I am not sure whether to post here or biotope forums, anyway, I am in the planning stage to do a 10G aquarium that is dedicated to blastomussa species only (but i may add some acans to try and add a splash of color because all the blastos i can find so far are red and green...but i know there are some other colors out there)

I was wondering if anyone has any suggestions to help me with this? Should i add some macro algae instead of acans to add more color? I shouldn't have to have too intense lighting because these species seem to generally come from the Indonesian and Pacific areas, I think if i recall correctly, they are on the lower parts of fringing reefs, but don't quote me on that.

edit: another thing i really suck at to be honest is actually decorating the rocks with the corals, i don't know how people do that.

I am still in the considering stage, but i think this would make an AWESOME nano show tank. Please make suggestions or state ideas if you have any.

Thanks.

I think this is actually a great idea.
I think you'd be fine with PC light since they seem to prefer lower light, and I doubt they'd lose any color under PC or anything.
They also like lower flow.
I would suggest a smaller HOB filter with Carbon or Poly-Filter in it, and maybe 2 Hagen Mini-Elite pumps.
Not many use these pumps (aside from me and GobyInPeace), but they're great.
Inexpensive and small with adjustable flow, but can actually put out much more flow than you would think by just looking at them.
I think you could put both Macroalgaes and Acans in there, the tank would do well with all of those and probably look very nice as well.
As for Aquascape, I would say just look around and find someone's tank that has an Aquascape you like and copy it.
Good luck with this, I think it could be pretty cool.

Hey thanks for the suggestion! Yeah i have about 7 different looking blastomussas in my "main" 40g tank now, but i adore these corals, my favorites by far. I am thinking since they don't seem to need or like too much flow, i may do them with seahorses, especially since they don't seem to sting; however, if i did this, i probably couldn't do acans.

This is an awesome idea, I love Blastos.

There are other variants out there, but they tend to get pricey so you'll have to be willing to start with some small frags, or drop some good cash. I've seen some crazy purple blastos, and someone told me they ran across a blue one once.

My colony did fantastic under PC lighting, and are doing fine under my Halide, but I think the red was slightly better with the PC.

Adding some macro to the display could make it interesting and a bit more natural. Try to see what sort of Macro grows in their native waters and maybe put some of that in there?

Don't forget there's two blastos you can add for variety as well, Wellsi and Merletti which could help you with having some different color morphs and polyp sizes to add variety. As far as decorating the rock, just go with what looks good or have an artistic friend help out.

After I posted I saw other replies and yours about the seahorses. If you do seahorses with them I would suggest using a macro that they can hitch too.

Click to view attachment
They are the pride of my tank

I started with 8 heads and I now count 15 if you look for all the little ones (not all visible in the pic).

Click to view attachment

Those are pretty sweet, i now have 2 heads that are my FAVORITE things in my tank! check these out!

For a ten gallon, why not pick up the 2X18W T5 20" fixture? The new bulb choices that are on the horizon are pretty exciting. Should give you plenty of light for blastos too. Also, http://www.fragglereef.com/zen/index.php?m...amp;cPath=20_22 they've got a bunch of different blastos on sale. Looks pretty sweet.

mmmmmmmm...love this idea of a blasto tank. They are one of my favorites as well. I almost did what you are about to start. I ended up with an acan tank because I had problems keeping blastos for some reason. I think I may have had too much light and flow for them. I agree that a two lamp T5 fixture could be really nice for them, check out the nanocustoms thread on the new T5 lamps that UVL is introducing. Keep us updated on this project!

Hummm I haven't ever tried T5 before, I like look of a T5 tank to be honest, but would that be considered "High lighting" for a 10g?

Also, I am trying to find some pictures of blastomussa in the wild, if anyone has or knows where some are that would be most helpful.

Here's a blasto that's not the typical red/green:

http://www.uniquecorals.com/uccollection/sunset-blastomussa

I think ultimately when you get that into a tank, it'll somehow one way or another turn red or green.

Well, that all depends on how you do it.
One of the good things about T5 is that there are endless variations and options.
That can also be a bad thing since it can be hard to figure out exactly which variation will work for you.
Anyway....
If you get one of the Nova fixtures that only has one single reflector behind all of the bulbs, the light won't be as strong.
Same holds true for a Fishneedit fixture.
You can also choose lower PAR variations of bulbs, such as a Giesseman Actinic+ instead of an ATI Blue+.
UVL Super Actinic bulbs are also lower PAR.

Yeah i saw those beautiful ones. I am trying to wait to order corals until after i get the tank set up, my main display is kinda full currently.

That one is definitely on my order list amongst two others i stumbled across. Thanks for keeping an eye out for me!

WOW!

man, those are some sweet blastos...god I hate paying the shipping fees though

alright, i think i am going to actually go through with this, going to start it up on spring break next week. I decided not to do seahorses because supposedly you can only have dwarf ones in 10g or less, and the blastomussa tank i am planning is going to be a 10g.the regular ones need atleast a 24 from what i've been told. I still plan to get some macro algae and try to make it look more natural. Any suggestions on different types of colorful decorative algae? and/or fish? i don't want the typical clownfish......but i am uncertain as to which fish i want as of yet. I will probably also make a HOB fuge and harbor some chaeto on a reverse cycle to try and balance the tank a little bit more as i know smaller tanks are harder to keep balanced. I am kind of out of the skimmer loop now days, what is a good skimmer probably HOB for a 10g aquarium?

Any and all suggestions would be great, thanks!

Go with T5. 4 bulb minimum with mostly blue spectrum *IF* they are deep water blasto's. Like AquaBlue, Blue Plus, Fiji Purple, and maybe a 10k for growth.

Go with one of the CPR fuges that has the built in skimmer to it.

You can have one *MAYBE* two small fish in that tank so decide accordingly.