INTRO
This is my first post on Nano-Reef.com! My stock class 10G glass aquarium will display species of macro algae as the main focus of the tank. Everything else will be added on the fly as the tank progresses. Nitrogen production from nitrates instead of nitrate reduction will be the main focus and the reason for success in an aquarium such as this. I've got to get the algae to grow well and maintain its growth in order for this reef setup to be successful. From there I plan on adding soft corals such as colony polyps and ricordeas, and I may attempt a small clam on the sand bed. I look forward to this contest as well as my time spent here on Nano-Reef.com. Good luck to everyone in both the stock and the custom categories. Thanks for following along.

EQUIPMENT
Standard 10 Gallon Glass Aquarium
Current USA Satellite 20" 40W 50/50 Power Compact Fluorescent Fixture
Marineland Penguin 200 BIO-Wheel Power Filter
Aquarium Systems MaxiJet 600 Powerhead
WON Brothers Pro-Heat 50W Titanium Heater
Coralife Digital Thermometer
2 Standard 6 Outlet Power Strips
2 Intermatic Heavy Duty Timers
Custom Built Light Dimmer

LIVE ROCK / LIVE SAND
7 lbs mix of Marshall Island and Fiji Live Rock
15 to 20 lbs Live Sand Mix:
--- Nature's Ocean BIO-Active Live Aragonite Reef Sand
--- CaribSea Aragonite Select, fine grain
--- CaribSea Geo-Marine Aragonite Formula Florida Crushed Coral, coarse grain
--- CaribSea Eco-Complete Planted Aquarium Substrate

WATER AND REEF MAINTENANCE
Instant Ocean Salt Mix
Seachem Reef Builder
Seachem Reef Advantage Calcium
Kent Marine Super Chelated Iron and Manganese
Greg Watson's Potassium Nitrate 13.5-0-46.2
Greg Watson's Mono Potassium Phosphate
Ocean Nutrition Forumla One Small Marine Pellet
American Marine Selcon Concentrate
Reef Nutrition Phyto Feast
Sweetwater Zooplankton
Kent Marine Micro-Vert Fine Filter Food

STOCKING
Macroalgae:
--- Caulerpa spp.
--- Codium sp.
--- Valonia sp.
--- Actinotrichia sp.
--- Coralline spp.
--- Sargassum sp.
--- Other unidentified algae species

Fishes:
--- 1 Randall's Goby, Amblyeleotris randalli
--- 1 Ocellaris Clownfish, Amphiprion ocellaris
--- 1 Barnacle Blenny, Acanthemblemaria sp.
--- 1 Neon Goby, Elacatinus oceanops

Invertebrates:
- Corals:
--- Acropora sp.
--- Seriatopora sp.
--- Zoanthus spp.
--- Actinodiscus spp.
- Motile:
--- 6 Blue Leg Hermit Crabs, Phimochirus operculatus
--- 4 Scarlet Reef Hermit Crabs, Paguristes cadenati
--- 1 Trochus Snail, Trochus sp.
--- 2 Astrea Snails, Astraea tecta
--- 4 Cerith Snails, Cerithium litteratum
--- 4 Tonga Nassarius Snails, Nassarius sp.
--- 1 Common Nassarius Snail, Nassarius vibex
--- 1 Randall's Pistol Shrimp a.k.a. Candy Stripe, Alpheus randalli
--- 2 Sexy Shrimp, Thor ambeonesis
--- Feather Duster Worms, Bispira sp.
- Motile Hitchhikers:
--- Stomatella Snails
--- Micro Brittle Stars
--- Asterina Stars
--- Zooplanktonic Animals (Amphipods, Copepods)

ENTRY PHOTO - October 7 ( Go to Post )


OCTOBER - October 24 ( Go to Post )


NOVEMBER - November 22 ( Go to Post )


DECEMBER - January 03 ( Go to Post )


JANUARY - January 31 ( Go to Post )


FEBRUARY - February 27 ( Go to Post )


MARCH - April 8 ( Go to Post )

Well, your certainly not wasting any time jumping right in! Welcome to NR.

interesting concept, similar to the seagrass themes. i've seen some gorgeous algae layouts though (a couple on seahorse.org and ann's 2.5g contest entry/sargassum).

the stomas are a good choice as i believe epiphytic algae will be the main problem.

welcome and good luck!

Thank you! I'm hoping to learn a few things from the macro algae pros before really diving into this project, though.

I was stoma-less for a while after I sold my large system. But on this last frag I bought a few weeks ago I found two of them. Now I have a few more stomas crawling around that I've noticed!

What do you guys think of trying to go trimless? Should I? Those ADG tanks look really good and I'm not sure if they have anything extra for support.

so far everyone in the stock cat. is using the sattilite. i cant wait to see the different tanks.

good luck in the contest

Cal

Looks good. Like tiny said, you'll hit the same hurdles as a seagrass-type setup; I kept thinking of pH swings in such a small tank with so much macro.

Also, I think the addition of nitrates will do far more to boost growth than CO2 dosing - although perhaps I read your post poorly.

Yours and seabass's tanks are very interesting to me - I'll be following closely.

Yes the hurdles you speak of I have considered. And the pH swings are definitely a concern. But one thing I've learned from keeping planted freshwater tanks is the hardness must be high or your pH will swing very easily. Some of the best planted setups typically have a very stable pH because the hardness is high.

The advantage I see in the saltwater is the amount of buffering that is provided by the simple "equipment"--if you can call it that--we use. There is aragonite as a substrate, live rock as "decoration" and filtration, saltwater mix for regulation of SG and many of the other minerals and nutrients and even buffer additives that can be added in order to boost and maintain that hardness. Personally I think the pH will be fairly stable even if I do add CO2 from a bottle. I will utilize my Milwaukee pH meter and try to give very accurate readings of my pH throughout these next few months. Once the tank gets established, I'll check it before the lights come on in the morning and before the lights go off at night... I may even hook up my pressurized CO2 w/ controller and have regulated pH monitoring 24/7.

I once saw a picture of coralline algae pearling under CO2 addition. So yes, NO3s and CO2 are both very important with "plants"--if we can call algae that. I will be adding KNO3--maybe CaNO3 if I can locate a source--as well as CO2, if able. I'd like to be able to figure out which one has more effect on macro algae... NO3 or CO2. My guess at this point is they are both significant. And if that magic proportion can be found, growth will be phenomenal.

Please stay tuned. I'm not looking to break ground... but planted marine setups are the next big thing.

sounds cool... finally there are becoming more and more Macro tanks.. i have been collecting different macro's for a while now to set-up my maroalgea tank.. i am going to set-up a 30g. macro tank.. i have the three major colors (green, red, brown)..
this should be interesting..
also i asked C. Marks on the cut-off date and he said just on coral.. so fish, shrimp, anemones, featherdusters etc. can be added after the cut-off date...
good luck
-josh

Yes, I thought I would try something different with this contest. Although I've kept a variety of small tanks, my current tanks are a FW Planted 20G Long and a 10G Reef. I'll be transferring my Reef into the 20G and my Plants into my 10G tank for room sake. My 10G is not packed but am just adjusting for growth. Plus there is a 3-4" GSM clownfish along with a 1" Kupang damsel in there that should have some more room. The 20G should open those walls up.

For this little 10G, my ultimate goal is to develop this tank into a booming "macroalgae refugium" utilizing as much nutrients and fertilizers as it takes to learn what macroalgae needs. Then if I can get everything stable and rocking, I want to plumb the two tanks together (20G Long and this tank). After doing that, I want to see just how large a "Planted Reef" I can get.

I'm EXCITED about this! Now if I can carefully and skillfully get the trim off this tank, then I'll be set.

Fishfreak, what types of macroalgae are you growing to stock your 30G with? I'm interested to hear what you have and what your experiences are with them.

welcome!

I have alot of caulerpa and cheato... bu i also have alot of red's... no one has been able to ID my reds ... i have 5 different varieties.. as for my brown i also have Sargassum and Dictoyota [sp]... i also have Dictyota in red
oh and i also forgot Codium, Halmedia, Shaving Brush

This should prove to be interesting. My seagrass tank will share many of the same qualities as your macro tank. I was even intending to enter the stock category, but I really wanted to use the dual daylight 6700°K/10000°K bulb instead of the standard daylight 10000ºK/actinic 460nm bulb.

However, I think that you are right; the light should be adequate. It will be interesting to see if the judges will allow a CO2 system in the stock category. CO2 should be the limiting factor; but the less lighting that is available for photosynthesis, the less the demand for CO2 should be. So without the addition of a CO2 system, the standard 50/50 bulb should be more than adequate.

You will probably want clarification on this, but a tank leak would require a replacement; and I’m not sure that the judges would allow that. Therefore I personally wouldn’t take the trim off for this contest. I’ve noticed quite a bit of flex on my AGA; although I seem to recall that some of the tanks offered by Wal-Mart used thicker glass.

Good luck, I will be following along.

i wouldnt go w/ a Co2 system on this tank.. ph swings and stuff.... not good especially w/ this small of a tank.. macro algea isnt that hard to grow...the reds can be a little bit sensitive (at least mine are.. i think they dont like the metal halides).. but u really shouldnt need a Co2 system on this...
just keep your nitrates up... and your calcium up to... for Halimeda and Udotea
also where are you getting your Scinaia from?? i would LOVE to get my hands on some of that stuff

Since my last post I packed up my home in Oklahoma and moved to Phoenix, Arizona--along with my aquariums. After some careful planning, I suffered no losses to my livestock this move, the last one was a disaster. Three words you can type into Google that made it VERY easy: "Gamma Seal Lids". Now I can finally get started on this little nano! And the picks are much better now that I am in a major metropolitan area! This little project has been on the backburner since my entire home is in disarray at the moment and I'm more or less unpacking things as I need them. But to the contest and on with the pictures!









I ordered my Current USA Satellite 40W 50/50 light, Penguin 200 Bio-Wheel Power Filter (instead of the AquaClear), and MaxiJet 600 Powerhead from Drs Foster and Smith and it arrived yesterday (Friday the 13th ) afternoon. I decided with the Penguin for the fact it has an aerating paper wheel for some great nitrate production. Plus algae won't grow in the intake tube like the AquaClear.

Today I painted the back of the tank black, set it all up, filled it with water and dumped some salt into it to mix. The little shelf above the tank is for a gravity T.O. I'm going to put on this tank along with supplements. Plus it helps to keep my cords out of the way. I also drove to a well known LFS in the PHX area and picked up 7 pounds of what looks to be a mix of fiji and marshall island live rock. I tried to pick irregular shaped rock with the most gunk on them hoping to get some good hitchhiker algae. I think I picked one that has a small growth of halimeda on it and another has what looks to be a type of caulerpa. Hopefully those will last through the cycle--ammonia/nitrite+light should fuel their growth. Tomorrow I'll be adding the rock to the 10G to cycle and get my Bio-Wheel growing.

Stay tuned!

Love the shelf idea! I may have to steal the idea muhahaha!

That LR looks nice!

I love how you are doing every thing against the grain. It's awesome. You are going for nitrate production where every one else is looking for nitrate reduction.

I can't wait to see where this project goes.

Why are you cycling the rock in a separate bucket?

Ah, it's just a beefed up shelf. I picked up some 50lb drywall anchors so I can hold my 2G top-off reservoir. It is very sturdy! The L brackets are 90 cent white brackets. The shelf is a pressed wood--I think 24"--board. I'll detail my top-off when I get it up and running. Thanks, now to see how it looks in the tank. I'm hoping that hitchhiking macroalgae survives. We'll see.The nitrates are going to make the algae grow and that's what I've got to provide if it's going to survive. I'm aiming for the things that algae like just like a person keeping SPS would look for light, flow, and extra clean water with calcium added. I'm telling ya, marine planted tanks are going to be the next big thing in aquaria. We'll learn to incorporate nitrates and phosphates and use plants and algae to keep them reduced instead of adding tons of chemical or mechanical removal. People are doing it already but it is not mainstream yet.

The bucket is just to keep the rock wet. The tank wasn't ready yesterday but the extra bucket of saltwater I brought with me was. With the powerhead it helps to cycle the rock by keeping the water moving. When it stops smelling, the cycle should be complete. Right now--and even with the drive home--it has a slight ammonia bite to it. I give it maybe a week to make it through the cycle. Maybe more, maybe less.

Yeah, I know all that haha. I was just wondering why you weren't letting it cycle in your tank?

Oh ok. Here's why. Yesterday I hooked up my RODI filter to my faucet and pumped out over 60 gallons of pure water. 20 gallons went to my new 20G long tank, 10 went to this tank, 5 went to my blue water storage container, and 30 to my Brute for safekeeping. When I start tanks, I put all the water into the tank, add salt and let it mix there--since it is the best place for it to mix IMO. I let it mix for 24 hours. During that time I put an airstone and let it bubble for a few hours. I don't know why it just makes me feel good to air it out. I tell myself it is to add oxygen to the water and oxygen is good.

After pH, temp and salinity all look good, then it's time to add things. The rock will be in there shortly.

Well, there you go!

That certainly does answer my question. Good deal. Can't wait to see this tank progress.

Looks good! Our tanks are so much alike (setup wise) lol! That rock is sweet.

I’m glad that you ultimately decided to come over to the Dark Side. Here's to the return of bio-wheels in reef aquaria. Now all you have to do is get some bio-balls for it and you should be producing a good amount of nitrates for all that macro.

For my lagoon, I aim to keep nitrates at 5 to 10ppm; I just hope that my nitrate factory will be able to keep up after I get a decent amount of plants. This could be particularly important to your macro tank; as lack of nutrients could lead some species to go sexual. Along those lines, here is an article (which might interest you) on dosing iron in a reef environment.

Yeah in Randy Holmes-Farley's article, I find it VERY interesting that the majority of people who dosed iron didn't experience sexual reproduction by caulerpa. So it may not be light inhibited or anything else but the absense of iron causing it to go crazy. My take on it is the aquarist has forced the caulerpa into a corner by keeping nitrates and iron low--and who knows what else--and it's last ditch effort is to explode into gametes and hope for a more fertile area to grow. It has no idea it's in a closed system unlike the vastness of the ocean.

I put the rock into the tank yesterday and it is looking good. I think I've identified at least the genus of most of the algaes I received as hitchhikers on the rock. Caulerpa, Halimeda, Udotea. No reds other than coralline that I can tell. The only algae I'm fairly certain of is that the Caulerpa is Caulerpa scalpelliformis. At least that's the one it most looks like on the Algae Page. Also when I picked the rock out, I thought I saw a colony polyp on the rock, but I've been unable to find it so far. As far as mobiles go, a lone nassarius is stalking the reef at the moment from my sand out of my other nano. I think I saw some baby bristleworms in the sand as well, but they stay hidden most of the time anyway.

For the substrate, I mixed a combination of substrates to give all kinds of shapes and sizes along with nutrients. Plus I think it has a good mix of colors that will give a good look to the tank. I added ~5 lbs of Nature's Ocean BIO-Active Live Aragonite Reef Sand from my other nano. I added ~5 lbs of fine grain CaribSea Aragonite Select. I added ~5 lbs of coarse grain CaribSea Geo-Marine Aragonite Formula Florida Crushed Coral (what a name!). And for the last goodie, I added in ~5 pounds of CaribSea Eco-Complete Planted Aquarium Substrate from my FW tank--lots of nutrients and mulm there! I gave it all a good mixing in the tank, added the rock and now it's clearing. With the power of that Penguin filter, I should be able to get a really good picture tonight.

I'm excited to follow along with this tank. I have a 29 seahorse tank that I set up as mostly macros and a few softies. I've really gotten into macros and have been trying to collect some of the more interesting ones. I just got a small bit of blueish-purple Ochtodes sp. from a club meeting this weekend! I'm really hoping it'll grow in my tank.

Let me know when you start stocking your tank...maybe we can work out some trades.
Chris

. . . But before the mixin', a pic. I'm really curious as to how this Eco-Complete will do.Thanks for following along. Can you go into a little more detail on your tank or do you have a thread?

About the trades, first where are you located? DC? East coast may not work so well I'd be willing to do that, but it would help if you were a lot closer. I don't know if macros ship well. I'm not sure the variety of macros I can get yet. Still working the logistics and trying to find a good vendor. Where did you get your macros?And here they are; enjoy!









Now if their health will just improve. Still slightly smelly but decreasing rapidly. I'll test it tomorrow.

I don't have a tank thread...maybe I should. Anyway here's a pic. It's a couple of months old. Lots more in there now. . I'll post an updated on later when I get home. But you can see some of the macros.



It's a 29 gallon. Setup is pretty simple. Filtration is just live rock, sand, and an AC 70 and a small rio PH for more flow. Lights are Orbit PC 32W 6500 and 32W actinic.

Between the seahorses and the suncoral this tank gets feed heavily but with all the macros nitrates stay around 10ppm. I dose calcium but nothing else. I'm considering trying iron. All of the macros are growing (some faster than others). The dragon's tongue in particular grows like a weed.

Here's a list of the macros I have:
BLUE
Blue Ball (Ochtodes sp.),

GREENS
Caulerpa prolifera
Feather caulerpa (C. taxifolia)
Caulerpa sp. (like feather with very skinny, spikey fonds)
Cactus plant (Halimeda sp.)
Codium sp.
Shaving brush (Penicillus sp.)
Chaetomorpha sp.

REDS
Dragon’s tongue (Heymenia sp.),
Red grape (Botryocladia sp.)
Branched red (thick calcareous branches in tube shape)
Unknown pink (leafy pink)
Red lettuce (just live Ulva but red)
Red kelp (similar to heymenia but dark red and thinner)
Pink calcareous (not sure but might be Corallina officinalis)

BROWN
Sargassum sp.

Also I have some close up of some of the macros here
http://www.wamas.org/forums/index.php?auto...er&user=960



I've shipped my macros to OR and CA from the east coast priority. It took 3 days to get there but the macros were all fine. I think they are much easier to ship than corals.


I got a few from trades on RC, one from ebay, a couple from LFS, and several from local club members. Several that I got for the LFS were tiny frags that came off of some of thier liverock shippments. I haven't bought any from online venders but I've heard good things about marine flora and inland aquatics.

sorry about pic.

Here's a recent one...not great quality but you get the idea.



more pics here

http://s55.photobucket.com/albums/g139/cms...p;addtype=local

Chris

marine flora is local to me and has some nice macros.

Thanks for the picture and the info, ChrisS.

I've been doing a lot of reading lately on using CO2 in the planted marine aquarium. Despite the naysayers, I've done this before with FW and it is much easier than one would think with a good pH controller. I have the Milwaukee SMS122 pH controller, but it is acting up right now and I need to get it working. If I can get it working, I'll do pressurized CO2 and see what happens. If it works, I'll dose more nutrients/ferts and the macros will nearly grow out of the tank. If it doesn't work, then I'll remove it. But I've got a good feeling it WILL work and well. I wonder how the zooxanthellae algae inside of corals feel about CO2 addition?

Here are test numbers I promised (excuse me for missing data):
Temp 79 deg ----- (Coralife digital thermometer)
Salinity ~1.024 --- (Coralife Deep Six hydrometer using Instant Ocean mix)
Ammonia 0.0 ----- (Red Sea Marine test kit)
NO2 ~0.2 --------- (Red Sea Marine test kit)
NO3 ??? ----------- (missing the NO3 card from the Red Sea Marine test kit)
Alk ~2.2 ---------- (Red Sea Marine test kit)
pH ~8.2 ----------- (Red Sea Marine test kit)
pH ??? ------------- (messed up Milwaukee SMS122 right now)
KH 140 ppm ------ (Hagen GH/KH test kit)
Ca 460 ppm ------ (Hagen Ca test kit)

But I don't really care about the NO3 as I'll be doing the Estimative Index of Dosing. If you're interested, read it and I bet you'll learn a lot of stuff. Tom Barr is a very smart man, especially when it comes to aquatic plants both marine and freshwater. I added 5 ppm of NO3 to the water column tonight and put up about 5G of SW on the mix. Seachem Reef Builder and Advantage Calcium are also mixed up and ready to add because the Halimeda and Udotea will soon start using up Calcium. Plus my Alkalinity is low and I'd like it higher.

And here we come to the exciting part. PICTURES! I picked up some macros today from a LFS. All kinds of caulerpa parts, a branch of red grape, chaeto, and lots of good looking halimeda. Plus the algae on the rocks have been growing. The halimeda that came on it I think is in a death spiral as it shows no sign of recovery. The greenness of the new halimeda took about 30 mins to an hour to go from its white shock "I dont like travelling " look to this nice green color after being put into the tank. I'm all . It doesn't look pretty, but give it a few weeks.

You really did take it all lol! Gonna need to take my finders fee out of some of that

I disagree, it looks gorgeous!

Hahahah you're a funny guy ChinChek . Thanks for the tip on the LFS. It was a very good looking store and I was very impressed at just how clean and nicely stocked everything was. Their 1000G MH blasted SPS and clam dominated setup was very impressive! I was a little surprised they didn't have the snails or hermit crabs I wanted. But they seemed willing to help me out for what I am looking for.

Right now in the tank, diatoms are starting to bloom so my cycle should be close if not complete. I wonder if the macro will overpower the diatoms and not make it so surprising when they hit full bloom? We'll have to wait and see I guess. Macros look really good today. The halimeda is a very dark green color right now. I dosed 250mL of RODI with 1.5 tsp of Reef builder today. I'll do it again before the water change next week sometime. Hopefully my Alkalinity will boost itself a little. Calcium will be added tomorrow. Stupid SMS122 controller is still acting dumb. GRRR Come on SMS122!


Why thank you, Rene. I'm curious to see how your Florida tank will fair. Are all of those animals you spoke of native to the Florida coast?

That makes two of us! I have most of the corals in a 5.5, but I'm really looking foward to the lighting and current upgrade in my 10, if only I can get the pump issues straightened out. I've always liked macros. Fortunately for me, halimeda is common in the habitat I'm doing. Mine looks dark green like yours. I've seen a few folks with bright green halimeda, closer to your first pic, but I don't know what they do to get it that color. More intense light maybe?

And yep, those animals can all be found off the Florida coast. Many of them not until the very tip of southern Florida, but still all in Florida.

The MH lighting you have should do very well for your tank and especially the Halimeda. I wonder if it is the lighting that affects its colors? I think as long as the Magdrive doesn't leak, you'll be fine for the pump. On my first marine tank I had a Magdrive 18 on a closed loop and I couldn't get the microbubbles out of the system. Hopefully you don't have that problem.

Yes before beginning this contest I considered entering into the custom with a Florida biotype, but I think for as hard as I could try, even all that I could do would look boring to the real thing. IMO it's very hard to display the diversity and the amount of life there is there. So I decided to try the stock category and just make macro grow like you wouldn't believe. Good luck and I hope you do well with it.

Holy macros, Batman. Got algae?

This tank is going to be terrific to watch grow!

I'll just have to count myself lucky then! Not only do I not have direct competition from you, but I've never seen the Florida reefs in person, so I don't have that to live up to. I get to depend on lots of photographs.

Seriously, a Florida biotope is something I've wanted to do for years, but didn't have the patience for when I first started out. I hope it lives up to my expectations, and that I'm able to do it justice. We'll see, eh?

I decided to go with a Hydor pump for my closed loop, so we'll see how it does. If I need a chiller, I may go with a Mag for that. Lots of people seem to use them externally with no problems.

I think we're both going to be pretty interested in following each other's tanks. You, because I'm doing the biotope you were thinking of, and me, because you're going to be growing a lot of the same kinds of macros I will, but in a dedicated system. It should be interesting to see how they do for you since you'll be able to let them grow much more rampantly than I will.

I'll let you know if the halimeda turns bright green under the halides, but it'll be a while. The tank doesn't even have water in it yet.

I tested today to see if animals would be fine to add. Here are the current stats.
Temp 78 deg ----- (Coralife digital thermometer)
Salinity ~1.024 --- (Coralife Deep Six hydrometer using Instant Ocean mix)
Ammonia 0.0 ----- (Red Sea Marine test kit)
Nitrite 0.0---------- (Red Sea Marine test kit)

Honestly, I don't think it would matter if there was NH3/4 or NO2 in the tank as all the algae would scoop it right up becoming a living bio-filter, similar to the way FW plants do.

Looking back at this picture, then at the tank, something amazing is happening as the tank looks nothing like that nice clean pristine picture does. I'd say it looks better, but the animals I put in the tank today are having a kegger its so nice! The trochus I put into the tank went berserk it was so happy! I think I need to find a supplier for a variety of microcrustaceans as I plan on keeping them very well fed! More to come on what I mean by that. Does anyone have any "hard to find invert" suppliers?

I've gotta keep the audience on their toes. Can't always post brand new pics every time else things will get boring, eh? Check back tomorrow sometime

Your tank looks great and I like your idea of having many different species of macro algae in the tank. I can't wait to see how this tank turns out.

I'll definitely be following this thread.

Ah, you should go diving sometime. Everyone should go diving if they're in this hobby. I've only dove in NW FL a couple of times and I'm sure its nothing like the Keys. But that's been many moons ago and lots of information has flooded my brain since then. I was just amazed at all of the different types of animals. What photos and where?

New pictures as promised: (The new October Photo \/ )




But now that I compare the pictures, it really is not much that different from afar, in person it seems aged--which is very good. Its appearance is hard to catch on the camera--especially without a tripod and taking my time getting a really good stable picture--as the "micro" life is growing and multiplying. One thing I find is the coarse aragonite is very good for pods to find refuge. They can crawl through the cracks and populate in the open spaces between the larger "rocks".You have no idea how true that is to me as well. And if you couldn't tell in the above photos, there are new animals in the tank.

6 - Blue Leg Hermit Crabs (1/4" each)
1 - Scarlet Reef Hermit Crab
1 - Emerald Mithrax Crab (1/2")
1 - Trochus Snail
2 - Astrea Snails
4 - Cerith Snails
4 - Tonga Nassarius Snails

All of these animals except the trochus and the tonga nassas are from the Caribbean/W. Atlantic. There are also hitchhikers of one nassarius vibex (from my old live sand), a couple of mini brittle stars, one very peculiar grey/white banded asterina star the size of a dime, and about 4 different microcrustaceans.

Two new animals! Acanthemblemaria sp. aka Barnacle Blenny. They're checking out the tank right now and were a little spooked after I put them into the aquarium so their colors are not as evident. They are a very good community fish and tolerate conspecifics very well. If I like them and don't want more diversity fish-wise, I may try to pick up a few more of these guys. They are extremely tiny fish and do not get very large at all. They came with 3 different pieces of barnacle shells for their homes.



My Halimeda plants are putting out new shoots left and right. The caulerpa is also growing well. I've also been monitoring some interesting macroalgae that has been growing over the past few days on this rock. I've been unable to identify it or even come close to it. It is similar to Halimeda in rigidity and flexibility, but it is brown and is coming out of the rock in spikes. Any ideas?

Your tank is turning out to be sweet WarEagleNR88. Great macro aglae.

I'm glad you like it lgreen. Hopefully I can make it even better.

After doing a little research on what these Barnacle Blennies like to eat, I discovered--surprise--they enjoy tasty little copepods and amphipods along with other fine tasting zooplanktonic animals. So, instead of bubbling a bunch of brine eggs, I dropped about 1/64th (just a tiny pinch) of a teaspon of brine eggs into the tank. That was on the 25th. Today on the 30th, I can see little brine shrimp on the glass running around and the Blennies are voracious little eaters grabbing all kinds of "bugs" out of the water. I also put three drops of Selcon into the tank today to promote microfauna proliferation. Hopefully it will work, and keep these little Blennies happy and fat. They are extremely quick at zooming out of their barnacle, snapping their jaws around some unsuspecting animal and then darting back to their barnacle to ambush another. Here are their pics--look at those chompers on the little one (first picture)!





I also dosed my first 1/4 teaspoon of Kent Marine's Super Chelated Iron tonight to give the macro a little boost. All of the algae is looking good and filling out the empty space in the tank. The caulerpa is sending runners and the halimeda puts out new little "coins" every couple of days. It's crazy to think this tank is only 2.5 weeks old. I can't imagine what it will look like in 2.5 months. Here is the Udotea that came on the live rock. The actually udotea that came with the rock--you can see it in the picture--has wilted and in its place a new one is growing. Since this is so small, growth pictures will really show its progress.



And here is my hardworking little Emerald Crab, out for the evening to feast on some microalgae.

that unidentified macro looks to be a form of sargassum but i could be wrong

Yeah I'll keep an eye on it and take pictures if it develops more. So we'll have to see. I'm really hoping the iron dosing will boost the growth over the next few days. I may also need to dose a little phosphate to help them out, too. Maybe then we'll be able to figure out what it is.

Maintenance-wise, the light shield needs cleaned of the salt spray from the bio-wheel; a water change is in the works for this weekend; the glass needs cleaned for my next FTS (and any pictures for that matter); and the fiber in the HOB filter probably needs to be washed of its dust and silt. I think that's about it.

It's MACRO LAND!! looks good wareagle

Thanks for the comment Truck_Under_Water! I'm looking to really push it up on this tank to let the plants and animals grow and settle in over the next 5 months. So for that reason, I visited some LFSs today and picked up mostly animals but some new algaes--red ones! Here are my new additions.

Algaes:
--- Caulerpa sp.
--- Botryocladia sp.
--- Un-ID'ed Red "firm" algae, it looks like this Here.
Fish:
--- 1 Randall's Goby, Amblyeleotris randalli
Invertebrates:
--- 3 Scarlet Reef Hermit Crabs
--- 1 Trochus Snail
--- 1 Randall's Pistol Shrimp a.k.a. Candy Stripe
--- 4 Sexy Shrimp
--- Feather Duster Worms, Bispira sp.

Also I picked up 1 small Black Occelaris Clownfish and 1 Neon Goby and they are being acclimated. They will be added when I feel they are ready. Pictures with a new FTS!











The grape Caulerpa below the scarlet hermit and all of the bright halimeda in the pictures are brand new growth since adding Iron this past Monday.

nice!

looking good!

i'm not suggesting iodine dosing but if you start to expand your algae to include more reds and browns, it may be something you'll need to look into unless you are very regular with your waterchanges.

so far it looks great in layout and species choice though.

So true! And depending on livestock and setup, that will probably not be that hard. Your tank is amazing. Tagging along.