Honest thoughts on my macroalgae tank?

[GothFishKeeper]

Firstly, that's a great macro tank! You've clearly got skill and should be proud of it!

Your tank currently lacks what I'll call "visual cohesion" - it needs a few more colors, some with pop, and a more complete shape.

To give you some inspirational goals, I think you could take a look at some other well made macro tanks and see where you can improve visually. Here are some of my favorites:

That’s what I was wondering about! I definitely feel like i went overboard on the reds and now it lacks green, but aside from that do you think letting stuff grow out more will help?

 

[GothFishKeeper]

Hold up, if it's a biotope/seahorse tank, that ratchets the coolness aspect up like 10 notches. I love it.

Thanks!!

 

[Science/G]

Beautiful! I love the Halimeda! That's my favorite macro.

I think maybe some Caulerpa prolifera would be a nice addition.

 

[GothFishKeeper]

I like it a lot. I’m not entirely sure why so many folks neglect macro (and some other organisms) compared to corals.

I absolutely agree! Don’t get me wrong my reef tank will always be my favorite tbh but macros are so beautiful! People just don’t like the word algae lol

 

[GothFishKeeper]

Beautiful! I love the Halimeda! That's my favorite macro. I think maybe some Caulerpa prolifera would be a nice addition.

Ooooh yes that’s a good idea! As mentioned above i feel i need more green, but i haven’t known what to add. I think that one is a great option tho

 

[GothFishKeeper]

I like it!

Thanks!!

 

[GothFishKeeper]

A lot of freshwater planted tanks are green, you may find they’re just not used to us and our red macros - me personally? I’m jealous you have so many red macros!!
I’m stuck with tons of green and more of a dark purple than red.

Wow that looks great!! I can’t wait to have mine grow that long!

 

[Science/G]

Wow that looks great!! I can’t wait to have mine grow that long!

Maybe pull it out a bit away from the scape so it can get more light?

 

[Science/G]

Another beautiful calcareous algae!

 

[Gregg @ ADP]

Beautiful! I love the Halimeda! That's my favorite macro.

I think maybe some Caulerpa prolifera would be a nice addition.

I have a macro tank as the filter to my reef, and for a while, the C. prolifera just dominated it. I’ve since been regularly harvesting it out and trying to curate the tank with more turfs and reds.

There is also a nice patch of C. taxfolia growing in the center. I’ve started to manage the Caulerpa by focusing on having it only grow out of the sand.

Some red macros came in on some clams that were part of a maricultured rock shipment, and they’re starting to take off. I would love to end up with a good mix of reds, greens, sponges, tunicates, clams, etc.

 

[fish_collector]

Who cares if others don't like it, you are the one it has to please. I personally like what you've accomplished, it's very nice.

 

[GothFishKeeper]

Maybe pull it out a bit away from the scape so it can get more light?

Pull what away from the scape?

 

[GothFishKeeper]

Who cares if others don't like it, you are the one it has to please. I personally like what you've accomplished, it's very nice.

Thank you!! Yeah i agree, i was more concerned about if i was doing something fundamentally wrong haha

 

[fish_collector]

Thank you!! Yeah i agree, i was more concerned about if i was doing something fundamentally wrong haha

Well, you did wait a long time before you shared it with the forum :face-with-hand-over-mouth:

I'd like to set up a smallish tank with Caulerpa prolifera and see if I could get a pair of filefish to breed, their natural habitat is seagrass but C. prolifera may be a good substitute.

I had to Google where Bolingbrook was. It sounds like it could have been somewhere in the UK but I see you're in Ill. :)

 

[GothFishKeeper]

Well, you did wait a long time before you shared it with the forum :face-with-hand-over-mouth:

That’s fair haha, i guess my reasoning for the would be that i have trouble reading social queues so i wasnt sure if i was overthinking their reactions. But now that the tank has recovered from the dinos and is looking much better, and their yet their reaction was the same, i figured id check lol

 

[GothFishKeeper]

Pull what away from the scape?

Oh i see you mean the halimeda, i just did and wow i didnt realize how much it was lacking light. Hopefully it’ll recover in this spot.

I had to completely untangle it from the hypnea that was overtaking it

 

[fish_collector]

Oh my gosh I love it!

 

[weldrick208658]

When I first converted this from a nano reef to a macroalgae tank and stuck in the first few pieces of algae, all my coworkers/friends who are more into planted FW tanks, and some that are really into macroalgae as well, were like “omg that looks so good”. Over the past couple months I’ve added more macros and they all have taken off pretty well in growth, but when I’ve shown these people they must be spotting flaws that I’m not seeing because they’re kinda like “oh… nice…”

Obviously it’s not a big deal if I like it visually but they don’t, but I’m worried they’re seeing something that is an actual issue for the health of the tank. Can anyone spot anything along those lines or simply if anything looks out of place?

Please ignore the rotifers floating around in these images, I had just fed the gorgonians.

Do you dose anything?

 

[GothFishKeeper]

Do you dose anything?

Just nitrates and phosphates :)

 

[Reef.]

I think if the sand was white it would get the reactions you think it should, I have to admit for me the sand as it is, is too much of a distraction too, tho I do understand clean sand is down to personal taste.