Planted reef

Rabbid dawg

Rabbid dawg

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Montana Pretoria
So I'm in the process of planning my first reef aquarium.
Its going to start off as a fowlr until I'm ready for some lps .
But What I don't understand is why do so few reefers aqua scape macro algae in their tanks, Its all hidden in a fuge. Would this not be an ideal method to get rid of nitrites(of is it nitrates? Im never sure) and improve aesthetics?
I know its done, just not very often. Why is that?
 
Hi and welcome

It all depends on the fish kept, tangs and Angels will eat macro algae
 
Butterflies and Centropyge don't usually show much interest in macroalgae, but Pomacanthus angels obliterate it.
 
Is that the only reason that more reefers don't do it? And are the lightning requirements as high? I was thinking that perhaps I could get away with lower light levels Than I could with corals.
 
I see some reef leds use 6500k leds (same as planted) they just use more blue and royal blue. And many fuges run 6500k only.. So Im wondering if I can get away with a similar diy led setup as I do on my planted tanks. Just using more blue say 50/50. And as for pruning well Im used to it already..
 
You can get away with 6500k hardware store LED spots (I use 2x 20w spots on my 150l mangrove tank). They grow Caulerpa and a few red macros very well. If you want to grow true seagrass and brown macros like Sargassum, Dictyota, Padina etc. then you need high power LED/halide/T5 like you would SPS.
 
I have some in my display. Grows like crazy under marine spectrum. Adding low kelvin lighting might just cause nuisance algae to grow i think.
My lighting is 100w of t5 over 100 litre tank
 
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