40g Long Naturally sun-lit tank

[Michael Hoaster]

Hold on a second. You've been feeding 3 cubes of frozen food a day to a 40 long with no fish? Woa! Well the plants and the serpent stars seem to like it! Is there anybody else in there, like a grouper or napoleon wrasse?

Feeding so much usually leads to an algae problem. I guess you've proven that, with a healthy detrivore population and an established crop of macro algae, you can feed a ridiculous amount of food!

Do you have any thoughts on how you were able to do this? Impressed!

 

[cksss]

Thank you deepercon! this is stage 1 and i planning to populate the sandbed with seagrasses or similar looking macro. I'd also want to add mangrove which 'arc' over the tank, an inspiration from another thread

Oh
My
Goodness...
This is Wonderful. Seeing something similar to my imaginations is so great.

I Salute you, fellow reefer.

Many thanks for posting

 

[cksss]

haha no way i'd do that. I've been feeding 2 cubes of frozen brineshrimp and 1 cube of mysis for these fishes

-a pair of mandarin (they mated and i've video if there are such research interest)
-1 x seahorse
-1 x tailspot blenny
-1 x clownfish
-1 x regal tang :bigeyes:

The stars were getting too much and too aggressive and they out-compete for food with the mandarin and seahorse so i had to remove them. There is an ATS in the sump and the skimmer has been turned off for 2 months already. And the readings have been like NO3 10ppm & PO4 0.025ppm.

I had redslim issue few months ago with NO3 at 0ppm! I think they died after i started dosing KNO3 (redfield ratio balance maybe?). I'm still dosing KNO3 to maintain NO3 at 10-20ppm

Hold on a second. You've been feeding 3 cubes of frozen food a day to a 40 long with no fish? Woa! Well the plants and the serpent stars seem to like it! Is there anybody else in there, like a grouper or napoleon wrasse?

Feeding so much usually leads to an algae problem. I guess you've proven that, with a healthy detrivore population and an established crop of macro algae, you can feed a ridiculous amount of food!

Do you have any thoughts on how you were able to do this? Impressed!

 

[cksss]

Here are some photos taken on 17-Dec-2015 with the new additions

The skimmer has been turned off for 2 months already and i've still been dosing KNO3 to maintain NO3 at 10-20ppm. PO4 reads about 0.025 on the low range test kit. I've also started dosing Iodine on-top of Iron.

and the photo taken in daytime as requested by Michael. Its not gonna look as nice compared to the one at night due to the reflection from the bright background.

Closer up photos of the new weeds!

Spaghetti Weed - Liagora (i think?)

Galaxaura, i already have these in the tank, which was invaded by the Caulerpa no thanks to lazy maintenance.

Dictoya (i think?)

And an update on the Ochtodes which have been growing really well in the overflow! This spot is probably closer to 'intertidal' zone with high flow and semi-dry.

I never had luck with the grapes in the display tank as the regal tang has taken a liking for this algae. However, i've discovered that by planting it where the strong return-pump current is, the tang would leave it alone These are one of the fastest growing algae in the sump too, so the tang does get some algae treat from time to time.

 

[vlangel]

I love the looks of this tank, it's so pretty.

 

[Michael Hoaster]

What a nice display of macros! Beautiful plants! And on a high rise terrace! Too cool!

 

[Subsea]

Impressive.

Do you think that the Serpent Stars reproduced in your tank or do you think that you collected them and they grew out.

 

[cksss]

Thanks guys!
Hi Subsea, hmmm I cannot tell, about 80% rocks are from previous tank which I overfed too. So they could have reproduced long ago. I have not witnessed spawning in my tank with these stars though one of the local reefer which i sold the stars to reported spawning (release of red eggy thingy) almost immediately after introducing them into the tank.

 

[Subsea]

Spawning serpent stars would be an accomplishment on its on. Raising larvae to adulthood is a major triumph.
Kudos to you on your accomplishment.

 

[cksss]

Thanks! I half suspect it was due to natural moon-light that they get exposed to every night. It has positive effect on coral, maybe on fishes and inverts too? I have also witnessed and recorded the pair of mandarin fish dancing ritual in the tank at night

Spawning serpent stars would be an accomplishment on its on. Raising larvae to adulthood is a major triumph.
Kudos to you on your accomplishment.

 

[Subsea]

Interesting about moon light. The most massive coral spawning in the world occurs on the same night on the Great Barrier Reef.

When are the lights on?

 

[cksss]

Interesting about moon light. The most massive coral spawning in the world occurs on the same night on the Great Barrier Reef.

When are the lights on?

those outdoor LED are turned on for about 4hours in the evening just so i could enjoy the colours when im back from work. The growth light are provided by the sun

 

[Subsea]

Hold on a second. You've been feeding 3 cubes of frozen food a day to a 40 long with no fish? Woa! Well the plants and the serpent stars seem to like it! Is there anybody else in there, like a grouper or napoleon wrasse?

Feeding so much usually leads to an algae problem. I guess you've proven that, with a healthy detrivore population and an established crop of macro algae, you can feed a ridiculous amount of food!

Do you have any thoughts on how you were able to do this? Impressed!

Michael,

For certain, macro can absorbed tremendous amounts of nutrients from the food. The macro would have gotten it either way in the form of fish poop. I have the chemical analysis of Red Gracilaria from an outside growout system. It shows the ratio of nitrogen to phosphate to be 50:1.

Because I am a commercial facility, economics are first priority. I am trying to maximize macro growth using chemical concentrates. For my application, ammonia is the most economical nitrogen source that I have found.. I also use "Miracle Grow" all purpose, water soluble plant food with major nutrient concentrations of nitrogen at 24%, phosphate at 8% and potash at 16%. While I do not measure trace minerals, they are included in this all purpose plant food.

I also use Seachem substrate "Florite" for additional iron using passive automatic buffering. I think macro is like a sponge and it will absorb whatever is dissolved in the water including heavy metals.

 

[Subsea]

those outdoor LED are turned on for about 4hours in the evening just so i could enjoy the colours when im back from work. The growth light are provided by the sun

What a lovely way to transition from work.

On an average, can you approximate how much macro you remove per month.

 

[cksss]

What a lovely way to transition from work.

On an average, can you approximate how much macro you remove per month.

Hi Subsea, I found your Aquaculture Ranch Facility on youtube and watched few of the videos. What you are doing is super awesome and cool! I wish we've something like that in Singapore! but the demand for macroalgae for decorative purpose is almost non-existence

On a very good sunny month, i could harvest about 4 handfuls of macro. But its very seasonal since i'm relaying on the sunlight mostly. Singapore was affected by very serious haze for over 2-months and that kind of stunt the growth and its monsoon season now so we havent been getting really good sun recently.

Anyway this is a photo of the balcony with direct afternoon sun, the tank is on the left side

And what i've been dosing

 

[Subsea]

Thank you for the kind words about my hobby business. It is something to keep me busy, since I retired from offshore drilling. I also intend to grow Red Ogo for personnel consumption as a specialty produce food source.

Why dose with iodine? I have see it advertised as necessary for red macro algae but have never seen documented evidence of results. Calcium and magnesium are the most prominent elements assimilated into macro. How do you keep up with calcium demand? Considering that you have a macro lagoon biotheme, is alkalinity even an issue compared to a reef tank?

 

[cksss]

Thank you for the kind words about my hobby business. It is something to keep me busy, since I retired from offshore drilling. I also intend to grow Red Ogo for personnel consumption as a specialty produce food source.

Why dose with iodine? I have see it advertised as necessary for red macro algae but have never seen documented evidence of results. Calcium and magnesium are the most prominent elements assimilated into macro. How do you keep up with calcium demand? Considering that you have a macro lagoon biotheme, is alkalinity even an issue compared to a reef tank?

Exactly because of the red/purple macro i dose iodine, the Ochtodes was dying and i was desperate so i just went with the suggestion i read online. I'm not dosing Calcium deliberately yet, thought i do get lots of coralline growth. The "bacteria king" filter media i'm using dissolve Calcium into the water as claimed. You can locate the article by googling for "bacteria king reef system"

I'm also running an ATS which might be helping with the pH swing, but i've not tested the pH at different time of the day thought :lolspin:

 

[nawilson89]

Michael,

For certain, macro can absorbed tremendous amounts of nutrients from the food. The macro would have gotten it either way in the form of fish poop. I have the chemical analysis of Red Gracilaria from an outside growout system. It shows the ratio of nitrogen to phosphate to be 50:1.

Because I am a commercial facility, economics are first priority. I am trying to maximize macro growth using chemical concentrates. For my application, ammonia is the most economical nitrogen source that I have found.. I also use "Miracle Grow" all purpose, water soluble plant food with major nutrient concentrations of nitrogen at 24%, phosphate at 8% and potash at 16%. While I do not measure trace minerals, they are included in this all purpose plant food.

I also use Seachem substrate "Florite" for additional iron using passive automatic buffering. I think macro is like a sponge and it will absorb whatever is dissolved in the water including heavy metals.

Subsea, I had looked at your youtube channel and really enjoyed looking at your macro grow out, but had forgotten to comment on it because I was at work at the time. I'm really interested in your systems.(I actually have few of your videos playing on my tv as I type this)

I'm even more interested in your dosing of miracle grow. It seems your dosing is invert safe. How often do you dose and how much?

Secondly The Florite use as a substrate for macro algae is an incredible idea also. I think a good mix of refugium mud and florite for iron with a cap of sand would be a perfect mix.

I hope you post more about your systems.

 

[karimwassef]

So did the Iodine help the ochtodes recover?

They're beautiful

 

[cksss]

So did the Iodine help the ochtodes recover?

They're beautiful

Hi Karimwassef, no idea really, it is only based on one observation in my tank that influences my decision to continue to dose. These 2 photos were taken nearly 1-month apart. First observed the ochtodes to be hanging around the overflow area in Oct and i started dosing Iodine in 12 Nov. And then the growth rate accelerated. No idea if these 2 events are correlated :strange:

Nov-22

Dec-17