Marine planted tank

[Tom Barr]

Marine planted tanks:

http://reefcentral.com/gallery/showgallery.php?ppuser=29998&cat=500&thumb=1

I'll be doing some marine planted tanks coming up shortly and providing articles as well, I will do a general article in a few months and then follow up with specific articles on Marine plants.

I feel it is best to keep the marine and fresh water topics seperated, Diana Walstad used marine references for FW plants that I feel are not applicable to support her contentions.

But I also want to keep the confusion between the two groups seperated for the reader as well.

Regards,
Tom Barr

 

[UprightJoe]

Re: Marine planted tank

Tom,

Any teasers or tips on the saltwater front? I've got a box of saltwater weeds sitting here that I'm trying not to kill.

For now, I'm planning on dosing Nitrate, Phosphate, and traces much more conservatively than I do my freshwater tank. I've also got some calcareous weeds in the tank so I'm going to be measuring my calcium weekly to try and determine if I need to dose it.

For co2, I saw in many of your posts on reefcentral that you seemed to have roughly comparable results in saltwater with heavy aeration so I've added an airstone to my sump.

Any nuggets of wisdom?

 

[Tom Barr]

Re: Marine planted tank

Tom,

Any teasers or tips on the saltwater front? I've got a box of saltwater weeds sitting here that I'm trying not to kill.

For now, I'm planning on dosing Nitrate, Phosphate, and traces much more conservatively than I do my freshwater tank. I've also got some calcareous weeds in the tank so I'm going to be measuring my calcium weekly to try and determine if I need to dose it.

For co2, I saw in many of your posts on reefcentral that you seemed to have roughly comparable results in saltwater with heavy aeration so I've added an airstone to my sump.

Any nuggets of wisdom?

There are a number of good threads on RC for now.
I'm still focusing on FW at the moment. I'll get back to
SW in about 2 months.

Regards,
Tom Barr

 

[discocarp]

Re: Marine planted tank

Can you provide at least some substrate info? I'm anxious to get my 92g bow going and I've been waiting and waiting for your article. I'm willing to risk screwing up other things, but substrate is such a pain to change I'd like to at least get that right.

1. Are you still suggesting 1/2" of boiled soil with 4" aragonite?
2. Is onyx suitable?
3. Is the dsb needed or would a shallow bed work (assuming no seagrasses)?
4. What about leonardite instead of soil? Useful in saltwater?

 

[Tom Barr]

Re: Marine planted tank

Can you provide at least some substrate info? I'm anxious to get my 92g bow going and I've been waiting and waiting for your article. I'm willing to risk screwing up other things, but substrate is such a pain to change I'd like to at least get that right.

1. Are you still suggesting 1/2" of boiled soil with 4" aragonite?
2. Is onyx suitable?
3. Is the dsb needed or would a shallow bed work (assuming no seagrasses)?
4. What about leonardite instead of soil? Useful in saltwater?

I'd use some mud/soil.
Not much, about 1/4-1/2 and onyx is great.
Looks weird in a marine tank to me, I've seen too many white sand beds of macros..............

Arag works fine.

Regards, '
Tom Barr