I’ve been dreaming for a while of trying a marine tank, ever since I first saw the <beautiful macroalgae-focused tanks of TigahBoy>. And then my friend @Courtneybst <started his marine tank>, I saw it up close irl, and it was only a matter of time before I dipped my toe in the salty waters.
I’m going simple and holistic trusting my freshwater instincts, so it’ll be a macroalgae planted marine tank with a mangrove and some cute little inverts. I want to make a lovely little weird alien garden, a la the garden in Trapdoor.
The tank is an 8g/32l glass bowl with a wide top opening. The curved glass massively distorts what’s inside and makes it all look much bigger, but I quite like the effect. For filtration a bit of live rock and a wave maker, along with the macroalgae and a mangrove to keep things stable. The tank is in a window that’s South-West facing, with great light, which I think the mangrove will really like it and hopefully become a tree (oh no, what a convenient reason for an upgrade that would be). I’ll also have an AI Prime Fresh over it.
Hardscape-wise, the main piece is a coral skeleton my mum collected 40 years ago on holiday in Devon, it’s been knocking about for years with no proper place, so I finally gave it one! There are also 3 small bits of live rock in there from my LFS, apparently been in their system for years and is a really important part of the filtration.
At first I didn’t see any obvious life on the live rock, but I have noticed a single tiny brown zoa on it, and a small 6-pointed asterism starfish moving around this morning! Very exciting, possibly a pest but until it becomes an obvious problem I’ll consider it a blessing.
The tank was started last Thursday, and is going through a dark(ish) start for the first month so the live rock bacteria can start to colonise the dead coral too. Then I’ll add the light, mangrove propagule and the macro algae and away we go!
I’m going simple and holistic trusting my freshwater instincts, so it’ll be a macroalgae planted marine tank with a mangrove and some cute little inverts. I want to make a lovely little weird alien garden, a la the garden in Trapdoor.
The tank is an 8g/32l glass bowl with a wide top opening. The curved glass massively distorts what’s inside and makes it all look much bigger, but I quite like the effect. For filtration a bit of live rock and a wave maker, along with the macroalgae and a mangrove to keep things stable. The tank is in a window that’s South-West facing, with great light, which I think the mangrove will really like it and hopefully become a tree (oh no, what a convenient reason for an upgrade that would be). I’ll also have an AI Prime Fresh over it.
Hardscape-wise, the main piece is a coral skeleton my mum collected 40 years ago on holiday in Devon, it’s been knocking about for years with no proper place, so I finally gave it one! There are also 3 small bits of live rock in there from my LFS, apparently been in their system for years and is a really important part of the filtration.
At first I didn’t see any obvious life on the live rock, but I have noticed a single tiny brown zoa on it, and a small 6-pointed asterism starfish moving around this morning! Very exciting, possibly a pest but until it becomes an obvious problem I’ll consider it a blessing.
The tank was started last Thursday, and is going through a dark(ish) start for the first month so the live rock bacteria can start to colonise the dead coral too. Then I’ll add the light, mangrove propagule and the macro algae and away we go!
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