Planted tank

[Joey88again]

I have a 55 gallon reef and I would like to get a refugium. But I read an article on the web and this guy had two tanks linked together they were both display tanks. One was a reef and one was a planted tank with a queen angel. I would like to make a 29 gallon tank and grow plants and some fish native to lagoons like cardinals and link it to my 55. So it will provide pods and nitrate free water. Could someone shed some light on this? I need advice on lighting, macro algae choice, and how to get the water back and forth.

 

[Algae Blenny]

I think it would be better to post on the Reef Forum, about the lighting and plumbing.

 

[getwet]

Actually, I've been investigating doing something similar.

You need bright lights on both tanks. In order to get the lagoon grasses to grow. They also need iron....currently I'm looking to see if anyone has tried a laterite mix in the gravel or not....but in any case you can add a liquid supplement, and you also need some mud material in the sand bed.

As for connections and plumbing.... lagoon tank should sit higher than the reef tank so it can feed it. You don't need high throughput from one to the other, but you will need additional flow in the reef tank, as the lagoon tank should be in the range of 2-4x per hour turnover vs. 10-40x in the reef.

there's a start for you.

 

[Plantbrain]

Laterite has been added, you can use iron filings if you want also, both are ferric Fe3+ till reduction is low enough or the plant's roots, bacteria reduce the iron.

This, along with some organic matter/aragonite is what makes up the mud filters.

You still need to add iron to the water column though..........

Regards,
Tom Barr

 

[getwet]

Thanks Tom, saves me the trouble of creating a post for it.

I have just been going back and reading all your posts...you and Bill. Very nice work.

Looking forward to setting up a tank like this.

 

[ChrisB]

Can you use the seachem Flourite mixed in with your agragonite sand?

 

[Plantbrain]

SeaChem makes a grey colored marine sand which is the same thing as their Onyx for FW plants.
It has buffering unlike Flourite, I'd use that for base along with some mulm from an established DBS.

Mulm is the organic "Dirt" that you would vacuum out of gravel during the a water change, let the water settle in the bucket, decant off the clear water, save the mulm in the bottom, add this and the onyx to the bottom, 1 inch, cap with 2-3" of aragonite sugar sized grain sand.

This adds precisely what is needed for plant and macro growth.
Live bacteria, critters, some organic material, trace elements etc.

The soft bottom plants will like this.

Regards,
Tom Barr

 

[billsreef]

I've found organic rich to be far more important than iron enriched substrates. Even with the iron rich substrate, the grasses still seem to need iron supplementation in the water. Terestrial plants are known to be able to adsorb iron through thier leaves, I suspect sea grasses do the same.