A planted marine tank

SO i've been toying with the idea of using some macro algaes in my DT as something different. Anyone done this? Or have experience? I was looking around at liveaquaria and found these three that would be kinda neat looking (linked below): smooth leaf kelp, grape kelp, red gracilaria. My lights are 2x54W HO t5, so not a lot of power to keep a lot of coral, so I thought this would be something different to try that I could maintain.

Thoughts? Warnings? Thanks for any advice.

Also, I'll try to shoot a pic of a tank at one of my local LFS's that has a cool looking macro algae tank that gave me the idea. The fish I have are firefish, 2 o clowns, and a rusty angel.

All 3 macros are on this page: Marine Plants: Saltwater Plants, Aquarium Marine Algae and Turtle Grass

 

I love macro in a DT, unfortunately, the last time I did it my grape caulerpa (grape kelp) "went sexual" and released all its toxins back into my tank, killing everything. That was the green one. My red grape didn't live long for some reason.

I don't know enough about the other 2 to know if they would do that or not, though, hopefully someone else will...I'll tag along on this thread to find out!

I did get some of that maiden's hair twice, both times I got an awesome tiny crab living in it, perfectly matched the algae in color (didn't know it was there for a week). Couldn't keep that stuff alive for the life of me, though, and it was sad to see the patch get smaller and the crab trying to hide in it. They always disappeared shortly after the algae did.

 

hmmm. Are there techniques to keep the algae from going sexual? Does it have to do with trimming maybe? I'll try to do some more research

 

You know, I'm not really sure. I just now (6+ years later) figured out that that's what happened to my tank by reading about it & then looking back at a pic I took of my "clear" caulerpa LOL. I was talking to a guy at a very nice LFS (best tanks I've ever seen!) that said they used to have it in their sumps, running the lights 24/7, until it crashed all the tanks in that system. He probably said why it does it, but I probably wasn't really listening LOL. I haven't really read up on it since I wasn't planning on ever keeping it again!

OK, maybe they had lights on reverse cycle from the DT...here's some stuff on it from WetWebMedia. Third post down http://www.wetwebmedia.com/caulerparepro.htm

 

Hmm I would think, but may be completely wrong, that the algaes go sexual as a sort of defense mechanism in order to keep procreating. Maybe a result of low nutrient levels where it has reached the maximum level of growth it can sustain with the nutrients it has available? In which case it goes sexual as another means of growing?

Just a theory... lol. I'll do some more research! If this is the case, though, trimming would seem to be a defense to this.

 

One of the posts said keeping it trimmed down helps but won't prevent it completely, and keeping the light on 24/7, which won't help you in a DT at all!

I'd love to see it if you do it, that's one thing I miss about FW tanks, all the plants.

Just found this, scroll down to "Sexual Events" http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2007-01/sl/index.php

Also, check out Dragon's Tongue algae. That stuff's awesome looking!

 

Searching online and found this:
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1508826
Kinda cool. I'd like a more well trimmed look, but cool nonetheless

 

Well I will continue to do some more research but in the mean time I am going to rubber band some of the different macros in my refugium to some of the LR rubble I have. Once it grows big enough, I will move it to the DT.

Hopefully by then I will know enough to keep it healthy. In the meantime I would love any more input

Maybe john from reefcleaners has some insight? I've been reading about a couple different things on their website. Does reefcleaners have a macro DT? I'll PM him for some input to the thread.

Also, the dragon's toungue looks SWEET! This could be an interesting project.

 

Nice! Love that blue/purple looking stuff.

 

Oh, and my boyfriend bought a tiny piece of dragon's tongue & got it on Wednesday. He put it in the sump & it paled badly. I then read it takes lower light to keep it red, so we moved it to the display. It's a tiny piece rubberbanded to some rubble LOL. Hope it makes it!