Planted Saltwater

[reiverix]

My plan is to set up a 15g saltwater planted tank to make use of some spare stuff lying around. Here's what I have.

15g AGA tank
100w titanium heater
bag of aragonite
96w 50/50 PC light
stacks of macroalgae from 55g reef refugium


This leaves me with the live rock to buy. I also plan to keep a few easy corals like mushrooms and ricordia but the main focus will be the macroalgae. Not sure about fish yet. Maybe a pipefish. The question is about dosing. Is there a marine equivalent of IE? I'm assuming that the plants will need some form of NPK or is enough supplied with the salt mix?

 

[fishface]

Re: Planted Saltwater

macro in a saltwater tank is normally, mostly for nutrient export...that is the natural cycle of feeding and wastes of other tank inhabitants is taken up by the macro which is then cut and taken from the tank...there should be NO NPK in your marine mix and macro should grow like a weed if given enough light. that said, i highly recommend researching pipefish as they are one of the most difficult fish to keep and do not survive well in captivity. best of luck and a good thing to remember: in marine tanks good thing happen slow, bad things happen very fast...

 

[reiverix]

Re: Planted Saltwater

Yeah lol right enough. My salt mix for my reef tank says no nitrates or phosphates. I must have been in la la land. I've got a 7g fuge on my 55g reef and the macroalgae does a great job at nutrient export. Still, in a mostly macro tank I can't seem to get my head around the fact that no additional dosing is needed. My LFS has some really neat pipefish that will only feed on guppy fry but maybe a 15g would be a pushing it a bit.

 

[Tom Barr]

Re: Planted Saltwater

Shrimp, blood or cleaner etc work great.

One fish, crabs, turbo snails etc.

Alk and Ca++ are huge issues.

Yes, you can do EI on a smaller marine or a reef tank, weekly 50% is not bad on a 15 gal tank.

You can extend things out to 2 weeks as things settle in.

I dose roughly 3-4ppm every 2-3 days and PO4 at 0.2ppm at those same times.

This is for a densely planted Marine tank.

Traces, Ca/alk can be added liberally.

Aeration is your friend, a skilter would work well.

4" of aragonite, mulm, and well soaked mud(soaked for 2-3 weeks), about 1/4" or so on the bottom and mix with the arag 's first 1", then cap with 3".

Regards,
Tom Barr

 

[Tom Barr]

Re: Planted Saltwater

Also, onyx sand is great!
It's calcite with Fe and Mn.
Grey coast calcite is the marine trade name for it.


Regards,
Tom Barr