Caribbean Biotope Seagrass Tank

[Michael Hoaster]

Thanks Zach!

Yeah, I'm hoping it fills in soon. It's embarrassing to show it like this! I think I'm doing everything I need to do, but you just don't know until it happens! I need to be patient. It's weird. I feel like I have to prove myself all over again.

I can imagine what some folks must think. "Wow, what happened to his tank? It looks terrible! I was just on this thread a couple months ago and it was awesome. How'd he screw it up so quickly?"

I know that low points make the high points higher, so I'm trying to enjoy the "before" phase. Assuming I don't blow it, it will be nice to look back at those pics and say, "see what you came back from?"

[Chasmodes]

Ah, then they should have been paying attention and keeping up, LOL. I think considering what you had to do, the tank looks pretty darned good. And also, it will look terrific soon.

[Michael Hoaster]

Thanks Chasmodes!

It certainly could be worse. I really should be grateful for everything that has gone right.

[Michael Hoaster]

Live sand and pods just delivered!

I ordered Florida Pets' golden live sand, since that's all they had. It looks to be about half silica sand and half shells. I spread it around the DSB in a thin layer. Then I covered it with another thin layer of calcium carbonate sugar size sand.

It didn't look to have much life in it, but who knows. My hope is that there are some players that add to the sand bed's diversity. The mixed pods should help too.

[Michael Hoaster]

This one cracks me up.

[Chasmodes]

It's coming together Michael! It won't be long that your tank ecosystem will be stronger than ever!

I love that pic . Barnacle blennies remind me of muppets

I was looking at some the pics in your past posts. The colors and beauty of macro tanks really do rival the coral reef tanks. What a beautiful ecosystem to emulate.

[Michael Hoaster]

I sure hope so, Chasmodes!

It was good to get some new sand. It covered up most of the mulm/detritus nicely. So far, no signs of spaghetti worms though. I may have to order some. I keep waiting for some kind of explosion of plant growth, but no. But if I look back at pics from a few weeks ago, I can see that the seagrasses especially have progressed well. So I need to be satisfied!

I'm glad you like the pic. See why I had to get more of them? They're just funny looking! I've been looking back at old pics too. Lot's of fun colors!

[Michael Hoaster]

The seagrass without turtle grass. Just the manatee and shoal grasses, which are both thin bladed. This looks more mono-specific. I love it. Once the shoal grasses fill in and the manatee grasses get tall again, it's going to be so pretty.



Here you can see the new sand, making everything look tidy.



More and more red popping up along the DSB rock wall.



I've been playing around with the live rock scape.



The molly fry are destroying the new codium. Kind of a bummer, except that I saw little bits floating around. Maybe these will seed new plants.

[Chasmodes]

Lookin' good! Man, your mud bank wall looks just like an undercut bank with the shading.

As far as your tank returning and the codium surviving, as Ian Malcolm once said, "I'm, I'm simply saying that life, uh... finds a way."

[Michael Hoaster]

I wonder how many times has that movie quote has popped into my head, when working on my aquarium! That, and "You will remember to wash your hands before eating."

Everything's coming along nicely, I guess. I just hope I can get some explosive growth at some point. It feels like there's something missing, or more likely limiting plant growth. The big three are covered, carbon, nitrogen and phosphate. Also iron, potassium and magnesium. It could be a trace element is missing. I've got a trace element supplement on the way.

What's more likely is that everything is still adjusting to the corrected water chemistry, and I just need to be patient. I should remember another 'famous' quote: Good things happen slowly in aquariums, bad things happen fast.

[Michael Hoaster]

Hey, I just wanted to point out that Gulf Coast Ecosystems is the best macro store on the web. They have the largest portions, the best prices (including shipping!) and the best customer service of ANY of their competitors. I've tried others-no one's even close!

[Michael Hoaster]

Still no sign of spaghetti worms. So, I ordered GCE's refugium pack, which includes two pounds of live sand and an assortment of macros. I'm hoping their sand has those little, orange wrigglers. Adding more sand to the DSB is good. I need to replace sand that gets removed through maintenance and dissolution.

The more sand sources, the more diversity. This is what I meant with building the ecosystem from the ground up. How does nature process the constant settling of detritus? Detrivores. The more diverse your detrivore community is, the better equipped it is to handle a wide variety of input. They process all this stuff down to food for the plants. I had a huge buildup of detritus resulting from hypo salinity treatment. Spaghetti worms and other detrivores perished. Snails and pods survived.

Understanding how everything is connected, through the food chain, we can pick and choose not just the fish and plants, but the whole cast of thousands, who support the rest of the ecosystem. Complicated? Lucky for us, live sand and rock is readily available, to seed our little communities. Some critters brought in with them will die, and some will survive and reproduce. The survivors are the ones that 'belong', and take their place as valuable members of a diverse ecosystem.

Certain creatures in nature have to be avoided in the confines of an aquarium. Why? Because they pray on players more valuable to the system than themselves. For example, I wouldn't keep sand-sifting fish or sea stars in my tank, because I want my sand dwelling detrivores at maximum capacity. I added peppermint shrimps to control aiptasias. They seemed to work, but once they ran out, they went after my precious spaghetti worms! The shrimps were removed.

It's not always easy, but it's best not to get too attached to ANY organism in our tanks. No one organism is more important than the whole system's health. Once you realize there's a problem, you need to act fast, because one wrong cast member can quickly devastate living components of a finely balanced ecosystem. The space limitations of aquariums compounds the problem.

This is why it's so tricky for me to pick fish. They have to perform in a way that benefits the ecosystem. Right now, in this transitional phase, the mollies have been invaluable. But once I'm convinced that algae is no longer a threat, I'll remove them. I've kept a variety of 'temps' to perform special services.

So there is no rush to add fish. First, I need to get my cast of thousands ready for the big show. A proper sand bed community is like a wall (or floor), of mouths. And the more mouths and variety of mouths, the better!

[Chasmodes]

I really believe this also, and that's a goal of my tanks.

Originally Posted by Michael Hoaster

Certain creatures in nature have to be avoided in the confines of an aquarium. Why? Because they pray on players more valuable to the system than themselves.

Agreed. There are such creatures throughout the food chain. Some make for nice pets, like mantis shrimp. But, as cool as they are, they would make quick work of the fish that I'd like to keep. Other species like ghost shrimp might make for cool additions, but the more valued players will munch on them. Those critters might be better off in my sump. So really, it isn't practical to have a complete ecosystem that we're trying to duplicate. Rather, the goal is to have one as complete as doable within the confines of our system and goals.

Originally Posted by Michael Hoaster

Hey, I just wanted to point out that Gulf Coast Ecosystems is the best macro store on the web. They have the largest portions, the best prices (including shipping!) and the best customer service of ANY of their competitors. I've tried others-no one's even close!

This is good info, thanks!

[Michael Hoaster]

Great to hear that you agree, Chasmodes. I don't think there are many that do. I love talking about it. Any one else out there into this nature stuff? I'd love to hear from you! It's funny, I didn't start that post planning to get up on my soapbox, but I got there! It helps me to write this stuff down.

I agree, it would be a monumental task to try and duplicate a natural ecosystem in an aquarium. Luckily, we don't have to. We just need to consider our little ecosystems as a whole, then pick the appropriate community citizens-or at least give them a try-out.

When I pick plants, inverts or fish, I first consider how they can 'help' me maintain my tank. If they don't help, they don't get picked. If they pray on a helper, no dice! It can get tricky, building a community to work well together in these little boxes, but it can be done. I love using nature to do most of the work for me. Figuring out how to do it is half the fun!

[Michael Hoaster]

After leaving it alone, in better lighting for a week or so, I fed the condylactis anemone today. It hasn't 'swallowed' yet, so it may still be too soon. I'm hopeful it can come back, but progress is slow.

I've got more live sand and plants on the way tomorrow. Can't wait!

[Moort82]

Originally Posted by Michael Hoaster

Great to hear that you agree, Chasmodes. I don't think there are many that do. I love talking about it. Any one else out there into this nature stuff? I'd love to hear from you! It's funny, I didn't start that post planning to get up on my soapbox, but I got there! It helps me to write this stuff down.

I agree, it would be a monumental task to try and duplicate a natural ecosystem in an aquarium. Luckily, we don't have to. We just need to consider our little ecosystems as a whole, then pick the appropriate community citizens-or at least give them a try-out.

When I pick plants, inverts or fish, I first consider how they can 'help' me maintain my tank. If they don't help, they don't get picked. If they pray on a helper, no dice! It can get tricky, building a community to work well together in these little boxes, but it can be done. I love using nature to do most of the work for me. Figuring out how to do it is half the fun!

I'm very much with you and massively jealous of what is easily available your side of the pond. Overhere if you ask for live sand you will get a sealed bag of clean sand, devoid of life but supposedly with bacteria, basically without all the things that you would want from live sand. It's also near impossible to get more than a couple of species of macro that aren't caulerpa (and only a couple of caulerpa species are common) because we don't have access to them or they cost more than corals due to shipping. So please keep these updates so I can vicariously live through you experiences.

[Michael Hoaster]

Thanks and welcome, Moort82!

It's nice to know someone else is with me on this Mother Nature stuff. I do get some blank stares when I tell folks that I don't use any man made filtration. I try to explain that nature's 'methods' work well for me. It's not that I'm anti-technology. I just thought it would cool to simplify the whole aquarium experience and let nature handle the automation. Some people get excited about controllers or skimmers, I get excited about seaweeds and worms.

It's good to be reminded how fortunate we are over here. Having a small part of your country that reaches into the tropics is a nice advantage we often take for granted.

I'll keep the updates coming! I doubt at this point you could shut me up! Cheers!

[rucnnefish]

Believe it or not this is my tank one week after moving into our new house on April 1, 2017. The trio of Royal Grammas took the move well, as did the breeding pair of Yashas. Although none are visible in the photo.

I have just purchased the overflow and other plumbing parts to finally get a sump w/ cheato, so I hear ya on trying to keep things clean using the gifts from Mother nature.

Been using a canister filter filled with Matrix and bacteria as my main strategy to consume excess nutrients, but now I'm on the macroalgae bandwagon.

Hopefully the calerpa will stop going all sexy on me every 2 weeks and I'll be able to add a larger variety of macros.

One thing I am trying to do differently than my past tanks is to run it at 100 watts or less, tired of 1.5Kw.

[Michael Hoaster]

Gongrats on the new home, rucnnefish!

Your tank looks great! I like the black sand too. Start a thread!

Now of course I have suggestions, because it's me and I can't keep my mouth shut. Your rockscape looks great, but all that rock takes up valuable space for plants. Consider removing some to make more room. If you plan to fill your tank with plants, chaeto in the sump will be unnecessary. It will compete with your display plants for nutrients. Caulerpa going all sexy is a sign that it is lacking nutrients. Got a nitrogen source? If not, go get some stump remover (potassium nitrate) at the hardware store.

OK I'll shut up now. Nice work!

[rucnnefish]

haha, sorry i bombed your thread Michael, but it is much easier than starting my own. I just took the matrix and canister filter off line and added 20lbs of rock to the tank, I want to see if i can keep the phosphates from bottoming out or going ballistic. I dosed the floro grow hydroponics ferts. a few months ago and I slightly over did the dosage. My nitrates went up to 60-80, and PO4 went all the way up to 5.0. I thought for sure the microalgae would cover everything but none appeared ( the caulerpa still went sexy). The high nutrients did not appear to effect anything other then my pods. That may be attributed to the copper in the ferts. I have been having a hard time keeping BTA's alive for over 6 months without rock in the tank, hence why all the rock, so in effect I'm trying to kill 2 birds with one stone...
The cheato in the sump is also a 2 birds kind of thing. 1. Material for the Grammas to build nests with, 2. Heavy Feeding for Spawning fish nutrient control, plus should be a good habitat for pods when I get a new batch.

Thanks for the advice, it's very much appreciated

[Michael Hoaster]

Bomb anytime! I just want you to start a thread so there's another one to read!

Sounds like you've got a good plan. Best of luck!

[rucnnefish]

If I start my own thread I may even break into the 50 posts column and receive full fledged membership privileges. Getting close now after 9 years. Haha I wonder if this one counts?

[Michael Hoaster]

Trust me, you'll enjoy it! My thread is also my tank journal-so handy! Writing all this stuff down is as much fun as aquarium keeping itself. Plus, it's been proven that discussion leads to breakthroughs. I've fully integrated it into my regular aquarium routine. Observe, adjust, record.

Two packages came today. I got bottles of goodies for the plants, inverts and fish, and I got GCE's refugium pack, plus some cerith snails, whose population I want to increase for diversity. My refugium pack has live sand and basically a red macro sampler. I saw spaghetti worms, so I'm happy. There was some interesting rock rubble as well. I did a quick fresh water dip/visual inspection of each plant, before tossing them in, willy nilly. Once I turned the pumps back on they went where they went. I may try and place a few later. Right now I just want them to settle in, without handling them.

I added the new trace element supplement today. That was the one thing I thought could be lacking. Trace elements get used up quickly in aquariums. I don't want any nutrient to limit plant growth. I've got the big three (carbon, nitrogen, phosphate) covered, so basically I'm checking all the nutrient boxes.

I got grasilaria, grasilaria hayi, botryocladia and few others whose names I forgot. Oh, and some more ulva. As usual, I really got my money's worth with GCE. They were kind enough to customize my pack. Best in the biz!

So the bottom of the food chain is coming together. I may go read some Ron Schimeck articles on sand bed fauna. The guy knows his stuff.

I was thinking, how I keep waiting for explosive plant growth and when is it going to happen. I think it may be happening already, but I'm observing everyday and don't see it. I think it is still adjusting, things are being added and a lot of changes have occurred recently. Growth should pick up once everyone is settled in.

[Moort82]

Originally Posted by Michael Hoaster

Thanks and welcome, Moort82!

It's nice to know someone else is with me on this Mother Nature stuff. I do get some blank stares when I tell folks that I don't use any man made filtration. I try to explain that nature's 'methods' work well for me. It's not that I'm anti-technology. I just thought it would cool to simplify the whole aquarium experience and let nature handle the automation. Some people get excited about controllers or skimmers, I get excited about seaweeds and worms.

It's good to be reminded how fortunate we are over here. Having a small part of your country that reaches into the tropics is a nice advantage we often take for granted.

I'll keep the updates coming! I doubt at this point you could shut me up! Cheers!

I used to run a lfs and could get sea grasses and a few other species that I got for some public aquariums and spent hours going through all the little hitchhiker's. Bagged some really cool cucumbers, medusa like worms, brittlestar etc. I think people thought I was pretty weird as well because I was more interested in what was in the bottom of the bag that came with the nice pretty coral than the coral itself.
I also glaze over when someone starts to talk equipment.

It's not all boring here, we could do a nice temperate native tank. I've meant to start one for years but haven't got round to it yet.

[wilder]

I'm also with you on preferring natural filtration. I love the diversity of invertebrate life found in the ocean (including coral). Plants are not only beautiful but they change the scape in our tanks regularly with growth and trimming, as well as, providing homes and food for invertebrate life. I'm fascinated with the ecology of it all. That's part of the reason I enjoy this thread. Not only do I get to live out my passions in your pics, but I also learn so much along the way.