After a visit to the Hawaiian island of Lanai, I became inspired by the uniqueness of the intertidal environments that I found in the tide pools near Hulopo’e Beach. Along the southern stretch of the bay, several hundred yards of jagged volcanic rock sat just between the high- and low-tide lines, creating countless pools when the tide receded.
What fascinated me about these tide pools were the density and diversity of macroalgae, the influence of the tide cycles on the growth forms of these algae and the number of cryptic and juvenile fish taking sanctuary in these pools.
Numerous species of algae, including Caulerpa spp., Padina spp. and Codium spp., densely covered the volcanic rock surfaces of the pools, offering a food source and shelter to a variety of blennies, gobies and damselfish, as well as juvenile squirrelfish, butterflyfish and tangs. It seemed that the more I searched the tide pools, the more species I uncovered. Green Zoanthus sp. polyps grew in a shallow crevice no larger than a cereal bowl, while quarter-sized baby convict tangs (Acanthurus triostegus) took shelter in some of the smallest pools.
Naturally Inspired
When I got back to the United States mainland, I continued thinking about the tide pool environment and began to wonder if I could replicate it in an aquarium setting. I liked the idea of an aquarium that was designed to have high and low tides and contained predominantly macroalgae. However, it had to be aesthetically exciting and not too difficult or messy to maintain.
With this in mind, I decided to try and create a marine planted aquarium that could mimic the fluctuating tide. The idea was that the tidal flux should be able to replicate the growth of various macroalgae living above the tide line; I was interested to see if, like freshwater vascular plants, any algae would exhibit alternative growth forms when partially emerged.
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