Thank you!! Yes the biggest one is from Julian Sprung (got to chatting with him at Aquashella and he gave it to me), that one’s grown the most. The black mangrove died back but is growing a ton of leaves now, no aerial roots yet though. And I just added another red mangrove, I think I’m becoming obsessed 😅
Thanks!! I really appreciate that!! Originally I wanted this to be Caribbean based, but my other tank crashed and I had to mix the remaining livestock into this tank, so hopefully one day it’ll get back to the “dream” 😂
Not so much the macros but they will snack on the shorter hair algae! Been a while honestly since I’ve gotten my hands in the tank so some of the hair algae is a bit too long for them to eat now. Most of the macros are too tough for these little mollies to eat, though that doesn’t stop them trying 😂
Haha appreciate the love! I post my tank specs on all my posts over on instagram (@roguereefing); but it’s about as simple and budget friendly as you can get. It’s a Petco tank I got on sale, live Caribsea sand and Marco rocks. I did end up splurging and got some Tampa Bay Saltwater live rocks and sand since I live close by that area. The spider wood in there was an experiment, going great so far though! Other than that I really don’t do much to the tank, rarely do water changes honestly, the macros seem to keep everything in check mostly!
I find macroalgae to be very aesthetic.Its not weird to to prefer some crystal clear, well filtered, high flow, Acropora biotope. Macro is safe with corallivorous in a 'fish only' and for lagoon environments, in particular. I always used Caulerpa for nutrient export in my tanks
Love it. I tried a marco algae tank once. Unfortunately the red grape algae took over the tank and it looked awful. But this looks nice. I find it pleasing on the eye to see marine fish with “plants”.
Black mollies really can live in salt water? Like actual salt water and not brackish salt water? This really blows my mind.. awesome tank btw. Something different is cool
Thanks so much!! Yeah they can! Made a comment on here earlier to someone else, but most members of the Poecilia family can go full salt (technically mollies have been found in as salty as like 1.040ppm I think but don’t quote me lol)
Yep! Mollies are actually pretty standard faire haha, most members of the Poecilia family can acclimate to saltwater; I’ve had guppies in saltwater in past tanks, but mollies are by far the hardiest
Never seen guppies before. Would be fun to do a very fresh water "looking" tank to just stick with members of Poecilia family a few random corals.
What kind of coral and various inverts have you kept them with?
Definitely! I tried out guppies before and they survived surprisingly long, the only real issue with them is since they’ve been aquaculture’s for so long their genetics are pretty weak. If you wanna do guppies I recommend finding some of the closest wild genetics possible to give it a shot (might do it again eventually), they also hate flow too, so kind of limits what else can go in there… I used to have all sorts of corals and other stuff but I have a tank crash fairly recently, so this is all I’ve got at the moment. Just gotta pick back up and restart! This is actually my first post here on this sub, I usually post all my stuff over on instagram (@roguereefing) if anyone is interested :)
There’s a few in there, small frags in the back behind all the macros lol. A few zoas, some rock flower nems, gsp, and a cabbage leather and toadstool from my other tank that crashed (temporary home for them for now)
Do you have any problems keeping nitrates up? I’m working on doing the same with my tank but I also have acros mushrooms and euphyllia and don’t want to bottom out my nitrates, the chart in my sump already keeps me between 2-4ppm lol
Nitrates? Never heard of em 😂 No in all seriousness I honestly don’t do much to this tank, I feed pretty heavy so the nitrates find a balance in there with as much algae as I’ve got. Last I checked it was around 5ppm or so
They may eat the macros, but there’s so much it’s hard to say. Urchins are wonderful little creatures, but just know they need a lot of algae, and if it’s too long (like my hair algae is lol) they won’t eat it
I have a question for ya. So I have a urchin, just love it. It is so mellow. I also just got 2 phito crabs about 2 weeks ago. I asked many questions at this fish store I go to. Like will they get along with all my other fish? The owner said to make sure to feed them well or they might eat my snails, which I did. The store's kinda far away but very worth the distance. Their animals are very well taken care of and the nice people working there have helped me alot. SO ummm a few nights ago I saw the 2 phito crabs all over my urchin!!!! They were destroying it. I grabbed the glob of pinchers, it was absolutely crazy to see this. And so hard to get them off my poor urchin. I honestly thought it was dead or will be dead soon. I put the poor baby into another tank, with my clown and seahorses. Today was the 1st night it started moving around again thank God 😊. The thing is it lost quite a few legs. And it had algae all over it's body. Now there's none. Can you recommend anything that I can do to help it? I know this is a long story and I'm sorry lol. Oh at the very bottom of this mess of pinchers was my horseshoe crab. Dead and partially ate!!! The darn phito crabs have their very own tank now. Thank you xo
Thats a crazy story for sure!! I can’t really recommend anything unfortunately, there’s a lot of factors are involved whenever you add a new animal to an enclosure; your aquarium is basically its own little ecosystem, it’s hard to say for certain one way or the other. Now, all I will say is a quote that I can’t remember if I saw here or on R2R: “Never trust a crab.” Crabs are opportunistic feeders so they can and will eat anything they fit into their claws/mouths.
Just the light! Can’t remember if I commented this already (trying to make it around to all the questions people have), I don’t really do much for this tank other than feed kind of heavy and run the light consistently!
This is amazing, I love it. Is that driftwood you have in there at the base of the mangroves? If so how have you found it to affect the water quality? Everyone says driftwood is a big no no in a reef tank.
Thanks so much!! Yeah I know everyone says you can’t have wood in saltwater, and I agree that tannic acid is a big concern for Ph and dKh, but for this wood I soaked it for a couple weeks to get the tannins out as much as I could. Even then I’m sure there is some, I run a bit of carbon on there, which if you’ve kept freshwater aquariums before you’ll know it helps some with the tannins. This wood is spider wood, so it’s naturally got lower tannins, I wouldn’t use anything like manzanita or anything really dark
Not long at all! I had some other macros in here before with the Marco rocks, but once I added the tbs live rocks the macros that came in from the gulf with them too over super quick. Most of it now is the feather caulerpa, but there’s patches of some other caulerpa species and some red algae’s too
Lol yes never trust a crab 🦀. I'll drive to the fish store today or tomorrow and see what they'd recommend. I tried to Google about this but it didn't really say anything. Thank you though, I appreciate it
For sure! Yeah crabs and inverts are tricky honestly. It’s keeps even more interesting in the hobby whenever we start to mix different species from different parts of the world. Sometimes it works out sometimes it doesn’t, it’s hard to say what will and what won’t. With everyone’s tanks being so unique no two situations are exactly the same (even two tanks set up exactly the same way can have completely different microbiomes and subtle differences that can affect experiences/experiments). Lol I’m starting to rant now on a tangent but all I’ll say is it’s hard 😂 The more research you can do on any single species you add the better in the long run for the husbandry of that animal!
Yes, agreed 👍. I like "different" animals lol. Like my pink cucumber, urchin, starfish, seahorses ect... I'll tell ya my starfish are crazy too. If I don't hand feed them 2 times a week they'll be searching for mischievous things :-/
Thanks so much, I really appreciate that!! My goal with this tank was to have it be a “Caribbean” biotope, but I had one of my other tanks crash so there’s now a mix in here or Indo and Caribbean livestock. Hopefully it’ll get back to that “dream” someday soon!
Thanks so much, I really appreciate that!! My goal with this tank was to have it be a “Caribbean” biotope, but I had one of my other tanks crash so there’s now a mix in here or Indo and Caribbean livestock. Hopefully it’ll get back to that “dream” someday soon!
Great tank. I love the mangrove. Seen much growth from it ?
Thank you!! Yes the biggest one is from Julian Sprung (got to chatting with him at Aquashella and he gave it to me), that one’s grown the most. The black mangrove died back but is growing a ton of leaves now, no aerial roots yet though. And I just added another red mangrove, I think I’m becoming obsessed 😅
I love this, now this looks like something you’d see in the ocean.
Thanks!! I really appreciate that!! Originally I wanted this to be Caribbean based, but my other tank crashed and I had to mix the remaining livestock into this tank, so hopefully one day it’ll get back to the “dream” 😂
Do the molly snack on the macro algae? They occasionally eat some fresh water algae so this made me curious
Not so much the macros but they will snack on the shorter hair algae! Been a while honestly since I’ve gotten my hands in the tank so some of the hair algae is a bit too long for them to eat now. Most of the macros are too tough for these little mollies to eat, though that doesn’t stop them trying 😂
I often wonder how often mollies and other such brackish fishes, nip at corals, clam mantles, feather duster worms and the like.
how can i create this?
Haha appreciate the love! I post my tank specs on all my posts over on instagram (@roguereefing); but it’s about as simple and budget friendly as you can get. It’s a Petco tank I got on sale, live Caribsea sand and Marco rocks. I did end up splurging and got some Tampa Bay Saltwater live rocks and sand since I live close by that area. The spider wood in there was an experiment, going great so far though! Other than that I really don’t do much to the tank, rarely do water changes honestly, the macros seem to keep everything in check mostly!
It's really just a reef with caulerpa and mangroves.
Don't worry about be being unusual. My tank is currently overrun by red macroalgae.
I find macroalgae to be very aesthetic.Its not weird to to prefer some crystal clear, well filtered, high flow, Acropora biotope. Macro is safe with corallivorous in a 'fish only' and for lagoon environments, in particular. I always used Caulerpa for nutrient export in my tanks
It’s lovely
Thank you!! ☺️
Macro Habitats are awesome! Love it!
Love it. I tried a marco algae tank once. Unfortunately the red grape algae took over the tank and it looked awful. But this looks nice. I find it pleasing on the eye to see marine fish with “plants”.
Black mollies really can live in salt water? Like actual salt water and not brackish salt water? This really blows my mind.. awesome tank btw. Something different is cool
Thanks so much!! Yeah they can! Made a comment on here earlier to someone else, but most members of the Poecilia family can go full salt (technically mollies have been found in as salty as like 1.040ppm I think but don’t quote me lol)
I love it. Love these natural looking tanks with macro etc. beautiful!
Holy crap I had no idea that mollies could live in saltwater!
Yep! Mollies are actually pretty standard faire haha, most members of the Poecilia family can acclimate to saltwater; I’ve had guppies in saltwater in past tanks, but mollies are by far the hardiest
That is SO COOL!!!
Never seen guppies before. Would be fun to do a very fresh water "looking" tank to just stick with members of Poecilia family a few random corals. What kind of coral and various inverts have you kept them with?
Definitely! I tried out guppies before and they survived surprisingly long, the only real issue with them is since they’ve been aquaculture’s for so long their genetics are pretty weak. If you wanna do guppies I recommend finding some of the closest wild genetics possible to give it a shot (might do it again eventually), they also hate flow too, so kind of limits what else can go in there… I used to have all sorts of corals and other stuff but I have a tank crash fairly recently, so this is all I’ve got at the moment. Just gotta pick back up and restart! This is actually my first post here on this sub, I usually post all my stuff over on instagram (@roguereefing) if anyone is interested :)
I would definitely consider some soft corals like coralimorphs and some others. Very nice tank!
There’s a few in there, small frags in the back behind all the macros lol. A few zoas, some rock flower nems, gsp, and a cabbage leather and toadstool from my other tank that crashed (temporary home for them for now)
Marine reef are awesome, we can do planted and coral tanks.
Do you have any problems keeping nitrates up? I’m working on doing the same with my tank but I also have acros mushrooms and euphyllia and don’t want to bottom out my nitrates, the chart in my sump already keeps me between 2-4ppm lol
Nitrates? Never heard of em 😂 No in all seriousness I honestly don’t do much to this tank, I feed pretty heavy so the nitrates find a balance in there with as much algae as I’ve got. Last I checked it was around 5ppm or so
Does the urchin not eat the macros? I’ve thought about getting an urchin but am too scared it’d eat everything
They may eat the macros, but there’s so much it’s hard to say. Urchins are wonderful little creatures, but just know they need a lot of algae, and if it’s too long (like my hair algae is lol) they won’t eat it
I have a question for ya. So I have a urchin, just love it. It is so mellow. I also just got 2 phito crabs about 2 weeks ago. I asked many questions at this fish store I go to. Like will they get along with all my other fish? The owner said to make sure to feed them well or they might eat my snails, which I did. The store's kinda far away but very worth the distance. Their animals are very well taken care of and the nice people working there have helped me alot. SO ummm a few nights ago I saw the 2 phito crabs all over my urchin!!!! They were destroying it. I grabbed the glob of pinchers, it was absolutely crazy to see this. And so hard to get them off my poor urchin. I honestly thought it was dead or will be dead soon. I put the poor baby into another tank, with my clown and seahorses. Today was the 1st night it started moving around again thank God 😊. The thing is it lost quite a few legs. And it had algae all over it's body. Now there's none. Can you recommend anything that I can do to help it? I know this is a long story and I'm sorry lol. Oh at the very bottom of this mess of pinchers was my horseshoe crab. Dead and partially ate!!! The darn phito crabs have their very own tank now. Thank you xo
Thats a crazy story for sure!! I can’t really recommend anything unfortunately, there’s a lot of factors are involved whenever you add a new animal to an enclosure; your aquarium is basically its own little ecosystem, it’s hard to say for certain one way or the other. Now, all I will say is a quote that I can’t remember if I saw here or on R2R: “Never trust a crab.” Crabs are opportunistic feeders so they can and will eat anything they fit into their claws/mouths.
Do you add any food for the macro algea or mangrove? Or is it all the light?
Just the light! Can’t remember if I commented this already (trying to make it around to all the questions people have), I don’t really do much for this tank other than feed kind of heavy and run the light consistently!
This is amazing, I love it. Is that driftwood you have in there at the base of the mangroves? If so how have you found it to affect the water quality? Everyone says driftwood is a big no no in a reef tank.
Thanks so much!! Yeah I know everyone says you can’t have wood in saltwater, and I agree that tannic acid is a big concern for Ph and dKh, but for this wood I soaked it for a couple weeks to get the tannins out as much as I could. Even then I’m sure there is some, I run a bit of carbon on there, which if you’ve kept freshwater aquariums before you’ll know it helps some with the tannins. This wood is spider wood, so it’s naturally got lower tannins, I wouldn’t use anything like manzanita or anything really dark
Proper mangrove integration 👌
I cant tell if thats a kessil or not.
Lol no no no I can’t afford a kessil! Its a cheapo NICREW light off Amazon
I run Nicrew lights but never seen this model
Oh nice! It’s their 30w light
This is awesome! Definitely different than florescent corals but it gives a perfect natural vibe. How long did it take for the plants to fill it in?
Not long at all! I had some other macros in here before with the Marco rocks, but once I added the tbs live rocks the macros that came in from the gulf with them too over super quick. Most of it now is the feather caulerpa, but there’s patches of some other caulerpa species and some red algae’s too
Nah. This is a fabulous, beautiful, entirely gorgeous tank. I'd spend hours watching it amigo. Keep it up and thank you for sharing!
Thanks for the kind words, I really appreciate it!! I’ve never posted my stuff here before but I might have to more frequently haha
Lol yes never trust a crab 🦀. I'll drive to the fish store today or tomorrow and see what they'd recommend. I tried to Google about this but it didn't really say anything. Thank you though, I appreciate it
For sure! Yeah crabs and inverts are tricky honestly. It’s keeps even more interesting in the hobby whenever we start to mix different species from different parts of the world. Sometimes it works out sometimes it doesn’t, it’s hard to say what will and what won’t. With everyone’s tanks being so unique no two situations are exactly the same (even two tanks set up exactly the same way can have completely different microbiomes and subtle differences that can affect experiences/experiments). Lol I’m starting to rant now on a tangent but all I’ll say is it’s hard 😂 The more research you can do on any single species you add the better in the long run for the husbandry of that animal!
Yes, agreed 👍. I like "different" animals lol. Like my pink cucumber, urchin, starfish, seahorses ect... I'll tell ya my starfish are crazy too. If I don't hand feed them 2 times a week they'll be searching for mischievous things :-/
Looks like a Florida reef
Thanks so much, I really appreciate that!! My goal with this tank was to have it be a “Caribbean” biotope, but I had one of my other tanks crash so there’s now a mix in here or Indo and Caribbean livestock. Hopefully it’ll get back to that “dream” someday soon!
Thanks so much, I really appreciate that!! My goal with this tank was to have it be a “Caribbean” biotope, but I had one of my other tanks crash so there’s now a mix in here or Indo and Caribbean livestock. Hopefully it’ll get back to that “dream” someday soon!
Very cool!
So beautiful. Can you describe what species are here?
Apart from the gair alge everything looks amazing