A refugium is a safe haven for algae and invertebrates in a separate tank from the main display aquarium. These organisms provide some distinct advantages to the overall health of a reef aquarium. First off, the critters breeding in the…
Blue Hypnea algae is a macroalgae worth growing for its looks
Blue Hypnea is a new macroalgae from ORA which is interesting and colorful enough to be cultured in aquarium for its own sake. Not to be confused with more purple colored Ochtodes from the Caribbean, the blue Hypnea algae is an attractive algae which…
Nano-reef user Metrokat’s display refugium is an awesome collection of macroalgae
Marcoalgae is awesome, and not only because of their nutrient removal abilities. We love macro algae for its ease of maintenance, cool growth forms and colors and we’re even more fond of macro algae displays. This display refugium of nano-reef…
AlgaGen MacroAlgae Plugs might usher new era of saltwater planted tanks
We’ve seen some slivers of info about AlgaGen’s MacroAlgae here and there over the last year but seeing them in person totally caught us off guard. The small flat plugs are populated by attractive, neigh gorgeous species of red MacroAlgae…
Halophila’s Seagrass tank is a prime example of simple beauty
This Halophila-dominated seagrass aquarium is built and designed to take care of itself. No protein skimmer, no calcium reactor, no sump, no biopellets, carbon or GFO. No automatic water changes or a super controller with email function. Heck this system…
At Pitcairn Island, macro algae are one of the main reef builders
At Pitcairn Island in the Southern Pacific Ocean, a plethora of beautiful and unique macro algaes are well represented in myriad forms. Beautiful fleshy algaes, branching coralline and leafy brown algaes are extremely well represented according to a new survey…
Simple, low tech reef tanks can be bliss
My home office is down in the basement of our house. There are weeks where my job has me working late nights down there and at some point, I figured a little aquatic life would make my work environment more…
Marine Plants in the Aquarium is a comprehensive website on captive marine botany
When we first heard of Marine Plant Book we raced to the website to seek the details of where this book could be purchased. After poking around the website for a while, we realized that the website is the book.…
Seaweed fossils may be Earth’s oldest plants
An abundance of fossils resembling seaweed uncovered in southern China may prove to be some of the oldest plants ever discovered. Previously the earliest uncovered evidence of creatures resembling what we would consider modern organisms was dated around 580 million…
AlgaeBase a great online reference for aquarium macroalgae identification
AlgaeBase is an often overlooked resource available to hobbyists looking to identify and gain more information on macroalgae in the marine aquarium trade. Macroalgae identification can be tough once you get outside of the caulerpa and chaetomorpha varieties most common…
