Re: Marine plants

[Thomas Barr <tcbiii at earthlink_net>]

> Had I known your knowledge base extended to marine plants as well, I'd have
> come to you for help in identifying some of the macroalgae I had.

Anything you are willing to send, I'd love to key out for you. FW is more
difficult and smaller is more difficult as a rule.

> Most
> saltwater people just see them as either food for tangs, something to put in
> your sump for additional filtration or as a refugium hidden away somewhere.
> There doesn't seem to be much interest in keeping them for their own sake,
> although I think that sentiment may be slowly changing from what I've been
> reading on reef boards.

Well, I think there's certainly a room for an Amano type marine plant tank.
Not sure why Amano has not done this.

Coral sporals, those reef folks will keep critters and little wimpy algae
together that die if you look at them wrong, but not nice looking macro
algae and seagrasses. Grow what you can that does well. That will yield a
nice tank that can be aquascaped well and cost 10X less.

Why have a refugium when you can have a plant marine tank?
That's like having a planted filter but no plants in the tank!!
Well there are coral reasons but....

PS, work on a good substrate for Seagrasses/mangroves etc.

Remember, Ca levels and alkalinity is not an issue when you change 60%
weekly for corals/algae or anything that uses lots of CaCO3 for their
structure. 
At least for 1-4 days things are pretty good, perhaps longer.
Regards, 
Tom Barr



 

 
> Regards
> Heather