Pics of my Macro Nano

[Church]

Originally Posted by not_sponsored

Complimenting yourself = bragging/arrogant

Receiving compliments is fine, and I was ready to type out a compliment until I read that last post.

How sad for you.

[chadly]

that looks nice! not too common around here obviously. I can fathom a guess as to why, but it's not like there shouldn't be a place for it.

keep it up!

[MrJG]

Originally Posted by BruceWatts

BTW I would suggest that you start with a bigger marine tank for macros as it takes a while to get the feel for growing SW plants.

Bruce: Is this suggestion more to get a feel for growth patterns and aquascaping potential for different species or more of an "its easier to control water parameters etc in a larger tank" kind of thing.

Your tank has certainly piqued my interest in trying a macro tank especially given the modest equipment list and possible startup costs. I had always kept myself from trying a SW setup knowing the potential cost of a full blown setup to keep corals going.

So in all honesty for someone who is a complete SW idiot, would it be naive to think someone could START by trying macros?

You are going to make me start reading up on this stuff.

[prettyrustyrobot]

tank looks awesome. congrats, you deserve to brag.

[Mangala]

your tank looks soooooooooo totally alien. I love it so much. and here I go with the noob questions:

So, this is actually a marine tank?
There are plants that grow in the ocean that can also be grown in a tank?
Algae can look like that!?
What kind of trimming, dosing, water parameters, lighting... this whole thing is foreign to me, as you can see. Do people actually purchase the crazy looking algae?

>.< when I first saw it, I thought it was a freshwater tank with really really weird plants in it, and I was going to ask why I never saw those plants for sale in any of my aquarium shops locally, but now I see this is a whole different world than I'm used to.

Aren't most ocean-going plant type things, like seaweed, really really really extremely huge, as the ocean is also extremely huge? Do you know the geographical origins of your plant/algae life?

... >.>

[BruceWatts]

Originally Posted by MrJG

Bruce: Is this suggestion more to get a feel for growth patterns and aquascaping potential for different species or more of an "its easier to control water parameters etc in a larger tank" kind of thing.

Your tank has certainly piqued my interest in trying a macro tank especially given the modest equipment list and possible startup costs. I had always kept myself from trying a SW setup knowing the potential cost of a full blown setup to keep corals going.

So in all honesty for someone who is a complete SW idiot, would it be naive to think someone could START by trying macros?

You are going to make me start reading up on this stuff.

I am afraid that most of the info on macros is only available on line and some of that is misleading or incorrect. I wanted to keep this tank as simple as possible hence the lack of "heavy Equipment".

I would think that you would want to start with a bigger tank for both the stability and to gain some knowledge of the macro plant species and growth habits. That will take some trial and error on your part because the info on growing each macro species is rather sparse.

Just like with FW planted tanks you can go low tech with macros and start with easier species. One of the problems with growing algaes is that the same conditions also grow nuisance algeas. I think that is the most difficult concept to overcome. For more info go to either Reef Central or Marine planted tanks.

Bruce

Here's another one of my planted marine tanks. This is a 30 gallon cube with a pair of seahorses.

[audiotaylor]

Bruce,

I absolutely LOVE all your tanks! I am totally inspired now to start-up a macro-algae-only nano. I had a reef setup for a few years but broke it down a while ago. I had a refugium full of grape calupera and some chaeto but wanst able to get some of the other species I tried to get going as strong. (Ive always been intrigued by macro-algaes)

But if I started a tank just dedicated to the plants and didnt have to worry about paying so much attention to corals and fish I might be be able to get them to survive...hmmm...Im defintely going to give it a shot after seeing how BEAUTIFUL a "planted reef" can look! Thanks for all the great shots and for opening all our eyes to this "different world" as Mangala said. Great job!

-David

[Church]

Yes, for real! Bruce, I gotta tell you, I got out of sw tanks (after doing them and/or being around them my whole entire life) based on the fact that practically every tank after a long while starts looking like every other one. Planted fw tanks were inspiring to me, because I noticed that it's much more conducive to scaping, and putting order into the design.

But you, my friend, are tugging at me, saying "Come back to sw, Church, look what can be done!!" This is very inspirational. Words just can't express...

[BruceWatts]

Mangala
Yes this is a marine tank. Marine algaes range in size from a single cell to giant 100 foot tall kelp. I chose species that stay small and are slower growers for this tank for obvious reasons.

There is an ever increasing market for macros and seagrasses as well. Although this tank may seem alien to some it will be much more common in the years to come. There's no denying that the beautiful colors and forms of macro algaes make for an interesting display.

Bruce

[A Hill]

Originally Posted by BruceWatts

Mangala
Yes this is a marine tank. Marine algaes range in size from a single cell to giant 100 foot tall kelp. I chose species that stay small and are slower growers for this tank for obvious reasons.

There is an ever increasing market for macros and seagrasses as well. Although this tank may seem alien to some it will be much more common in the years to come. There's no denying that the beautiful colors and forms of macro algaes make for an interesting display.

Bruce

Gorgeous tank

I have been trying to stay away from marine planted tanks... But I might set one up sooner or later (hopefully later)

So you see the market being really large soon? I've been debating this myself.

-Andrew

[trackhazard]

Bruce,

Do you find a need to fertilize like you would a plant tank? Thats quite a bit of light over a 10 gallon tank so I'm assuming that nutrients are limiting.

Are you finding that water changes are necessary or is the algae doing a good job of controlling nitrates and phosphates?

You certainly are getting some nice growth.

Charlie

[fishman9809]

i was gonna just view ur thread but i saw not_sponsored's comment and i thot, pshhh, this guy deserves to compliment himself, cuz his tank is gorgeous!!!

beautiful pipefish!!!

[BruceWatts]

As I noted before the pipes were put into the tank quite recently. Before that I was using a fertilizer that was designed to grow marine micro algaes for aquaculture. I used 10 drops a week and did about 25% water change per week. Now that the tank has fish I have stopped all fertilizer for the momment.

Like I noted above you have to really be careful with the ferts because once the nuisance algae takes control you will have a hard time getting rid of it.

I think the marine plant hobby is probably where the FW hobby was in the early 1980's. There was plenty of interest in FW plants but not much information on growing them in an aquarium. Give it 3 to 5 years and I think macro tanks will be quite common. There are 1000s of marine plants and tons of beautiful fish in the sea. But we have a lot to learn before it becomes as popular as the FW plant hobby.

Bruce
P.S. Thanks for all the kind words, This is the first post of mine that has had "legs" since I joined this forum.

[waterfaller1]

Awesome Bruce! I love the bluestripes, I have a lone male{have been looking for a female} have yours spawned for you yet? It's a sight to behold!
What is the long pink macro, I've never seen that one? Is that a pink birdsnest on the right?

[c_sking]

I really like it, the red thing freaks me out a little Thanks for posting the pics of your nano!!!

I have always been amazed at what people grow in their fuges and just pay no attention to some of the cool stuff they have going on.