Reef Discussion

[Chris Robertson]

Hi all, I have just set up my first marine tank (had freshwater tanks aplenty). I'm on the NSW central coast, and have basically brought home a chunk of a very large tidal pool. Plenty of living rocks and plants. I am now learning how to keep things alive. I've increased my filtration and am getting a vacuum, so I hope my sand bed will clean completely soon. Several snails (Melenerita, Austrocochlea) are doing pretty well.

Does anyone else have a temperate (ie, not tropical) aquarium?

 

[bardus71]

Hi Chris, I stumbled upon your thread here just by chance. I was keen to do a similar thing as Lake Macquarie has some amazing areas that would make a great biotope in a tank. I had zero luck in growing any seagrasses, including paddle weed, and limited success with every type of macroalgae I could scoop up from the beach shoreline after a storm. My experimental tank was kept outdoors on a deck with indirect sunlight, and a combo of whatever T8 & T5 aquarium lights I had. The tank was going for over a year, and there was so much fun had in watching critters emerge and grow such as sea hares, but the success of it was limited with its simplicity being a no touch tank (I just topped up evaporation and let the growing algae be the food source for any critters). I had bigger plans though which you can find here...

http://thereefuge.com/threads/2-planted-marine-tank-preliminary-thoughts.6875/

This tank here was my initial inspiration...

 

[Chris Robertson]

Hi Chris, I stumbled upon your thread here just by chance. I was keen to do a similar thing as Lake Macquarie has some amazing areas that would make a great biotope in a tank. I had zero luck in growing any seagrasses, including paddle weed, and limited success with every type of macroalgae I could scoop up from the beach shoreline after a storm. My experimental tank was kept outdoors on a deck with indirect sunlight, and a combo of whatever T8 & T5 aquarium lights I had. The tank was going for over a year, and there was so much fun had in watching critters emerge and grow such as sea hares, but the success of it was limited with its simplicity being a no touch tank (I just topped up evaporation and let the growing algae be the food source for any critters). I had bigger plans though which you can find here...

http://thereefuge.com/threads/2-planted-marine-tank-preliminary-thoughts.6875/

This tank here was my initial inspiration...

View attachment 58386

Very interesting. I shall have a good read through all those references. I think that little green strappy plant in the middle off my tank photo is a true plant -- it has runners and roots. It grows like crazy, and broken stems will root. Mind you, I do give it14 hours of light, including incandescent. If the macroalge is complete with a holdfast, it seems to do OK. But I lost my first tank during cycling, and have only had the second going for about 2 months. Also, I had no idea taking a handfull of seagrass was illegal, sigh. I shall grow a lot of it and return some to The RockPool. I unfortunately lost any critters in my (formerly) live rocks when the tank crashed, so all the tiny things I was hoping for haven't eventuated. Sure was fun seeing 'em emerge to begin with, though.

Please keep me up-to-date with your tank.