More on Marine Plant tanks

[Thomas Barr <tcbiii at earthlink_net>]

Well, I think I'll start some real blasphemy over in the marine groups in a
a few months. I have 2 identical 10 gallon tanks idle complete and all I
need to do it the salt part.

There are many species of algae and some are simply downright beautiful,
weird and/or very colorful.

I'm going to treat them pretty much like a FW plant tank as far as set up,
KH will be higher/pH etc, substrate will be different(but I will add iron
rich substrate mixed with aragonite), but I'm interested in adding PO4/NO3.
I'll pack the tank with algae I can collect about 45 minutes from here.
Small tanks will be easy to do the water changes, still have my hydrometer
for some reason. 
I think with enough algae density, adding NO3, PO4, traces etc will be
needed for good growth.

Bob wrote:

> "Cheap" is a relative term.  That $300 skimmer that Tom spoke of doesn't seem
> all
> that expensive anymore when compared to the cost of replacing the inhabitants
> that
> it may be supporting.

I was speaking namely of _Marine algae_ aquascapes here, not a tank packed
with SPS corals or 1000$'s worth of live stock. Nice stuff or not, it
doesn't take much for an "extinction event" and I know too many folks scared
to go anywhere for fear their system might go sour.
Marine algae are fairly cheap, easy to grow/fast growing etc.
I also have access to them.
I'm thinking planted tank, not _those critter_ tanks:-)

From: RMGTBTS at aol_com

> Tom Barr is right. Water changes are necessary unless you can do what i did
> here. It was amazing though how much the Caulerpa managed to remove from the
> water. yes at  the end of 12 months there was a bit of mulm buildup. and yes
> it would have been better to do partials. but the idea was the Zero Maintence
> Salt Water Reef Tank and i think we accomplished that.

I can tell without spending more than a minute  why it worked, balanced
plant: fish ratio. Many folks have a rough time with that ......but....the
same thing can and has been done with a plant tank. A similar tank I have is
a non CO2 tank with a few fish etc but lots of plants.

The same thing can and has been done with Marine tanks.
Add more plants right from the start and get a healthy forest going and you
can add more fish. But there's a maximum fish load for any tank before
things start going south fast.

Water changes helps _maintain_ high Ca and KH levels so that calcified algae
and other CaCO3 critters and weeds. It sure helps to keep any nutrient issue
way down. If there's a nice fish load and plant load, things are fine.

I think most of the issues/methods that we apply to planted tanks can be
applied to SW plant tanks.

But...........no CO2 is needed to grow the macro's. But it'd be fun to see
what would happen by adding CO2, KNO3, KH2PO4 and traces etc in the same
ranges, maybe less, maybe more that of the FW plants.

A few notions about the marine planted tank:
Needs no CO2 to do well
Not much maintenance
No dosing except for cheap fert's, water changes
Cheaper to do than a FW planted tank.
Cheaper.......ah yes........yes cheaper.......
Water changes cost $ but no CO2 is needed, no special lighting(most algae
species) or high light systems(eg 400w MH's).
Just the tank, gravel rocks, filter(HOB Wet Dry etc), 3w a gallon(2x15w in
my case for a 10 gallon), weekly water changes and a few crabs(these will
have algae like Neomeris growing on them as well, try that with a FW plant!)

I like gobies a heck of a lot. There are other suitable fish, crabs,
hydroids, herbivores etc.

Well, I guess something for the new year, a bucket O salt, I have everything
else to do the deed.

And yes, a _Marine planted tank_ is quite _on topic_ for the APD(It's a
plant tank) or a marine list. It just seems rather odd no one has considered
it much, if at all here.

Regards, 
Tom Barr