New 22 Gallon Macroalgae Tank

[Diastro]

And so it begins...

I picked up a used Mr. Aqua 22 gallon long. Water test seemed good. It's a bit dirty so I'll need to scrape it. I'm experimenting with these lights, they're 25w smart flood lights that come with all the programming and a lower price point than any aquarium light with similar functions.

I have purchased the sand and am waiting for it to get delivered. I also already picked up so old dry rock from a fellow hobbyist.

Next steps include adding a filter, heater, black background, assembling the scape, and filling it up.

I'm considering adding mollies into the tank and slowly converting them to saltwater. I'm really not sure what to stock though, so if anyone has any suggestions I'm open.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Best of luck with the tank!

 

[Diastro]

Update. I have scaped the tank. Looks really beautiful, I need to get the courage to fill it up and start cycling. But I don't want the uglies to ruin the beauty . I can't wait to get some macroalgae going in here. I think once I get a background in here it will really pop.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Update. I have scaped the tank. Looks really beautiful, I need to get the courage to fill it up and start cycling. But I don't want the uglies to ruin the beauty . I can't wait to get some macroalgae going in here. I think once I get a background in here it will really pop.

Love the aquascape!

 

[Diastro]

Update. It's been filled, I moved some macroalgae from my og tank and also purchased some macroalgae online. It's currently cycling. I'm very excited!

 

[Daniel@R2R]

Cool!!! Can't wait to see how this goes!!

 

[parclife]

This looks very cool!

 

[Patx]

Nice !

 

[Patx]

I bet you have a fresh water background !

 

[Diastro]

I bet you have a fresh water background !

Lol you definitely won that bet! I was purely a freshwater enthusiast before I discovered macroalgae.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Update. It's been filled, I moved some macroalgae from my og tank and also purchased some macroalgae online. It's currently cycling. I'm very excited!

Loving the update photos!

 

[Patx]

Lol you definitely won that bet! I was purely a freshwater enthusiast before I discovered macroalgae.

I start salt water for the same reason
For me Macro was hard to manage (scape whit them)...it's different.

13 years ago... 14g.

 

[Diastro]

I start salt water for the same reason
For me Macro was hard to manage (scape whit them)...it's different.

13 years ago... 14g.

Wow that's beautiful. Do you still have that tank?

 

[Patx]

It's my refugium now.
Ball of cheato only

 

[Diastro]

Update: New tank depression.
Black cyano overtook the tank. I thought I could wait it out but I decided to chemiclean the tank like I did with the first one. I'm definitely not patient. I didn't take many pictures of the tank at that time since I was not happy with the tank and a lot of the macroalgae was being smothered. I tend to be hands off with maintenance so I wasn't happy having to remove cyano all the time.

The tank finished cycling, and I decided to try to put mollies in the tank, no success there. This made me feel worse. Next I decided to move my clownfish from the original tank to this one. He seemed super happy and I loved the tank again. Then suddenly he passed away after a few weeks. No ammonia spikes or anything else obviously wrong. He was bouncing around as normal and the next day he was dead. Very heartbreaking for me.

Beautiful clown. Rip.

This is when I decided to chemiclean the tank since no fish were in there. The only thing I had was 4 hermit crabs and two feather dusters. They were hardy and still happily roaming the tank.

the tank was now clear. And I decided I needed more macroalgae. I bought a bunch from reef cleaners, as well as a ton of snails. So far the tank is looking more beautiful. I wish I could get better pictures my phone isn't taking good quality for some reason. I need to get an actual camera.
anyways here is what it looks like now. Tommorow will be 3 months since set up.

it's not as blue in real life, camera issues.

 

[Diastro]

Here are some more color accurate images.

 

[laguna-madre]

I'm also dealing with a cyano outbreak. It's super disheartening because despite doing lots of water changes, lowering the photo period, and manually removing the cyano each day--- it comes back full force the next day. I use a turkey baster to keep it from smothering the macros.

I just added carbon, hoping that helps things.

 

[Diastro]

I'm also dealing with a cyano outbreak. It's super disheartening because despite doing lots of water changes, lowering the photo period, and manually removing the cyano each day--- it comes back full force the next day. I use a turkey baster to keep it from smothering the macros.

I just added carbon, hoping that helps things.

Let me know if carbon helps! I would like to not resort to chemicals every time I set up a tank but it work the fastest and easiest so.

 

[Diastro]

Update: Photo dump. Just finished scraping the front glass here, man is that a workout or what? Everything looks good, I'm hoping to add some more corals soon. Perhaps I'll pick up a clownfish pair later today.

 

[vlangel]

Hey, your tank is very cool. I love the drift wood. Corky finger gorgonian would be cool, in fact most of the photosynthetic gorgonians would be nice in your tank.

It looks like most of your green macroalgae are the calcareous varieties, (except the caulerpa). I did not have much luck with those although I love them. I hope you do better than me.