125g 2 in 1 Seagrass Reef

Hows Mister Hippo doing for you? Have you seen any grazing action? I ask because I'd love to have another one. There's a small one down at my LFS I wouldn't mind giving a try…
 
Grazing action? None really, except for pecking at the shoal grass. I'm not actually sure if it's going for the grass itself or the red algae on the leaves, but either way it doesn't make a difference.

Hippo hasn't touched the macros or the hair algae. I think I read somewhere that adults are more herbivorous than juveniles, however. Mine is about 2-3".

I'll let you know if I see any more grazing, but so far so good!
 
Good to hear, thanks! That's pretty much what I expected, that he'd go after the epiphytic algae. I wonder what their preferred algae would be? Ulva is up there on most herbivores list. I wonder if they like Caulerpa? Do you have any of that?
 
I have Caulerpa prolifera, which Hippo hasn't even looked at. I have some Ulva I'm growing out in a Hawaiian red shrimp culture, so when it's big enough I'll break a piece off and see if he tang eats it.

Maybe try going to the LFS that has the tang and putting some Ulva or Caulerpa in with it?
 
That's not a bad idea. Though if I were working there, I'd be resistant to putting anything from a customer into their tank.
 
Hey, did you receive your Conches? Did you say you were getting more than one species? Having more than one type sounds like a good idea. Where did you order them from?
 
Not yet, they’ll be coming on Thursday. I got them from Reefcleaners as “assorted smaller conch”, so basically an assortment of species except for the fighting conch.
 
ThePurple12 said:
Not yet, they'll be coming on Thursday. I got them from Reefcleaners as "œassorted smaller conch", so basically an assortment of species except for the fighting conch.
Click to expand...

I am excited to hear about them when they arrive. Hopefully weather will not delay them. We are having another weather advisory tonight and tomorrow morning.
 
murky waters

murky waters

Thanks Dawn, weather is clear over here!

I've got some news: I removed the sand bed.

If you recall, when I first started this thread last summer I added some "Jobe's Knock Out Rose Fertilizer" to the sand bed, trying to achieve good seagrass growth. I believe THAT--not the low alkalinity, calcium, nitrate, phosphate, or long photoperiod--is the reason why some of my corals aren't growing at all, particularly the acros, and why the magnifica anemone isn't opening up fully. I tested this theory by putting the mag in a bucket with NSW, and it looked better than it has for months.

The theory is, the stuff has been leaching out some kind of metal, such as copper. I posted a thread asking about this on Clay-Boa, and to my surprise someone who worked with the manufacturers of Jobe's Knock Out Rose Fertilizer replied. He said this:

I thought I'd offer some insight on this. I work in the fertilizer/chemical industry in the area of compliance so I deal with labels/ingredients/SDS quite a bit. I have worked with the Jobe's company on some projects and am aware of at least one of their sources for the composted poultry manure in their products (contained within the Knock out Rose formula you dosed the tank with).

While I cannot disclose specifics I can tell you that a sample of the poultry compost base material yielded:

~30ppm Boron
~1000ppm Iron
~300ppm Manganese
~60ppm Copper
~300ppm Zinc

I belive this confirms my theory. Since the fertilizer is mixed in with the sand, it all had to go. The uprooted seagrass is sitting in a container. I'm not sure how it will fare once it's planted in fresh, nutrient poor sand.
 
I wow, that sounds like a lot of work and aggravation! I am glad that you considered the possibility of the fertilizer. That would not have occured to me. In fact when I read that you had done that I thought to myself, 'what a clever way to enrich the sandbed'. Thank you for sharing so none of us go down the same frustrating road.

So is it possible for you to add some garden dirt to the sandbed that will not have anything that can leach out into the water column? You could buy mineral mud or miracle mud which you would know is safe. It's not especially economical however. How soon do you expect to have everything back together?
 
Sorry to hear that. I have tried several types of plant tabs over the years, and I've never found any to be beneficial. It's frustrating because they are often recommended. I have no doubt that the best thing I have done for my grasses is adding dirt from my yard. Given that you have corals, that's probably a scary proposition. I think if you cover a layer of dirt with two inches of sand, you'd be good. But I'd imagine you're pretty gun-shy right about now. So, your grasses can probably do fine with sand only. Maybe consider a lower layer with a blend of sand and dirt. Maybe that's the best compromise. I'd certainly understand if you just went with sand. Seagrasses can get what they need from the water column, and they don't need much.
 
vlangel said:
I wow, that sounds like a lot of work and aggravation! I am glad that you considered the possibility of the fertilizer. That would not have occured to me. In fact when I read that you had done that I thought to myself, 'what a clever way to enrich the sandbed'. Thank you for sharing so none of us go down the same frustrating road.

So is it possible for you to add some garden dirt to the sandbed that will not have anything that can leach out into the water column? You could buy mineral mud or miracle mud which you would know is safe. It's not especially economical however. How soon do you expect to have everything back together?
Click to expand...
You're right, it's not fun!

My old sand bed actually had a lot of dirt from the woods around my house and mud brought home from a Florida seagrass bed. And hey, now that I think about it, my seagrass really took off after I added that mud.

I would like to add some more mud, probably from Floridapets as we won't be vacationing in Florida anytime soon. Not sure about dirt from the woods yet, which I'm sure you can understand.
 
Michael Hoaster said:
Sorry to hear that. I have tried several types of plant tabs over the years, and I've never found any to be beneficial. It's frustrating because they are often recommended. I have no doubt that the best thing I have done for my grasses is adding dirt from my yard. Given that you have corals, that's probably a scary proposition. I think if you cover a layer of dirt with two inches of sand, you'd be good. But I'd imagine you're pretty gun-shy right about now. So, your grasses can probably do fine with sand only. Maybe consider a lower layer with a blend of sand and dirt. Maybe that's the best compromise. I'd certainly understand if you just went with sand. Seagrasses can get what they need from the water column, and they don't need much.
Click to expand...
I've also noticed that about the plant tabs, but didn't say anything as it really makes sense for them to work. Dirt/mud definitely seems to be effective, liked I mentioned to Dawn. I may add some to the new sand, and I'll definitely be adding some mud eventually.

I have an old 20 long laying around, currently housing a hitchhiker crab. I'm going to use the old sand/mud/fertilizer that seems to be great at growing seagrass. I'll use an old T5 fixture for lighting. If the seagrass doesn't grow in the new sand, I'll have a backup tank full of it!
 
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