Ska's 28 Macro Algae Display

fishytime · #1 08-17-2011, 12:45 PM

the "au natural" look, looks great.....although I do like the neatly trimmed look

skabooya · #2 08-17-2011, 04:01 PM

Thanks all. Macro algae is really easy to keep if thats what your 'main' interest is. If its both corals and macro its a bit more difficult but it can be done. I have a few corals in my system and I want to add more, mainly mushrooms because they do so well. But im more slack about corals now and more in tune with the macro.

I typically like things trimmed espically when there are viewings but when no one is looking I let it all go au natural. ;P For your eyes only.

skabooya · #3 08-22-2011, 05:53 AM

So, Im strongly considering picking up 6 sexy shrimp and a candy pistol shrimp for the tank. What do people here think.
Currently there are 2 clowns and a peppermint shrimp as well as 2 hermit crabs in there.
Any Input ?

fishytime · #4 08-22-2011, 09:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by skabooya

So, Im strongly considering picking up 6 sexy shrimp and a candy pistol shrimp for the tank. What do people here think.
Currently there are 2 clowns and a peppermint shrimp as well as 2 hermit crabs in there.
Any Input ?

I would worry about never seeing them......being that there havnt been any recent viewings and things are a little on the wild side atm

......that being said I do love my "Sexy Shrimp"

skabooya · #5 09-02-2011, 04:16 AM

Macro is going NUTS! gonna send out a few packages now and hope that helps. I may have more up for sale soon too. Im going to be very generous to those that did order

Anyway I put my order in for 7 yes 7 sexy shrimp.

I cant wait. I do already have a peppermint shrimp who is in LOVE with the macro in my tank. I see him out all the time in my red halymenia. Camouflage I guess. Pretty cool stuff.

skabooya · #6 01-22-2012, 07:47 PM

I want to cry when I see how beautiful my tank was. I got a new teaching Job in Sept. With that new job, taking care of my son and husband as well as the regular chores my tanks got neglected. The macro took over EVERYTHING! well I shouldn't blame all the macro. The grape calpura is EVIL! Stunning if it is well kept but I didn't have the time to trim weekly. It smothered everything including other macro. It killed off a lot of my nice macro and some of my corals.
I went in and pulled EVERYTHING out of my tank. Including rocks. I pulled off every bit of macro I saw with tweezers and threw everything out except for the pretty macro that isint invasive. I cleaned EVERYTHING!
About 2 weeks later the grape calpura was back and worse than before. WHY!
I stopped dosing to starve the macro. It killed off nearly everything except the grape. I pretty much gave up.
I was looking for a tang to temporarily put into the tank to just clear it up.
Yesterday I pulled about half the macro again and today I will do the other half as well as a WC.
I can honestly say that it is finally starting to slow down. I do now have a lot of nuisance algae.
What I do like is how truly wild the tank looks now. It is very natural. Not man made natural, but coastal saltwater natural.
I am hoping that after this next big clean It will be under more control.

I noticed A LOT of snails, I didnt have before. NICE! and my mushrooms are COLOURFUL! They were in near complete darkness. Also, the green grape that was in the dark didnt really grow.

It gave me an idea. I now have enough lighting for sps. I want height in my tank as well as a lot of shade for my mushrooms.
MONTI CAPS! I tried a couple before, but I only had just enough light and the frags were constantly knocked over, so they didn't make it.
Now, I have a plan. Mount it DIRECTLY to the rock, right at the top of the tank instead of just waiting for them to stick, themselves

They can completely shade the lower part of the tank making my mushrooms pretty and my keeping the green macro at bay. YAY!
Then for height, some very easy to keep sps like birds nest.
I really want some photosynthetic gorgs, but I still cant find any

This tank is going through a transition and I am actually getting excited about it. I hope it lasts.

skabooya · #7 01-23-2012, 03:12 AM

Alright, so the plan is to have something to control the grape caulpera. I would like to save my nicer macro algae.
I was reading around and a recommendation is emerald crabs. They are hit or miss, but at least its a chance. So, Im thinking one or two emerald crabs, and then when they get older I would trade them in. Although having crabs in the tank would just be so cool.

I'm going to do more research to see if it is worth the risk.
If that doesn't work, I will seriously consider a tang, but I really don't want one.
After that, Im going to tear everything down and sell or trade all my LR but keep my coral and just start over with normal LR and NO CALPURA.

Any advice ?