100G Macro Garden

Welcome to the Garden! I'm still in the early stages with this tank, and I'll be setting everything up over the next few weeks to months. Follow along and I'll try to be good with the updates and the photos!

History:
I started in reefing with a 12g nanocube that morphed into a 20 long about a year ago. Keeping a reef was always a challenge for me as my budget and time are limited. I kept my corals and two clowns alive and happy for the most part, but my coral growth was so limited! It quickly became frustrating for me that I really couldn't afford the testing and dosing equipment I think I needed to have prospering corals. Last month on a whim, I decided to buy a bunch of macro algaes to help me with a microalgae bloom I'd been struggling with, and got more growth out of them than I'd had out of my corals all year! It was love at first sight, and a 20 gallon wasn't going to do it anymore. Enter the 100 gallon!

Specs:

• 48"x16"x24" tall glass tank
• 6 48" T5HO bulbs of varying type, to be fine-tuned
• Supplemental full spectrum LEDs from the 20g, I think it's got 12RB, 8NW, 2OCW, 2TV for those LED nerds out there.
• Coralife Skimmer rated for 150gallons
• Various powerheads and whatnot for flow

So I'm trying something different with this tank, as my goals are so different from reefing. The goal with macros is to keep your nitrates around 10ppm so your algaes don't starve! They seem to love their trace elements around where corals like 'em, and they do need supplemental iodine. Because of this, I'm using tap water :O I KNOW! Take a deep breath, macros also absorb some of those evil heavy metals that can come in from tap water as well. The water in my area is incredibly hard, great for those trace elements, and pretty dirty, starting at about 10ppm of nitrates, but with low phosphates. I'll top off with filtered water to try to keep the buildup of heavy metals to a minimum.

Algaes:

• Caulerpa prolifera
• Caulerpa Sertulariodes
• Caulerpa Mexicana
• Halimeda Opuntia
• Halimeda "Mermaid's Fan"
• Halimeda "Shaving Brush"
• Gracilaria Hayi
• Gracilaria Sp.
• "Red Grape" Botryocladia
• "Tea Cup" Acetabularia Sp.

Livestock:

• 2 ocellaris clowns
• Squamosa clam
• montipora caps
• frogspawn
• Zoas
• toadstool leather
• mushrooms
• Mycedium coral
• trumpet coral

The corals that will remain in this tank are the ones who have always thrived in my tank, no matter what I threw at them. They're going to need close monitoring to make sure they can deal with the new specs.



FTS 11/3/2013

 

Love it, no Halymenia? The red algae really makes it. You must have a ton of pods.
What brand of T5 bulbs and what color order? I always kill my macros by baking them.

 

I have something like it, but I'm not really sure if it's Halymenia or Gracilaria. It's very red and has a branching structure, not leafy. I'm working on the pods! It's still too early to tell . My lights are kinda all over the place, I got the fixtures second hand with second-hand bulbs. I think i have a couple of 12ks, 2 acitinics, and maybe a couple coral growth ones? I keep forgetting to look when I'm at home. I'd really like to build a hood for the tank so I can organize the lights better and get at them easier. I can tell you that I had all those LEDs I mentioned 12 inches over my 20 long and most of my macros loved it. I had some other red macros and a beautiful red-orange branching one that melted. I'm not sure whether it was an acclimation problem or a lighting problem. I just figured I was bound to lose some of them.

 

Pretty cool, where you at in Sac?

 

Actually a town over, in Woodland. You local?

 

Interesting tank and idea. Do keep us updated on the progress.

 

Other side of EG, Galt. Work in west sac.

 

Went shopping this weekend and got 2 bangaii cardinals, currently in quarantine, a flame hawkfish fondly named Henry, a cleaner shrimp I haven't seen since adding to the tank, and a decorator crab, who lurks. Also, a bunch of snails.

Here are some photo updates of growth and of new members!

FTS 11/17/2013

 

a great tank idea I have wondered why no one else has done more "show" refugium. With so many planted tanks out there that is.

 

Thats pretty cool! Gotta love macroalgae