Starting a macro tank. Need some tips.

[pinkninja]

Hey guys! I'm looking to start a macro only tank, about 20 gallons. Because this will not be hooked up to a display tank, I want to know the differences in the set up or better yet just a good way to set it up.

I will still need LR and LS I'm sure, but how much for 20 gallons?

The tank will be in a balcony and will receive about 3 hours of sunlight, and about 12 hours of indirect light My question is, will this help much? What's a good way to light this tank?

Because it's not hooked up to a display tank I can probably go all out on adding supplements without fear of disrupting anything; so what are some good supplements to add?

Thanks! I'm sure I'll have more questions later but this will suffice for now.

[eleodes]

pinkninja

you should be able to find quite a bit of information by perusing the stuff on this forum. just a few threads back, UprightJoe and respondents have a discussion going back and forth about his establishment of small macro planted tank.

as far as LR and LS go--i have a system with LR and several different seaweeds. i have found that space becomes limited as the macros start to go and i have actually removed most of the pieces of rock. so, i would suggest maybe adding just one or a few pieces of rock. many of the habitats dominated by seaweeds in tropical waters would be expected to mostly have sand or mud and not so much rock. there are some macros, however, such as <em>Caulerpa racemosa</em> (which grows awfully fast) <em>Halimeda opuntia</em> and some <em>Sargassum</em> sp. that look very nice spreading across rockwork. live sand would probably be a real good idea. especially where you can enhance the biodiversity of benthic and infaunal invertebrates which also characterize seaweed dominated habitats in the wild.

i would be a little bit concerned about using sunlight to illuminate tank. i bet that it would really make your seaweeds grow, but unless you have the tank in air conditioning you could expect temperatures to rise dangerously in the sunlight, especially in such a small tank.

one of the main reasons that opposite display tank/refugium lighting is used is to avoid wide fluctuations in pH as photosynthesis depletes CO2 (and maybe also carbonate?). so, you might want to plan on checking for pH change over the course of the day as you get your seaweeds growing. something that might be fun to consider doing eventauually would be to have two tanks hooked together with overflow and circulating water. here are shots of my system

http://entomology.wisc.edu/~dbiggs/aquatics/2_june_05_tank1.jpg
http://entomology.wisc.edu/~dbiggs/aquatics/2_june_05_tank3.jpg

i use opposite lighting (the tall tank is usually covered with a curtain) and it seems to work well. another observation on my system--the shorter tank is a 30 gallon breeder. i think that it has very nice dimensions for seaweed, offering lots of space in sand for planting stuff. the shallow water also makes less of a demand on lighting.

well, those are just some ideas anyhow.

have fun!

-D

[Samala]

Hmm.. I really dont know about the sunlight approach. I think, as Eleodes mentioned, it will be hard to provide enough intensity without overheating a small tank. There is a greenhouse tank another member is doing with mostly macro.. but its about nine times the size of the one you plan w/o sumps and such. ;)

Honestly PC's are more than enough for macro in a 20gal. If you have the tall version maybe try out a Coralife aqualight 65W or 72W and you should have plenty of light for lots of fun dense macro growth. They can exist and grow on far less light but if you're shooting for a macro tank, I think having more light may be helpful long term. Hard to say really because this is still such a new aspect of marine tanks - keeping macro for the sake of macro and not nutrient export. I would use the 6700k flavor PC's that are marketed for freshwater planted as the plants wont use much of the actinic range (though they make look more interesting under them). 10k's could work, especially if you end up with macro's that usually exist in deeper water and are reef, instead of seagrass meadow, associated.

If you only want to do one tank, instead of inline hooked tanks with one on one off for pH balance, consider simply using a well tuned skimmer to provide aeration in the tank. This should help to bring the pH back in line. Usually in highly photosynthetic tanks the carbon dioxide is being used up and this drives the pH up, aeration helps to brings more CO2 back into the water and stabilize pH levels.

I hope that helps some. Oh.. LR is not a necessity unless you want for creating a nice view in the tank.. the encrusting macro's will like it certainly. The LS cant hurt as far as I know.

>Sarah