Caribbean Biotope Seagrass Tank

Thanks, Chasmodes.

The manatee grass did not look so great before I pruned it. All of the taller blades were encrusted with a reddish brown coating of what I guess was cyano bacteria. I took my scissors and carefully snipped each individual blade, like a good, obsessive-compulsive aquarist does. This left me with nice, green grass, that I was happy to photograph and share. I've done this before and it seemed to go well. The grasses regain their height pretty quickly. I think it is part of their genetic makeup to grow back vigorously after being grazed upon.

I've tried scraping the blades with my fingernails before. That resulted in them dying, so I decided I may as well snip and export.

This is a tricky situation, I find myself in. The caulerpa has disintegrated, dumping all absorbed nutrients into the water column. I'm sure all the hypo water changes helped, but how much? And with almost all the remaining plants feeling the stress of hypo, how well will they take up access nutrients? Hopefully some will adapt and grow. If not, I may be in for an algae bloom.

Dosing is still suspended, while I watch and wait. I am however, still injecting CO2. By preventing carbon limitation, I hope the remaining plants are able to soak up whatever is still available. In nature, as well as in most aquariums, carbon is the limiting nutrient for plants. Their growth, and ability to take up all other nutrients is limited by the often scarce availability of carbon. By providing CO2, I prevent this limitation, so hopefully remaining plants can still 'perform'.

I haven't seen a gramma scratch in around a week or so. That is a good sign, but grammas are pretty ICH resistant. So, no matter how good they look, time will be the determining factor on treatment duration.
 
I always enjoy your updates. Sounds like things are continuing to go well for the tank. Hows the weather? Have you been mountain biking yet? We're getting some warm days here and there in Georgia.
 
Thanks zackxlutz. I wish I was as optimistic about my tank as you! I'm very worried I'll get an algae bloom, as more plants die off. As it stands now, I think the seagrasses and the red macros will survive the hypo treatment. Everything else is on a downward slide.

The weather here in Boulder has been eerily warm. I'm staying off the bike for now. It looks like winter will taper off early this year, but we always get some spring dumps. I'm still getting my suffer on with skate technique cross country skiing. It's such a great workout, when I get back on the bike, it's easier!

There's definitely been an uptick of roadies around here, but I don't see as many pros about as I do in the summer. Better training weather elsewhere, plus a lot of them are racing already.
 
The remaining aiptasia anemones look stressed. They look like they're hunkering down to 'weather the storm'. I haven't seen any berghia nudibranchs lately, so I don't know if they are tolerating the hypo salinity. It sure would be nice if the aiptasias all died.

I've got some chaeto in the display that I've been trying to get rid of. Now I'm leaving it in, so it can soak up nutrients. I can't be picky about plants right now. I need them all to keep growing and consuming whatever is left from the caulerpa disintegration.

I'm still worried I'll get an algae bloom. Maybe another water change is in order…
 
I'm crossing my fingers, Chasmodes! Disaster is a real possibility.

I put all ten pounds of live rock in QT, along with all loose sponges, the barnacle shell cluster, some macro frags, the condylactis anemone, two gorgonians, a bunch of snails and the fighting conch. I already had five mollies in there from earlier hypo treatment. Now there are rather a lot of molly babies as well. Their population seems to be shrinking. Maybe some have gotten too close to the anemone.
 
It seems to me that you have enough in your QT to bring the tank back with maybe a couple purchases too. But as long as you keep and eye on the grass and the grammas, the rest probably doesn't matter too much. If things go sour, you can always reverse the trend and start slowly increasing the salinity, or water changes. I think your plan is pretty solid.

I was thinking that ulva might be a good temporary solution because it seems to do OK in brackish water, but it might rob your grasses of nutrients when they need them the most.
 
Yeah, now that I don't need them!

That was the 'ark' concept of QT-to keep a few frags to reseed the display. My biggest concern now is an algae bloom. Reversing the trend and increasing salinity before at least a month's time is not an option I'd want to consider. Hmm…algae bloom v ICH.

Thanks for the ulva suggestion! That could be a good idea if it looks like I'll need more plants growing. I'm still watching and thinking. I kind of doubt the grasses will grow much during hypo treatment, though the shoal grass is looking pretty good. I think they will just hang in there until it's over. What would really make me worry less, would be for ANY plant I have to 'take off' and soak up nutrients left by the dying ones. If none of them do, ulva may be the solution.

I wonder how well ulva would do. It did well for me, way back at the beginning of this tank. But that was at 26ppt. Now I'm at 13ppt. I might also consider hard water fresh water plants, like vallisneria.
 
Another option might be an ATS if algae gets crazy, if you have all of the parts and equipment handy, would be cheaper than having to order and wait for something.
 
Hey SantaMonica!

The wall is made with black pond foam. I sanded it down to get the look and texture I wanted. Also there are 23 (I think) plastic bottles encased inside, providing 'gramma caves'. It's skeletal structure is made with egg crate. There is some silica sand spread about and coated with Bondo brand fiberglass resin, I bought at an auto parts store! If you are interested, I did a build thread on it here:http: //reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2403722

I was attempting to model a mangrove mudbank, while at the same time providing a lot of fish hidey holes. I knew that this tank was going to have only minimal live rock, so I needed to provide something else for housing. I have kept a harem of seven (now six) royal grammas in a 180 gallon tank for two years. Seeing that many in one tank, and having them interact so naturally, has been very rewarding. It may be the best thing I've done, aquarium-wise. I'm sure it could be adapted to other fish species, that like vertical structure.

Kind of a chatty answer to a simple question. Thanks for asking!
 
I’m seeing something on the back wall that may be cyano bacteria. I removed a media bag of bio pellets from the canister filter, to slow any bacteria production. It looks like my algae worries are coming true. I think I will add a molly or two.

I’ve decided to add a couple of new plants, to help soak up excess nutrients. A tricky proposition, with my tank currently running hypo salinity. I need a plant or two that can be happy in these conditions. So I did a little reading.

On a freshwater plant site, they had a section for brackish water plants. Of the choices available, the sagittaria looked like the most likely candidate. Fast growing and not picky about water conditions, sounded like a slam dunk. I swung by my LFS, and happened upon the last sagittaria in the store. One plant with one daughter. I planted it in the little plastic container I used for the plants in my betta bowl. It has a mixture of mostly yard dirt, and calcium carbonate sand. I placed it on the right end of the DSB.

On the salt water side, I went with ulva. From what I’ve read, they seem pretty adaptable too. That I ordered online from live plants. So I’m guessing I’ll have that on wednesday.

Pretty wild mixing fresh water and salt water plants ! It’s a special situation, and a chance to experiment. I’m hoping Mother Nature helps me out a little, too.


picture.php

See the pinkish patina on the back wall?


picture.php

The sagittaria. Looks a lot like the turtle grass. Looks even more like vallisneria.
 
It could be. I should touch it and see. I doubted that because my established coralline seems to be dying off. It does kind of look like it though. I'll give it a touch in the morning.

I added two female mollies to the one male in the display, for algae consumption. He was understandably excited. I was understandably excited when they started nibbling at the algae on the seagrass…
 
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