# A different planted tank



## reiverix (Mar 24, 2005)

Yes, it's saltwater. I began tearing down the reef last September and started on a project I've been wanting to do for years. I'm just waiting for the weather to get a bit warmer because I have a whole lot of new plants in CA waiting to be shipped. Then I can start on the real aquascaping.










And just across the room is the FW planted. They look really good together.


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## CincyCichlids (Oct 14, 2005)

John,
Beautiful tanks! The saltwater one is one of the nicest I've seen.


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## Six (May 29, 2006)

I've seen you posting on the CORA forum. You like that club so far?


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## tutquarium (May 27, 2005)

John,

I really liked your freshly looking salt water aquarium. Very interesting idea and great vision in order to create a perfect harmony in a room.


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## reiverix (Mar 24, 2005)

Thanks for the input guys. This has been an interesting tank to set up.



Six said:


> I've seen you posting on the CORA forum. You like that club so far?


I'm a casual poster on CORA. More of a lurker now that I'm not in club reef anymore  All my corals and critters were sold to members and they were a great bunch of folks.

I also check the CAFE site pretty much every day. You know, there's a lot of potential in Columbus and I've saw a lot of people doing some great things with their tanks.


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## Squawkbert (Jan 3, 2007)

That & recent sightings of marine plants FS on a web site answer aquestion I've had for a while...

Nice job!


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## Six (May 29, 2006)

I've had a bad experience with that club. I don't feel as though they are very open minded about a lot of things. But, hopefully that changes b/c I'd like to join a sw club eventually. 

I'd like to do a mangrove set up one day as a display. I'm not into alage (the caulerpa you're keeping as they are noxious and grow too well for me. The tank looks overgrown in a matter of days!). Cool water algae like kelp would be fun to keep though...


Got any closer pics?


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## reiverix (Mar 24, 2005)

Some of the things I'm doing with this tank would make the CORA members cringe (NO3, Fe) :mrgreen:

The caulerpa (except probably the prolifera) is temporary while the tank matures and I get well familiar with the dosing. EI works pretty good on the SW setups. I'm also waiting on the weather to favor shipping and I can start on the good stuff. I've got some really awesome looking grasses and macros sitting in CA.

I'll get some closeups tomorrow evening. The daylights just went off for the night.


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## MatPat (Mar 22, 2004)

Sweet looking tank John! I had always thought I couldn't do a saltwater tank without it being a reef but you may have changed my mind 

How do you think some shrimp would fare in there?


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## reiverix (Mar 24, 2005)

I've got a bunch of peppermints and a bumblebee shrimp. I also had a cleaner but it was annoying to the seahorses and had to go. As long as there's plenty rocks and no predators a lot shrimp species will be happy.


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## nswhite (Aug 25, 2006)

Very nice tanks I think both of them are very original.


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## t2000kw (Jul 29, 2006)

That's a pretty setup. I always thought saltwater tanks by nature had to look sort of barren. Still, I'm not up to the maintenance of one, at least not at this time.


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## cs_gardener (Apr 28, 2006)

Both of your tanks are beautiful. I had no idea you could do that with a saltwater tank. Will you please show us how it looks after you get your new plants? Based on your freshwater tank, I imagine your saltwater tank will be stunning once your done.


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## Six (May 29, 2006)

If you want to be technical, those arent plants, they're algaes. There are also very limited numbers of species available to hobbyists so it will be hard to make a tank look drasticly different than another planted marine tank. 

IME the caulerpa sticking to the rocks makes it almost impossible to control the growth. How do you do it, John?


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## gibmaker (Jan 3, 2007)

very beautifull sw tank, I was waiting for someone to do something like this for a while now. I always wanted a saltwater tank, and you captured exactly what I wanted to do....now it really makes me want to get one, cant wait to see updated pics


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## reiverix (Mar 24, 2005)

I just couldn't get any could closeups tonight no matter how I set the camera. I hunted out some older photos, over a month old, when I was having trouble with diatoms.



Six said:


> If you want to be technical, those arent plants, they're algaes. There are also very limited numbers of species available to hobbyists so it will be hard to make a tank look drasticly different than another planted marine tank.
> 
> IME the caulerpa sticking to the rocks makes it almost impossible to control the growth. How do you do it, John?


Yes, the only true vascular plant I have is manatee grass. All the rest are forms of algae. There is a growing market for SW plants although it is still nothing like FW. It's catching up slowly though if you know where to look.

As for maintenance, this is much the same as any planted tank but with scaled down dosing. The FW tank in the first post still requires more trimming and water changes.

To keep the caulerpas under control I wait until they start putting runners off the rock and the gently peel them back. Got to be careful not to leave any stragglers or they grow in again fast.


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## Bert H (Mar 2, 2004)

Beautiful tanks John! Great job. :thumbsup:


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## Roy Deki (Apr 7, 2004)

I want to do the same thing and make it a Seahorse tank.

Very nice tanks!!!


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## Kelley (Aug 27, 2006)

This tank is really cool! Could you show us some pictures of your seahorses?

Nice work on both tanks!


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## reiverix (Mar 24, 2005)

Quite surprising the interest here. I suspect there's a fair amount of novelty factor involved though.



















I found some better plants pics.


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## Six (May 29, 2006)

nice! 

I know a few people who have many really nice vascular plants (on RC) but they are limited in availability. we thought of doing a sw tub tank with grasses and breeding bandaii cardinals. still may be worth a try.


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