Thinking about making my tank a macroalgae display tank

So, as I have no room for a fuge and would like a way to control my out of hand nitrates I'm thinking about just keeping LR and some macroalgae in this tank. I know I wont be able to keep Tangs and other such herbivores but I think I'll be able to live with that in exchange for the Nitrate and Phosphate levels staying lower. Thinking about adding Red Gracilaria, Ulva, Shaving Brush, and/or Red Titan. I know it's different, but I think it could be cool as long as I do regular trimmings. I contemplated just keeping Chaeto in a mesh bag near one of my outlets and I may still do that if this is a bad idea but it was just a thought.

Dumb idea?

 

Great idea, you should still look into the reasons your nitrates and phosphates are out of control.

Look at buying a skimmer if you don't have one.
Look at your stocking level and cut back if it is too high.
Increase your filtration capacity, add an HOB refugium or more live rock.
Increase your maintenance level, blow off your live rock, siphon your substrate.
Increase your flow to keep detritus from settling before your filtration can remove it.
Change your substrate from crushed coral to sand.
Use rodi water instead of tap.
Feed less.

By all means do not change your plans if any and all above work because you can have a gorgeous tank with a macroalgae tank.

 

Hey these are excellent tips.
When you sya increase your flow do you mean by adding more powerheads? Does that make filtration easier? Also I do not hav a HOB Refugium but I have a filter rated up to 70 gallons on my 46. Is that sufficent? Lastly I have a lot of dirt and debri just laying on my live rock. How do I blow it off? Thanks

Not to high jack the thread but Im a newbie as well.

 

Add or change PH to higher flow.
The greater flow allows the filter a better chance to capture the suspended detritus.
Use a turkey baster or PH.
The capacity for filtration is good, the flow is not. You need to look at having 460 to 920 GPH for circulation as a minimum. You would want to go to around 1380 GPH for a SPS tank minimum.

 

you should PM john maloney (johnmaloney) from reefcleaners.org not only will he hook you up with the needed macro algea he decorates his own tanks simlar to this.

 

I think it's a good idea...is what I'm planning to do as well.

 

Thanks for the tips everyone

I have a skimmer as well as a built in sump and canister filter rated for up to 175 gallons for my 100gallon tank. I was looking into a HOB refugium however the sides of my tank have about a 6 inch overhang which every hang on device I've found won't fit to. I have had to fabricate all of the piping myself in order for it to for for my skimmer and canister filter. I thought about trying to take a saw to it but that just sounds like a bad idea, especially with my tinkering history lol. I have an alright amount of waterflow, I think its around 2700-3000 gph.

I have a T5HO system with 2x54W Actinic and 2X54W 12000k Daylight bulbs. Is this going to be enough for those macro's? I have an extra light I can put on there but its just a regular 40w florescent and tanks up a lot of space

Right now there is nothing in there but LR and live sand and the nitrates are still high. I think part of this is due to me using the tap water in order to first start my tank. I need a RO/DI unit badly but until then I'm just going to get jugs of purified water to use. Since there are no fish and thus no feedings right now I know that as they are added NO3 levels will just get higher so I'm going to try to get the jump on it. My tank's cabinet style stand makes it difficult to do larger water changes as all I can fit in there to fill water is a small tupperware container (haha it took me 4 hours to fill it up initially) so I was planning on doing 10 percent changes a week.

I dunno though I'm still getting the hand of this saltwater business. I'm used to freshwater where I just fill it up with tap water and add stress coat and done lol.

Will carnivores like lionfish and triggers be ok to keep in a macroalgae tank or will the triggers mess around with it?

I was originally planning on something along the lines of a puffer, trigger, and/or some other carnivore like the lionfish to put in there if I did a macroalgae tank since my original group I planned for was pretty herbivore heavy.

I really appreciate all of the help guys thanks for everything