thinking about getting a plant.

[paul87]

So I was wanting to get a plant for my 35 gallon tank. One that wont harm my corals and wont spread rapidly that is hard to prune if it does get out of had. I like the little extra nitrate reduction plus the over all look of a green plant. Any ideas or recommendations is very much appreciated. Im kinda wanting one that I could plant in my sand bed. Here is a couple I liked.

Fern plant, shaving brush, & halimeda.

 

[Soccerdude]

I have halimeda growing off my live rock. Looks good, and seems to be coming along fine at a normal pace so far. There is some great info about its care, which is fairly simple, on liveaquaria.com

 

[paul87]

Yea I looked there. Care to share a pic?

 

[paul87]

I was leaning towards the fern plant. Anybody have any experience with these. Or the shaving brush plant? My LFS had those brush plants.

 

[Hocky puck]

Shaving brush are easy I don't know nothing about pruning them tho my tangs did that

 

[paul87]

Do they spread or grow fast?

 

[54seaweed]

I never really had luck with plants in the SW tank, my first issue was the hermits eating the Halimeda plants never lasted more than a week , as for shaving brushes and ferns between the fish and hermits they just disintegrate,
I seem to have better luck with Gracilaria
or Chaeto
I also like the Caulerpa all these macro algae look great if placed right also do fairly well and after fish and crabs munch on it it is easy to replace , it helps dress up the tank and helps a lot keeping the nitrates in check
here's a pict of what it looks like just ignore the carbon sock in center of tank I use that when cleaning tank it don't stay in there long

 

[Hocky puck]

I never really had luck with plants in the SW tank, my first issue was the hermits eating the Halimeda plants never lasted more than a week , as for shaving brushes and ferns between the fish and hermits they just disintegrate,
I seem to have better luck with Gracilaria
or Chaeto
I also like the Caulerpa all these macro algae look great if placed right also do fairly well and after fish and crabs munch on it it is easy to replace , it helps dress up the tank and helps a lot keeping the nitrates in check
here's a pict of what it looks like just ignore the carbon sock in center of tank I use that when cleaning tank it don't stay in there long

Agreed

 

[paul87]

Yea I have chaeto on my half gallon fuge. I don't have any vegetarian fish just 2 carnivores. I do gave snails and a few hermits though.

 

[Saratj1]

I have a cool algae pop up on some live rock. I don't know what it is though



I also have a mangrove but I think I let salt creep kill it.

 

[paul87]

Pretty neat. Looks like you have a few types of macro algae on there. Don't let it take over though! Unless you want it to. I wad talking to my buddy at the LFS today and he told me not to get any plants but maybe a shaving brush if I gotta have one. Said they are just too evasive. He said just get more corals! LOL. I might get a shaving brush but I'm not really set on getting a plant anymore.

 

[Saratj1]

Yes, I had a mild crash a few weeks ago, I don't know the cause but I lost a couple turbo snails , a porcelain crab, a frogspawn, melted some zoas, although some are coming back, and the tips of some acropora turned white. Scared the crap out of me, I did a 90% water change, ran a ton of carbon and wet skimmed like crazy. Everything is looking really good now, but I have a pretty good algae bloom, I think it will burn itself out in another week or so.

 

[Holygral]

I have a cool algae pop up on some live rock. I don't know what it is though

View attachment 117202

I also have a mangrove but I think I let salt creep kill it.

Could just be the picture but that looks like a large Aiptasia Anemone on the right side of your tank?

 

[Saratj1]

I'm not really sure what it is, it's some type of anemone, but not like the usual apistasia, this is kinda cool looking so I leave it alone, I've had it for 8 months now and it doesn't seem to spread (or really grow at all). I do have a few apistasia though it's hard to see in the pic but on the middle left in the dark spot, there's one partially visible in the pic, it's hard to see though.
I'll get a better pic of that thing and see if someone knows what it is.

 

[54seaweed]

I have a cool algae pop up on some live rock. I don't know what it is though

View attachment 117202

I also have a mangrove but I think I let salt creep kill it.

looks like kelp (a good type macro algae just keep it trimmed it grows fast)it likes med to high light and med flow