Dawn's seahorse garden!

[vlangel]

Originally Posted by taricha

It took me a good long while with many failures to get my orange tree sponge to open and feed consistently and not degrade.
If your sponge stays happy I'd love to compare notes and see what our methods have in common.

This is my first real attempt so I don't know how it will go. I don't feed my seahorse tank with anything extra because of the danger of fueling bacteria which can endanger my herd. The water column does have a lot of protein and fat from seahorse wastes however. I guess I will see if thats enough to keep the tree sponge thriving. Also the tank is full of copepods.

[Chasmodes]

Great tank picture Dawn, and I love the new sponge. I hope that it thrives for you as well.

[vlangel]

Originally Posted by Chasmodes

Great tank picture Dawn, and I love the new sponge. I hope that it thrives for you as well.

Me too. I guess time will tell.

[taricha]

Originally Posted by vlangel

This is my first real attempt so I don't know how it will go. I don't feed my seahorse tank with anything extra because of the danger of fueling bacteria which can endanger my herd. The water column does have a lot of protein and fat from seahorse wastes however. I guess I will see if thats enough to keep the tree sponge thriving. Also the tank is full of copepods.

Again, I don't know how much of my anecdotal observations will hold for others, but...
I found that silica is actually pretty necessary. My orange tree sponge did not stay open consistently until I kept it above 0.5 ppm SiO2 - now I aim for almost 2ppm SiO2.
The sponge consumes a lot of silica, on days when the sponge has been open, my silica can drop by over half a ppm, on days when the sponge is closed, the silica consumption is much less (like 1/3 of that).
I found a paper that measured silica consumption in these family of sponges to see if i was crazy, and no. In the lab they measured Si consumption even larger than what I've seen.
(I use brightwell Spongexcel, and Hanna Low Range Si meter)

[Subsea]

Originally Posted by taricha

Again, I don't know how much of my anecdotal observations will hold for others, but...
I found that silica is actually pretty necessary. My orange tree sponge did not stay open consistently until I kept it above 0.5 ppm SiO2 - now I aim for almost 2ppm SiO2.
The sponge consumes a lot of silica, on days when the sponge has been open, my silica can drop by over half a ppm, on days when the sponge is closed, the silica consumption is much less (like 1/3 of that).
I found a paper that measured silica consumption in these family of sponges to see if i was crazy, and no. In the lab they measured Si consumption even larger than what I've seen.
(I use brightwell Spongexcel, and Hanna Low Range Si meter)

Sponge filtration volumes are phenomenal at 100GPHr with a small sponge. Thanks for the tip on the Spongexcel, I just ordered some.

[vlangel]

Originally Posted by taricha

Again, I don't know how much of my anecdotal observations will hold for others, but...
I found that silica is actually pretty necessary. My orange tree sponge did not stay open consistently until I kept it above 0.5 ppm SiO2 - now I aim for almost 2ppm SiO2.
The sponge consumes a lot of silica, on days when the sponge has been open, my silica can drop by over half a ppm, on days when the sponge is closed, the silica consumption is much less (like 1/3 of that).
I found a paper that measured silica consumption in these family of sponges to see if i was crazy, and no. In the lab they measured Si consumption even larger than what I've seen.
(I use brightwell Spongexcel, and Hanna Low Range Si meter)

Yes, thank you. I think I will also order some.

[Subsea]

Originally Posted by vlangel

This is my first real attempt so I don't know how it will go. I don't feed my seahorse tank with anything extra because of the danger of fueling bacteria which can endanger my herd. The water column does have a lot of protein and fat from seahorse wastes however. I guess I will see if thats enough to keep the tree sponge thriving. Also the tank is full of copepods.

On another thread, when you discussed using cryptic sponges to help with nutrient load from ponies, I did not grasp sufficiently your situation. For certain with more than 50K species of sponges, they eat differrent things. Cryptic sponges eat DOC. GAC removes DOC. GAC takes up zero space and requires no light, At one point you mentioned using a cryptic tank as a remote refugium. You also mentioned having some cyno, but not wanting to use GFO to strip out phosphate. Without knowing more, I feel that either a macro refugium or an ATS would serve you best. As I already mentioned in another thread, to combat cyno, I feed nitrogen to the tank. Macro nitrate/Phosphate Ratio is 30/1. Understand this. When you add nitrogen (I use ammonia in my large systems) both coral and macro will compete for it.

Do you have room to set up a display macro refugium that circulates water thru both?

PSS: Your display tank macro is gorgeous. How fast does that macro grow? That would be a good indicator as to if a remote macro refugium would work in your system. Imagine that for nutrient export, you sell some of that “fire engine” red macro that you got.

I got “Red Macro Envy”.

[vlangel]

Originally Posted by Subsea

On another thread, when you discussed using cryptic sponges to help with nutrient load from ponies, I did not grasp sufficiently your situation. For certain with more than 50K species of sponges, they eat differrent things. Cryptic sponges eat DOC. GAC removes DOC. GAC takes up zero space and requires no light, At one point you mentioned using a cryptic tank as a remote refugium. You also mentioned having some cyno, but not wanting to use GFO to strip out phosphate. Without knowing more, I feel that either a macro refugium or an ATS would serve you best. As I already mentioned in another thread, to combat cyno, I feed nitrogen to the tank. Macro nitrate/Phosphate Ratio is 30/1. Understand this. When you add nitrogen (I use ammonia in my large systems) both coral and macro will compete for it.

Do you have room to set up a display macro refugium that circulates water thru both?

PSS: Your display tank macro is gorgeous. How fast does that macro grow? That would be a good indicator as to if a remote macro refugium would work in your system. Imagine that for nutrient export, you sell some of that “fire engine” red macro that you got.

I got “Red Macro Envy”.

Sump Sept 2017 by Dawn Gilson, on Flickr
This is my sump which does contain a middle compartment for a fuge. This was a diy sump and I know that its no beauty but it does work pretty well. I am constantly harvesting macro algae from the sump, probably fistfuls every 3 weeks. The caulerpa usually grows faster in the sump and the red grows faster in the display tank.

[Michael Hoaster]

Slick setup Dawn! Thanks for sharing.

[vlangel]

Both resin containers looked like the one in the foreground! Do you think they badly needed changed? (She hangs her head in shame) by Dawn Gilson, on Flickr
Ok, not this aquarist's proudest moment. I tested my nitrates and phosphates to see if the sand has caused them to go up and wondering if that is the reason for the diatoms or cyano (whatever is making my sand ugly). Anyway they were both up, nitrates were 10 - 20ppm and phosphates were 1 - .5ppm. I did a big clean plus Xtra big water changes but to no avail. Everything stayed the same. Then I remembered (or actually could NOT remember when last I changes everything in my RO/DI.) Uhhg, I think I know why the nitrates and phosphates are up LOL! I have change the resin and I need to order the other cartridges. At least phosphates should come down.

[Chasmodes]

I think that your tank is amazing. Looks like you're seeking perfection, kudos to that! I hope that gets your sand bed in a condition that you wish. Sounds logical to me.

[vlangel]

So far the dosing nualgi hasn't done anything for the sandbed but the sponges look good. In fact I have a very small tree sponge that wasn't dead but wasn't thriving. It has even perked up!

To fix the sandbed I changed the flow pattern again. I am blasting the floor again. Of course that created a sand-storm but when it seemed that the floor had an area that was cleared then I put rocks and coral to frame the cleared area.

[vlangel]

So here is the new scape with the new flow pattern.
2018-06-15_07-57-00 by Dawn Gilson, on Flickr

I am thinking about placing an order from KPAquatics for a mated pair of neon gobies, a mated pair of rusty gobies and a blenny or two, when the weather is not so hot. I may get some ricordia while I am at it.

[Maggie321]

I have an off topic question... Where did you buy your glass lid for your bowfront? I have been having a difficult time finding the proper fitting lid for mine. I have the same bowfront. Also, when my larger tank gets up and running stably, I will be transferring my small reef in the bowfront to the large tank. I plan on attempting seahorses and pipefish in the bowfront with macroalgae. So following along for the info. Thanks!
I should be more specific, the bowfront in the 2nd post on the right side of the photo on the wooden stand.

Maggie

[vlangel]

Originally Posted by Maggie321

I have an off topic question... Where did you buy your glass lid for your bowfront? I have been having a difficult time finding the proper fitting lid for mine. I have the same bowfront. Also, when my larger tank gets up and running stably, I will be transferring my small reef in the bowfront to the large tank. I plan on attempting seahorses and pipefish in the bowfront with macroalgae. So following along for the info. Thanks!
I should be more specific, the bowfront in the 2nd post on the right side of the photo on the wooden stand.

Maggie

Hi Maggie, the glass lid was at the lfs where I bought the tank, stand and glass top as a combo.

I loved my bowfront but not as a seahorse tank. The high nutrients in a seahorse tank made a lot of algae on the front glass and it was a pain to clean. That was one of the reasons I upgraded to the 56 gallon column.

[Chasmodes]

I like your solution on the sand bed issue...might have to borrow that idea

[Chasmodes]

Also, I meant to add, the fish order should be exciting too.

[vlangel]

I am back from a week's vacation,(which was awesome)but am happy that the ponies did well and the tank looked real good. Even the sand is clearing up.

[Michael Hoaster]

Lucky Jetsetter! I've seen it many times with my tanks, where it looks better than when I left.

[vlangel]

Originally Posted by Michael Hoaster

Lucky Jetsetter! I've seen it many times with my tanks, where it looks better than when I left.

Ha ha, yes, if we would only keep our hands out of our tanks and let nature do what nature does best!

[vlangel]

2018-06-27_04-08-18 by Dawn Gilson, on Flickr
The tank is all cleaned up and chugging along nicely.

[vlangel]

2018-06-27_04-09-08 by Dawn Gilson, on Flickr
Eve, looking as cute and inquisitive as always!

[Michael Hoaster]

Great shots! Your tank looks great. Awesome shot of Eve!

[vlangel]

Originally Posted by Michael Hoaster

Great shots! Your tank looks great. Awesome shot of Eve!

I feel like every shot of my tank looks the same so it never seems impressive to me except from a cleanliness standpoint. It's not totally nuisance algae free but is pretty good.

I did like the shot of Eve. I wished I had taken it after the sun went down so there wasn't a reflection.

[vlangel]

Its been unusually hot here in western PA and the seahorse tank was almost 75°. I submerged ice bags in the DT tank. I have the chiller that I can hook up if necessary but prefer not to if possible.

I did a WC in case the heat causes an outage. They seem to be weathering the weather just fine.

2018-07-01_08-41-42 by Dawn Gilson, on Flickr