by philaquarist » Sun Nov 05, 2006 11:42 am
Hi jackryan,
Totally agree with Apol. Use of macroalgae in the main display tank (like most other aquarium practices) is a matter of personal taste and psychic satisfaction, involving predefined trade-offs. It's up to each aquarist to make his own judgement, as long as he knows what he's getting into. In the case of a "green display tank":
some pros:
1) good indicator of water quality (probably ahead of other fish/inverts), acts as a "living" water test kit
2) nutrient absorption (though you can do the same in a sump)
3) aesthetics, breaks up aquascaping monotony, accent pieces, coloration
4) provide good nutrient competitor to micro-algae
5) provides added food for algae grazers
some cons:
1) risk of some algae (especially Caulerpa) going sexual, and "polluting" the water; risk of sudden algae "die-off" with bad water
2) added maintenance work, requires constant pruning (some species can easily overrun tank, especially with bad husbandry); pruning also required to accomplish nutrient export
3) inter-algal allellopathy, occasionally can even harm other livestock
4) can compete for certain scarce nutrients (e.g. Halimeda competes for calcium)
HTH,
Phil
BTW Technically, algae are not true plants (in simple terms, they are "thallophytes" composed of one type of cell, unlike true plants or "metaphytes" with different types of functionally-specialized cells acting as leaves, as roots, etc). There are some aquarists who also try to keep true marine plants, especially the various types of Sea Grass and/or mangroves. IMO, a tank full of seagrass and true seagrass-bed native corals (such as Catalaphyllia) is so beautiful. Likewise for a mangrove tank/pond with common mangrove jellyfish!
marine aquarist since 1970
SYSTEM A: display reef tank (for zoanthids & corallimorphs)
90-gallon main tank with built-in refugium
35-gallon sump
SYSTEM B: display reef tank (for octocorallians)
90-gallon main tank
35-gallon sump
20-gallon remote deep sand bed
SYSTEM C: grow-out reef pond
330-gallon reef pond
50-gallon sump
25-gallon remote algal scrubber
25-gallon remote deep sand bed
45-gallon remote frag tank system
15-gallon refugium / pod tank