Question On Plants For Nano

[gigmeyer]

I've been reading this forum for several months and have seen surprising little on plants for marine tanks. Some tank pictures have included plants like turtle grass and I was wondering whether including plants is a good, bad, or neutral idea for display purposes in nano tanks?

Aside from the basic question, what species are reasonable for a Nano and when should they be introduced? Which plants (if any) won't grow out of control and become a nuisance?

I suppose precious space is probably reserved for corals, but the bright green of plants seems aesthetically nice.

 

[SkiFletch]

Which plants (if any) won't grow out of control and become a nuisance?

Therein lies the problem. I can tell you that the likes of chaetomorpha and culerpa will grow out of control and be hard to keep in-check. Your best bet TBH is to go find some seahorse forums as most seahorse keepers tend to either know a lot about marine plants, or know someone who does

 

[steelhealr]

Chaeto

Halimeda

In general, macroalgaes tend to be invasive and their best place is in the refugium UNLESS your intent is to have a 'planted marine tank'. I've seen some of these and they ARE INDEED beautiful. You have to keep after them though.

Some macroalgaes tend to be slow-growing and can be kept relatively safely. Halimeda and shaving brush are two examples of this. Although virtually all macroalgaes can go sexual and release spores and nutrients into your system, Caulerpa eg, some are safer than others. Personally, you'd never find Caulerpa in my system. Other issues are some macros will be eaten, particularly many of the red gracilaria's.

SH

 

[gigmeyer]

Thanks for the replies. Though the green is appealing, sound like more risk than it's worth.

 

[Allen]

I got this halimeda stuff growing like mad in my 30 gallon - to the point where I have had to add a shield to stop it going up the powerhead intake.