Suggestions for Nano macroalgae

[discordja]

full disclosure: While I'm working on putting a 29 together (I live in an apartment so larger isn't really possible without bringing the land lady down on me), this is really my first foray into reef keeping. The image below is a bit rough since I need to scrape some green algae from the glass off. This is about 1.5 weeks into set up. Thankfully, having received some rock and seed sand from steveoutlaw, it cycled rather quickly. It's lighted by coralife 2x65 PCs

 

This is 10 gallons.

 

That out of the way, after I've read till my eyes fell out I'm looking for a suggestion or two about macroalgae for some help in the nutrient export process in addition to semi regular water changes.

 

I've tried to keep the tank open so fish (maybe a pair of clowns, or yellow tailed damsels) aren't constrained and have some cubby holes to hide away to. Larger algae growths like halimeda while controllable can't be hidden. Not that I don't mind it visible as long as it doesn't detract too very much from the overall asthetic.

 

So I'm sorta tryin to decide between say ..

 

clearing one of the back corners just a bit and keeping a ball of cheato. don't know a whole lot about this stuff.

 

a halimeda in the back center and letting it just become part of the tank asthetic. does this tend to bloom out and eat up your upper layer tank space or does it stand more veritical? will I need to make sure to add an additional dose of calcium every week or so to keep it from competing with corals?

 

the same questions would also apply to red kept for example.

 

a few tufts of maiden hair which are by far the most attractive visually. I know this stuff normaly comes on it's own stone. will it try to spread if it's left too close to the rock structures? (i.e. will I need to clear enough space for it so it doesn't encroach on 'other than it's own' territory) if it's *not* allowed close to the rocks will it stay more or less indefinitely a maximum size allowed by it's rock?

 

And I guess lastly, with the rock in here now (about 15#), a 1.5 inch sand bed and in a few weeks when my 29 cycles out and I move some of the margarita snails over and replace with ceriths to stir the sand bed some more, how much am I really gonna need to keep my nitrates down? Am I fighting something before I know it's gonna be an issue at all?

 

okay well .. lots of newbie questions! thanks in advance!

 

 

Steve

[lmeyer]

Steve,

 

I've never kept a reef this small, so I'm not an expert in the least. It seems to me that you are progressing really well. I'm not sure that you need to add any algae yet unless you are doing it because you actually like the way it looks. If you only plan to add a couple of small fish you don't need to feed too much and can keep the water in check without the algae. I keep a 20 gallon (fish only with live rock) with only 2 fish. I have no significant filtration, rarely do water changes, and the tank does just fine. Once you start adding coral, the water quality becomes a much more important issue, but I would be inclined to start with doing regular water changes first, adding a hang on tank protein skimmer second, and adding macro a distant third (if at all) in that situation. Of couse the type of coral you are planning on adding makes a big difference in this, do you have any thoughts on that subject?

 

Larry

[discordja]

Nope, I'm not really sure if I even know enough to start even generating decisions on things like that, but for now likely just softies (trees, leathers, mushrooms .. I've already got some hitchhiker zoo and a clove that came from steves) and perhaps a brain / some less sensitive lps. And I'm always open to suggestions in that department.

 

But after I slept on it a night I got to take a step back (I had spent most of the hour before trying to work the rock into something pleasing visually so I can't say I was too objective at the time heh) and will likely just let it ride for a while and see where on earth it goes. It could very well be sustainable as it is once life starts moving in and I just keep with some consistent water change schedule on something this small.

 

Thanks!

 

Steve,

 

I've never kept a reef this small, so I'm not an expert in the least.  It seems to me that you are progressing really well.  I'm not sure that you need to add any algae yet unless you are doing it because you actually like the way it looks.  If you only plan to add a couple of small fish you don't need to feed too much and can keep the water in check without the algae.  I keep a 20 gallon (fish only with live rock) with only 2 fish.  I have no significant filtration, rarely do water changes, and the tank does just fine.  Once you start adding coral, the water quality becomes a much more important issue, but I would be inclined to start with doing regular water changes first, adding a hang on tank protein skimmer second, and adding macro a distant third (if at all) in that situation.  Of couse the type of coral you are planning on adding makes a big difference in this, do you have any thoughts on that subject?

 

Larry

44792[/snapback]

[Prunfarm]

Don't know if you've been there yet, but nano-reef dot com is very helpful. I had a 10g w/ a fuge for a while. It was fun to have, but the evap was killing me. I didn't feel like buying a ATO (that would've been the most expensive thing on the tank, since I had everything else on hand). I had mushies, softies, a torch, frogspawn, zoas, cerith snails, nass. snails, margarita snails, pom-pom crab, but no fish. You've got plenty of light to put anything but SPS in there. But definitely look into nano-reef, and you'll see a million ideas for HOB fuges which will keep the macros out of the display.

[davelin315]

You can always modify a hang on filter to house macroalgae and act as a refugium (do a search for sugarmagnolia, she did a nice thread on modifying an aquaclear filter). I noticed what looks like a bio-wheel in your filter, I would take that out as its only function is for aerobic respiration, and you want a balanced colony of aerobic and anaerobic bacteria.

 

Anyway, caulerpa could pose a problem in that it could disintegrate on you (called going sexual) and release all of the nutrients that were in them back into the water and also causing a spike in ammonia as the plant matter decays. I can give you some chaetomorphia or halimeda, neither of which will disintegrate and ruin your water quality. Chaeto, in my opinion, is better in a refugium because it's not really attractive but does offer tons of hiding places for pods. Halimeda is more attractive in a tank itself although it will pull calcium from your water, although not in really high amounts from what I understand.

 

I have both in my system, and like I said, the chaeto is in the refugium and the halimeda is in the display. Let me know if you want some and when you pick up the sand I'll give you some.

 

Dave