Caribbean Biotope Seagrass Tank

[Chasmodes]

I was thinking about some of the fish that I mentioned above, like the swissguard basslet, that have rather large mouths. They're predators and will probably eat small fish. Before adding something like that, it might be a good idea to let the blennies grow a bit.

The blackcap basslet and royal grammas might not hunt like they do, and their mouths are smaller. Plus, you can find small ones to add to your tank and probably won't have many problems.

I'm not sure about the pike blennies either, they have rather large mouths, so it might be a good idea to wait on them too. The sailfin blennies shouldn't be an issue at all (I would think).

It would be cool to have a tank with all of the fish above at the same time, but obviously the timing of adding them would be critical to making it work. The lookdowns occupied a different niche and don't really hunt the nooks and crannies. Bass like fish will search for food in tight places.

(I apologize if this is a Captain Obvious type post)

[Michael Hoaster]

That's good advice on the swiss guard, Chasmodes. Probably too pricey for me anyway. I doubt the pike blenny would pose a problem, but I'll research them beforehand.

I'm a huge advocate of proper order of introduction. It's very important in our little boxes. Most fish are territorial, so we have to be aware of that. Adding small, timid fish after larger, aggressive fish is asking for trouble. It's amazing what we can fit, if we understand things like their food preferences and shyness levels. Obviously, territories overlap in our tanks, so we have to be careful, to avoid conflicts.

I plan to QT all new fish, so I have plenty of time to figure out the plan. Plus it gives me time to get the plants going again.

I'm at 23ppt this morning, so I should get there (25ppt) today. Yay! I have live sand, pods and three plants on the way next week.

[Michael Hoaster]

Ok, so hypo salinity is officially over. I've hit my target of 25ppt today.

So what's next?

Right now I'm trying to save my condylactis from shrinking into nothingness. I'm feeding it and trying to get it to attach somewhere. It looks a little better today, but hasn't attached. It seems too weak right now, so I think feeding it is the best option for now. I may try moving into better light.

I can move my snails, fighting conch and any macro frags from QT to the display IF there are no aiptasias attached. I'll pinch some more turtle grass blades. I guess I can resume dosing too. I need to get the macros and grasses growing, so I don't get algae.

Lots to think about!

[sam.basye]

Originally Posted by Michael Hoaster

Right now I'm trying to save my condylactis from shrinking into nothingness. I'm feeding it and trying to get it to attach somewhere. It looks a little better today, but hasn't attached. It seems too weak right now, so I think feeding it is the best option for now. I may try moving into better light.

I wouldn't feed the condy.

The energy spent digesting the food might push it over the edge where as it could be using all the energy it's got to fight/rid itself from a potential infection.

Give it good light and light flow and hope it attaches to something.

The above advice applies to all nems.


Then again, I've killed every condy I've ever bought, so keep that in mind when reading my advice. Lol

[Michael Hoaster]

Thanks for the advice Sam. I'll move it to better light.

[sam.basye]

I partially blame Petco for my lack of luck with the condylactis nems. The two I tried were not attached to anything when purchased and wouldn't attach to anything in my tank so they slowly withered away.

Yours had be eaten by the overflow once before, right? Lol
If it could come back from that I would think it will probably come back from hypo.

Try sticking it's foot in-between some rocks so it doesn't get blown away and encourages it to attach

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

[Michael Hoaster]

Yes, it did go through the overflow, but it did so by its own choice - not by getting sucked in. And just to be clear to anyone reading this, I did not subject my condylactis to hypo salinity. I moved it to the QT so it could stay in seawater, along with my live rocks. I would not recommend anyone ever put an anemone in hypo. It killed my plague of aiptasias!

I think the cause of its shrinking was inadequate light and inadequate feeding. I just figured with all the molly fry, I wouldn't need to feed it. I guess I was wrong.

Thanks again, Sam for the advice.

[sam.basye]

Ahh, for whatever reason I was thinking you put it back in the display with the other rocks that were in the qt.
I was thinking the condy wasn't happy due to low salinity, not lighting.

What lights were you using over the qt?

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

[Michael Hoaster]

I moved the rocks over during hypo to rid them of any aiptasias left. The nem stayed in the QT until salinity was just a little shy of target. So the nem was short on light and food, but not salt.

I've got a couple of CFL lights over the QT. Not enough for photosynthetic invertebrates I guess. It looks like some of the macros frags survived in there though.

I moved it to better light in the display today. It didn't look too good.

[Michael Hoaster]

Today I went after some plumbing issues.

My reeflow dart main pump was spewing micro bubbles intermittently and not moving as much water as before, and it was getting louder. I tried siliconing all the upstream pipe junctions before I realized the pump itself, not the plumbing, was the problem. So, I pulled the impeller cover, removed the impeller and replaced it with the bigger one, that came as a free upgrade. Cleaned everything up and replaced the cover, adding silicone for a better seal.

I also found an obstruction, when I couldn't close a gate valve. It was an intake strainer for my canister filter. There's your flow problem! Anyway, I got everything put back together and it works beautifully and quietly! Now I just have a very cloudy tank.

It's good to take care of a mechanical issue, before delving into the natural systems. Good strong water movement is important.



Mr. Zippy, February 3, 2016.

[Michael Hoaster]

I made a little more progress today.

I got my fighting conch acclimated to the display, along with some fragments of macros, gorgonians and sponges. I'm not sure if there's any life in them or not. I got a good little bush of hypnea panosa in too. Then I pinched turtle grass shoots and plucked loose chaeto strands. I also moved a few shoal grasses around to fill in empty spaces. And to finish, I put some plant tabs in the DSB.

Good to get some foundation stuff done. My deep sand bed is really soft, with all that mud in there!

I have live sand on the way and some pods and three plants, next week.

I ordered the plants from reef cleaners. I don't think I've bought from them before. I got a tall version of codium, that supposedly doesn't mind warm water, a 'ground cover', spreading version of halimeda and a brown scroll algae. The later two will go on the back wall.

Changes…

[Michael Hoaster]

Little changes continue.

Last night, I thought the newly upgraded pump was throttled back a bit much, so I opened the gate valve a little. Whooosh! The current is now pretty robust. Water's cloudy again but it will pass.

I also remembered that I had put charcoal in my canister during hypo, so I removed it today. Charcoal removes DOC, which is an important component (food) of the food chain.

The tank's still pretty ugly, but I see signs of macro reemergence! The barnacle blennies in QT are eating well too. Also my plague of snails is bouncing back nicely. Mom, the fighting conch, is back on the scene, vacuuming the sand bed.

I continue CO2 injection, and I dosed ammonia today. I'm trying to kick-start a growth spurt in the grasses and macros. I should be good with trace elements and iron, after all the salt that's been added.


Maybe the only pic I have with all of the grammas in it. How many fish can you count? From January 30, 2016.

[sam.basye]

What is the condition of your substrate? Do you have any hair algae, etc, or is it clean?

I don't have enough for my hermits to graze and one hermit died a month or two ago, so I got a replacement just like it and it died a few weeks ago because of the lack of food (big hermit). They all get some leftover fish food, but that's it since there's no algae to munch on.
My sandbed has detritus, but the sand is all clean and white.

I feel like I'm whining about have clean substrate, but I like hermit crabs. Lol

Soo, just curious what Mom is eating in your tank.

I want another conch, but don't think I can provide it enough to graze on.

[Michael Hoaster]

No algae on the sand, but a boatload of mulm and detritus. I look forward to burying it under some new live sand.

I'm pretty sure Mom prefers algae to detritus. I agree, you probably don't have a big enough sandbed to keep one well fed. I think mine is just barely big enough! When I had her in QT, I added sinking algae pellets and discs for her to eat. Maybe you could do the same for your hermits.

[Michael Hoaster]

Today, after months have passed, I finally witnessed the logical conclusion of my 'molly experiment'. I was feeding the tank and one of the smaller molly fry got a little too close to Big Daddy 2.0 and, he ate it. Yep. So cool to see natural, hunting and eating behavior. That was the reason I got them. I wanted to see my carnivores hunt and eat, naturally.

I've said it before, mollies effectively, turn algae into feeder fish. These fish have valuable utility. A fish I don't have to feed. It live births baby fish with no help from me. And all those hungry little fry helped keep algae and even cyano bacteria at bay, during hypo treatment. If I had a Rambo tank, mollies would be indispensable. I doubt I'll keep them in the display always, but they've been very helpful. I'll keep some in QT, so they're handy.

Would I call the molly experiment a success? On one hand no. Babies didn't happen until months after the lookdowns had perished. I now believe they delayed giving birth because of the ICH. Nevertheless, my problem wasn't solved. On the other hand, I'm adding a powerful 'trick' to my arsenal of natural solutions. Mollies bridge a gap in the food chain. Pretty freakin' sweet.



November 11, 2016.

[Chasmodes]

Very cool stuff going on for sure Michael. How are the grasses responding?

I see 10 fish in that pic...but the blennies blend in so well that I'm sure I'm missing them.

[Michael Hoaster]

Good eye Chasmodes, ten it is.

The grasses look better. Not much cyano bacteria encrusting them anymore. It usually takes a couple weeks to see results from the plant tabs. CO2 and ammonia additions ought to get things going.

The condylactis anemone looks better. It's in good light.

My live sand, pods and plants should get here in the next few days. I'm excited about that! And not just for the new stuff. When I get them in, they'll replace the big ball of chaeto, which I'll be happy to be rid of.

All these little steps add up. I'm super psyched to get my ecosystem up and running at full steam!

[Michael Hoaster]

Wow, the snails are really coming back. Between them and the mollies, the grasses are cleaning up nicely. Grasilaria is popping up, on the rocks, including the creepy 'corpse bride' variety. Not much G. hayi yet, but I see little spots of it on the fake roots. The condylactis anemone continues to improve.

I got my plants today. They'e all kinda small. Pretty underwhelming. We'll see. I don't think it's enough biomass to remove the chaeto ball yet. The codium looks cool. Almost looks like an anemone.

I'll get some pics soon, but I wanted to leave the glass dirty today for all the snails. The tiny barnacle blennies are all accounted for, and still in QT.

It's like my tank was in hibernation and now it's springtime. The sleeper must awaken…

[Chasmodes]

Originally Posted by Michael Hoaster

It's like my tank was in hibernation and now it's springtime. The sleeper must awaken…

Excellent! Glad the anemone is doing better as well as your grasses. Any sign of sponges returning yet or too early?

I can't wait to see the new blenny pics! I bet their hilarious to watch when they're so small like that.

[Michael Hoaster]

I'm not sure but it looks like the anemone has attached to the back wall. If so, that's a good sign. Maybe I'll try feeding it this weekend. Hopefully I can get a growth spurt out of the grasses. They're looking good but a bit thin, especially without the turtle grass. No sponge action yet.

The blennies are ridiculously dinky! So cute. I got them on flake yesterday. I'm hoping to bulk them up a little before I get them into the display.

Once I start seeing serious plant growth and I'm out of algae danger, I think I'll start removing the mollies from the display. I don't want any 'big' fish in there when I'm introducing the new little guys. Except for the remaining gramma, which I can't catch.

[zachxlutz]

Originally Posted by Michael Hoaster

I'm not sure but it looks like the anemone has attached to the back wall. If so, that's a good sign. Maybe I'll try feeding it this weekend. Hopefully I can get a growth spurt out of the grasses. They're looking good but a bit thin, especially without the turtle grass. No sponge action yet.

The blennies are ridiculously dinky! So cute. I got them on flake yesterday. I'm hoping to bulk them up a little before I get them into the display.

Once I start seeing serious plant growth and I'm out of algae danger, I think I'll start removing the mollies from the display. I don't want any 'big' fish in there when I'm introducing the new little guys. Except for the remaining gramma, which I can't catch.

You'll have to make another video once things get normalized, I thoroughly enjoyed your last one.

[Michael Hoaster]

I just ordered some fish, invert and plant foods from Petsolutions. Some was on sale, plus free shipping over $49. I got iron and trace elements for the plants, phytoplankton for filter feeders, and pellets for the fish.

I'm trying to make sure I have all that I need to drive the ecosystem at a high rate, similar to a high tech freshwater planted tank.

[Michael Hoaster]

Good idea Zach, and same to you!

I should at least post some pics of it now, pre-bloom. It's not much to look at, but I like to get a record of all the phases.

I'm just so pooped, with all the snowboarding this week…heh heh.

[Michael Hoaster]

OK, these are cloudy. I made the mistake of dosing iron before shooting-dumb!



The grasses are a little sparse, but nice and green.



Grasilaria popping up. Bits of ulva everywhere.



The shoal grass catches the light nicely. Note the big ball of chaeto and the anemone peeking around.



Another view of the anemone through the grass.

[zachxlutz]

There it is! I love the way the light shines into the water. I'm sure it's going to fill in and look great in no time.