[Michael Hoaster]

My seagrass sandbar lagoon has passed the one year mark. In this post I'll touch on some of the successes.

When I set out to do this tank, I wanted it to teach me about plants and animals, and how they interact in ecosystems. I learned to see my ecosystem-in-a-box holistically - that you can assemble a great cast of characters, and they will perform a beautiful, natural ballet. Rather than replace Nature with gizmos, I've given it the run of the place. The filtration is also the display. I think it looks pretty good.

I wanted to test some theories I thought of in v1.

First, I fully committed to dirt in the substrate. Since seagrasses are higher plants, it makes sense to provide dirt for their roots. This resulted in much quicker acclimatization and the manatee grass flourished.

Another thing I tested was my clean up crew. By having a great crew on standby in a holding tank, I was able to add new players as needed. This resulted in a shorter, less stressful algae phase.

Also, I encouraged early algae formation, to get the process started quickly, rather than fighting it, only delaying the inevitable. This hastened the algae phase as well.

Another key puzzle piece was to provide the algae with competition for nutrients. Probably the best plant for the job was Ulva. This macro is quite the piggy, making it a great utility plant. I started with a one inch square piece of it. I have since exported yards of it!

This naturalist approach seems to suit me. I'm happy to say I've learned quite a bit. Most importantly, I've learned to see my aquarium as one whole, natural system. It's a collection of natural processes, that turn out to be excellent at maintaining aquariums.