Caribbean Biotope Seagrass Tank

[Michael Hoaster]

Thanks, EdimarOliveira, for the kind words.

I'm excited to hear your tank is coming together! You should start a thread for it, so we can all follow along.

Good luck!

[Michael Hoaster]

Thanks, zachxlutz! And welcome!

[nawilson89]

Originally Posted by Michael Hoaster

I think I've seen the one you are talking about, nawilson89, in your pics. I think yours is a different species than mine. Yours grows fast, mine pretty slow. Despite the extra pruning needed, fast growers are pretty handy for uptake/export. Now if I could just get up the courage to put 'em in a salad…

Hmmm... you can eat them. I won't.

I was actually thinking when I got a larger tank and more macro I could add an urchin to help with pruning. This would, of course happen after the tank was set up for a few months and everything had time to grow out.

[Michael Hoaster]

Subsea is always talking about eating his. Pretty cool!

I'm still trying to figure out a way to keep an herbivore. I think the trick would be to have multiple tanks, so you could rotate the herbivore around, where needed, and not where it isn't. Pruning gets old…

[Michael Hoaster]

[EdimarOliveira]

I'm excited to hear your tank is coming together! You should start a thread for it, so we can all follow along.

This week I'm finishing the reassembly of deionisador since I moved to town and had to redo it.

But it's almost at the point where I can start recording with photos progress.

Wait! I need a lot of your advice ...

[Michael Hoaster]

That's great! Start your thread. It doesn't have to have lot's of photos, especially at first. I think it's a good idea to start by stating your goals for the tank. How do you want it to turn out? What do you plan to keep? Why are you setting it up the way you plan to?

I had pages of stuff, where I was exploring ideas, long before I even had water in the tank. Above all, have fun and enjoy all phases of construction. There's no rush. It's your baby!

[Subsea]

Originally Posted by Michael Hoaster

That's great! Start your thread. It doesn't have to have lot's of photos, especially at first. I think it's a good idea to start by stating your goals for the tank. How do you want it to turn out? What do you plan to keep? Why are you setting it up the way you plan to?

I had pages of stuff, where I was exploring ideas, long before I even had water in the tank. Above all, have fun and enjoy all phases of construction. There's no rush. It's your baby!

Good advice. Make it fun.

I have both Red Grapes and most recently Grape Caulerpa in a 55G growout tank. The Red Grapes are my money crop as it is a gorgeous macro for a display tank. While I do not want Grape Caulerpa, a fast grower, to crowd out the Red Grape, I got it to eat. It is a super food. Here in he Austin community, I have become popular in the party scene. As a single man, that works for me.

[Michael Hoaster]

Well I should be eating it too, since I'm the 'acting' herbivore. Can I throw it in a salad? I like my foods super!

So you show up at the party with caulerpa racemosa? And that's working for you? How?

[Subsea]

Cheviche is a favorite in Mexican, Caribbean and Peruvian cultures, as well as the Austin party scean. Because I have many vegan friends, I leave the protein marinade (shrimp or firm white fish) in a seperate dish. I also leave the seaweed in a seperate dish, because the chemical action from the lime breaks down the texture from crisp to mushy. Previously, I used Red Ogo. The novelty of eating seaweed gets people interested, all the time. Grape Caulerpa is just a differrent color. Just come up with a catchy name like "Green Grapes".

The basic Chevichee includes sweet onions, peppers, tomatoes, cilantro, then I add what I have extra in the refrigerator like celery, radish, cucumber. Lime is the catalyst that brings it all together.
Or is it "you put the lime in the cocunot and shake it all up".

[Michael Hoaster]

I ordered some new macro algae. I figure I got so many freebies, I should pay for some!

I ordered some blue scroll algae. I'm hoping it will do well on the dimmer end of the tank. Reminds me of plating montipora. I'm really kind of excited about this one!
Ordered some Cymopolia barbata. It's got calcified segmented stems that grow into long cylinders, topped by fuzzy green tops. These remind me of Dr Zeus' art!
And last, I ordered some Dictoya cervicornis. These have flat, spiral shaped blades, olive brown or golden in color.

It's good to add biodiversity, and I've kinda had my eye on those for awhile. Though the seagrasses are still the priority, there's no reason not to enjoy adding other stuff around the tank. And the macros are so pretty!

[Subsea]

Michael, those are some unique macros. Is it a personnal source or can you share the vendor?

[Michael Hoaster]

Live-plants and LA Reefs. They are fun, aren't they? I can't wait! I'm really excited about getting that blue scroll on the the fake root and fake wall! The C. barbata will go in with the seagrasses, adding more texture, but keeping it green. I may try the Dictoya on the eroded part of the wall. It's got a classic seaweed look to me.

[Subsea]

Originally Posted by Michael Hoaster

Well I should be eating it too, since I'm the 'acting' herbivore. Can I throw it in a salad? I like my foods super!

So you show up at the party with caulerpa racemosa? And that's working for you? How?

http://www.thekitchn.com/la-farmers-...rt-seawe-58761

Here is another recepie for Ogo that should work equally well for Grape Caulerpa.

Actually, IMO, a slight squeeze of lime is all that is needed. It can be eaten straight up that way. For most consumers, the cost would be prohibited, but not for us seaweed farmers.

[McPuff]

Originally Posted by Subsea

http://www.thekitchn.com/la-farmers-...rt-seawe-58761

Here is another recepie for Ogo that should work equally well for Grape Caulerpa.

Actually, IMO, a slight squeeze of lime is all that is needed. It can be eaten straight up that way. For most consumers, the cost would be prohibited, but not for us seaweed farmers.

In Japan you can get caulerpa and it tastes quite good. :0)

[nawilson89]

Originally Posted by Michael Hoaster

I ordered some new macro algae. I figure I got so many freebies, I should pay for some!

I ordered some blue scroll algae. I'm hoping it will do well on the dimmer end of the tank. Reminds me of plating montipora. I'm really kind of excited about this one!
Ordered some Cymopolia barbata. It's got calcified segmented stems that grow into long cylinders, topped by fuzzy green tops. These remind me of Dr Zeus' art!
And last, I ordered some Dictoya cervicornis. These have flat, spiral shaped blades, olive brown or golden in color.

It's good to add biodiversity, and I've kinda had my eye on those for awhile. Though the seagrasses are still the priority, there's no reason not to enjoy adding other stuff around the tank. And the macros are so pretty!

My Cymopolia barbata died during a caulerpa going sexual, and I just realized I forgot to pull my Dictoya cervicornis out of my 20g when I started taking it down. It's probably sitting under a couple pounds of rock and mud now.

[Michael Hoaster]

Given that coralline algae does well in my tank, I have high hopes for Cymopolia barbata, aka tufted joint algae. This one falls into the weird-and-wonderful category, as does the blue scroll algae, I think.

Assuming I don't kill it, and it spreads as well as I think it will, the blue scroll, along with the hypnea, will make the overall color of the tank rather blue. But I'm getting ahead of myself! Let's just see if I can keep it alive first. They aren't sending a bunch-more like a 1-2" cutting.

[Michael Hoaster]

These fish! A seven-gramma harem is a thing to behold.

[Michael Hoaster]

OK, so I got my blue scroll algae in today, from LA Reefs. Everything went very smoothly with my order, so, a good experience.

I got a cutting, maybe 3 square inches. I made the decision to frag it into 4 pieces. I placed 3 on the back wall, using push pins to secure them. Seemed to work well. When I take down the tank, I can re-use the fake wall as a bulletin board. For the last piece, I cut a rubber band, and tied it around the fake root, slipping the frag under it. I still had to put two hands in the tank, but I think it will work.

If all goes well, these things are going to look very cool! It kinda gets me to thinking about a subtle, actinic lighting accent. The algae is said to have no blue pigment itself, but that it reflects blue light really well.

The other two macros I ordered from live-plants will get here next week.

[jraker]

I checked out LA reefs and they seem like a pretty good place. I didn't know about them selling macros, but now that I know, I will put in an order soon from them.

[Michael Hoaster]

It's good to have multiple places to get macros, since they all are often sold out of lots of them. This was my firs time at LA Reefs. Good experience. A lot of their macros were sold out as well, but they do get some interesting varieties.

[Michael Hoaster]

Seems to be a bit more blue.



Let's call it Corpse Bride Grasilaria.



I don't remember ever getting this one, but I'll take it.



I was trying to capture the pink, coralline tips on the manatee grass, along with the pink anemone. The grammas threw in some pink too.

[Michael Hoaster]

I can now finally say, that I can see a decrease in aiptasia anemones. I got some Berghia nudibranchs about 6 weeks ago. I probably should have gotten more, but the price seems a bit high to this cheapskate. They should reproduce, so I don't mind waiting a bit to see results. It's weird, having a natural predator taking care of the problem, while never actually seeing it perform. They are nocturnal and small. I may start shutting down my main circulation pump at night for them, so they can get to all of the little nems.

The blue scroll algae frags seem in good shape so far. The push pins are holding nicely. The piece mounted to the fake root looks kinda purplish to me. I really want to bring out their blue color, so I've been looking at blue LED fixtures. After looking at many of them, I've decided to try out a blue compact fluorescent bulb instead. I didn't want to spend a bunch of cash, and the LEDs seem very hit and miss, so I'm giving this a try. The bulb is a 100 watt equivalent, so hopefully I get just enough blue to accentuate the algae without making it look all disco in there. If it's not enough light, at least I didn't spend much cash.

My other two macros should come tomorrow. Excited!

[Michael Hoaster]

Got the new plants in. I'm attempting to attach the Dictoya to the fake root, using the tied rubber band trick. I scattered the tufted joint algae around the sand bed. It fits right in! Try to spot the new macros in all the pics.



Beginning with the full shot…



Dictoya, or All-Purpose Generic Seaweed.



Cymopolia barbata, near the front wall of the DSB planter.



New weeds!



The seagrass meadow.



These guys are taking off.

[Michael Hoaster]

More.



New texture.



Lagoonal.



Kind of a nice combo.



This one broke loose.



Another loose remnant.



Lot's of fun stuff!