I neglected to document my tank for a while, but things were going quite well for a bit and then suddenly took a major turn. Although my water was testing well, I began having issues with the coral specifically, losing multiple pieces of coral all of a sudden over the last month or so. I thought it might be due to a pretty serious infestation of red planaria, which I was attempting to get rid of using Flatworm Exit (and now am using natural predators on), as they were covering almost every surface. It turns out that the actual issue was rust from my Eshopps frag rack breaking and exposing the interior magnet. I couldn't see it with the exterior magnet covering it, but when I did discover the issue the rust was so bad it had stained the glass.
I had only found this issue as I decided to remove the coral and put it into another tank, with the intention of turning this into a macroalgae setup. I decided to follow through with this idea as I had already ordered a bunch of macroalgae, so here goes!
The macroalgae arrived two days ago, but I am still waiting on a few more pieces. For now, here are my additions:
- Caulerpa lentillifera 'Grape Caulerpa'
- Caulerpa prolifera 'Leafy Caulerpa'
- Corallina sp. 'Thin Branching Coralline'
- Cryptonemia crenulata 'Gorgonian Encrusting'
- Unknown sp. 'Crimson Heart'
- Unknown sp. 'Rusty Ribbon'
- Fauchea sp. 'Purple Fauchea'
- Gracilaria sp. 'Cherry Tree Gracilaria'
- Laurencia sp. 'Purple Intricate Laurencia'
- Laurencia iridescens 'Color-Shifting Laurencia'
- Bryothamnion triquetrum 'Red Razor'
- Galaxaura sp. 'Bramble Thicket'
- Digenea simplex 'Fuzzy Antler'
- Laurencia sp. 'Corky Brown Laurencia'
- Laurencia sp. 'Flat Purple Laurencia'
- Laurencia sp. 'Purple Asparagus Laurencia'
- Hypnea pannosa 'Blue Hypnea'
- Haliptilon sp. 'Red Fern'
- Botryocladia occidentalis 'Red Grape'
- Udotea sp. 'Mermaids Tail'
- Cymopolia barbata 'Jointed Tuft'
- Halimeda opuntia 'Carpeting Halimeda'
- Unknown sp. 'Brittle Sea Lettuce'
- Chaetomorpha sp. 'Seagrass Chaeto'
I am still waiting on:
- Halymenia stipitata 'Orange Galaxy'
- Lobophora sp. 'Brown Ruffles'
- Dictyosphaeria cavernosa' Mosaic Snakeskin
- Sargassum sp. 'Pseudo Kelp'
- Heterosiphonia gibbesii 'Flamingo Feather'
I'll post photos up of everything when I can, but for now I'll share the blue hypnea, since I was trying to document the coloration once I received it vs what it will look like as it colors up better:
I also added a few inverts lately, and two mangroves which I am hoping to train a bit like bonsai:
Decorator Arrow Crab
Chiton
Two Feather Dusters
Red Mangroves
Stay tuned for more updates, I think this will be a fun direction for this setup.
