base rock or a leetle bit of live rock to provide for holdfasts and some structure in the tank. I prefer medium grained sand, even for the sandbed macros. Many people have used southdown grade fine sand as well. I dont think it matters too much on grain size, its really more up to personal preference for macros.

Look up "eleodes" posts and contributions here, or try PMing. Eleodes has built a couple of classroom tanks and one in particular is all macro with some rock structure and its gorgeous.

>Sarah