Caribbean Biotope Seagrass Tank

[sam.basye]

Knowing you, you're going to be sitting there with a magnifying glass and tweezers picking out every single worm and bug placing them into a petri dish! Haha
Better yet, one of them jewelers helmets with the different magnified lenses and a flashlight!
Sounds like a real pain in the balls, but a smart move to make sure nothing unwanted gets in there!

Just add a question mark at the end for the ultimate in broad vagueness. lol Keep everyone guessing!

"œCaribbean Biotope Seagrass Tank?"

 

[Subsea]

Michael,

I don’t remember the details, but don’t you have a type of a cryptic zone in your present tank? I would definitely encourage cryptic sponges in my ecosystem.

 

[Subsea]

Knowing you, you're going to be sitting there with a magnifying glass and tweezers picking out every single worm and bug placing them into a petri dish! Haha
Better yet, one of them jewelers helmets with the different magnified lenses and a flashlight!
Sounds like a real pain in the balls, but a smart move to make sure nothing unwanted gets in there!

Just add a question mark at the end for the ultimate in broad vagueness. lol Keep everyone guessing!

"œCaribbean Biotope Seagrass Tank?"

Sam,
For certain, you made me laugh and remember my first step into biodiversity. I had just received a shipment from IPSF in Hawaii. Following the directions, I went into an unlit closet and proceeded to shine lights thru water in bags. First, with a white background, then with a black background. I was 10 minutes into the process when my wife entered the unlit master bedroom closet, to find me peeping into the "œlittle peoples" world.

 

[vlangel]

I'm going to petition to get the thread re-titled "œCaribbean-ish Biotope Seagrass Tank" [emoji6]

I'll pass around a sheet for signatures. Lol

That is why my thread is just called 'garden'. It gives me room to change my mind. Of course I am in yrouble if I stop keeping seahorses, ha ha!

 

[Michael Hoaster]

That's actually not a bad idea, Sam. Hands-free magnification would be very helpful. This brings me to the "how am I going to do this?" question. I think tweezers might be too hard and sharp. When I pulled a bunch out of my QT, I did it by hand, and that seemed to work well. The trick will be to locate them visually, and then get my hand to the right spot, which isn't easy in a 30 inch deep tank. Maybe lowering the water level would help. I'll try not to get too obsessive-compulsive. I don't need to get all of them. I'll be purchasing new live sand as well. It is very important that I don't transfer any unwanted guests!

 

[Michael Hoaster]

Yes Patrick, I do have some cryptic areas that have supported good sponge growth. I agree, they are good to have, as another puzzle piece of the ecosystem.

As for taking a bag of pods into a closet, I see nothing wrong with that! But, you know, coming from me…

 

[Michael Hoaster]

Garden is a good word, vlangel! I've often noted that what I've been doing is basically gardening. And as you pointed out, it's vague enough to cover a lot, and allows more room for changes in direction. I'd like to allow myself a little more room as well.

 

[Michael Hoaster]

Start a New Thread or Not?

Start a New Thread or Not?

So, at first I thought there was no need to start a new thread, since I'm not changing much about the tank. Most of you agreed. Then Sam brought up the point of biotope-ness. Would I (sort of) continue to adhere to biotope standards? Or would I not?

While I like using organisms from the same sea, I would like to not be 'shackled' by the biotope concept. What would that look like? In practice, this would mean I would look first to Caribbean species, but allow myself to look elsewhere if needed.

Is this enough of a change to justify a new thread? Sure, and I could more accurately name it to reflect my intensions. I am focused on establishing a functioning ecosystem that models a seagrass lagoon. I'm less concerned with representing a particular sea.

Is it a small enough change to stay on this thread? I would think so. Given the number of times I've gone outside biotope constraints, I can only recall one 'Biotope Police' post. So yeah, I think it would be fine to stay here.

I guess the bottom line question is, do I want to start a new thread, and distinguish it from the old one? I sorta do. I like the idea of starting fresh, and being free from the biotopidity that the old name implied. I sorta don't. Starting a new thread would mean this one would gradually slide down the forum page until it was gone. There's so much good info in here! I'd hate to see it disappear.

The thing I keep coming back to is the name of the thread and the words 'Caribbean Biotope'. If I'm no longer restricting myself to a caribbean biotope, I should start a new one.

 

[sam.basye]

Caribbean Biotope Seagrass Tank

Here's another one to really make up you mind.
I'll be honest, if I just so happened to find your thread today for the first time; would I really bother to read all 3000+ posts? Nope.
With this in mind, a new thread would be a way to consolidate all the trial and error into a new, concise, thread. Some sort of seagrass mangrove lagoon.
And yes, a new thread will send this one to the abyss, so pick one! Lol

 

[JZinCO]

Man, it's great to talk about this stuff! It helps me think it through. So I'll need some new sand to transfer the creatures and grasses into. Another piece of the puzzle…

side note. In northern CO, Landscape companies sell Mexican beach (silica) for $38/ton and coarser grade Mexican beach pebbles for $0.38/lb. I dunno, what you thoughts are on that topic, but.. it is an option.

edit: What about a Caribbe-analog tank?

 

[taricha]

I think adding "-ish" is the perfect solution!

I have a question that I think fits this weird corner of the board well.
So I have decent sponge growth - several nice size colonies of half dozen or more species, and am experimenting with ways to ramp up the growth.
I think it could be cool to get a small peaceful sponge grazing fish that won't devour my corals or gorgs (but an occasional nip of zoa or sps isn't disaster), just for that added interest of natural food web interaction.
The sponges are generally Caribbean in origin. Anybody in here run across such a fish?

 

[taricha]

Oh also, on the topic of unwanted sandbed guests, what were you looking to exclude?

 

[Michael Hoaster]

More good points, Sam! And even though it would slide off the forum page, it can still be accessed through my public profile, under statistics. I'm leaning towards a new one!

 

[Michael Hoaster]

That's an interesting option JZ. I'll think about it. What do you mean by Caribbe-analog? I haven't heard of that.

 

[Michael Hoaster]

First off, congrats, taricha, for achieving good sponge growth! I can't think of any fish that are small, sponge grazing and peaceful. Maybe a Rock Beauty Angelfish? They're not that small. The problem is that once you find a fish that fits the bill, I think it's very likely you will soon have no sponges. But I could be wrong. Let us know what you come up with!

Good question on who would I like to exclude from the sand bed. That would be aiptasia anemones, dinoflagellates, and caulerpa slugs, or any fragments, spores or eggs that could bring any of them back into my tank. I thought long and hard about how I might keep my sand. I concluded the only way to be sure I wasn't bringing unwanted guests was to get new sand and seed it with desirable creatures.

 

[Chasmodes]

My thought about maintaining this thread or starting a new one is that it's your story. People will adapt no matter what you do. If you keep it in this section of RC, I think people will have an easy time finding it.

As for the name, whatever you call it vs. whatever you do is also up to you. In my opinion, things worked out fine before as an "ish" biotype like tank, and we all loved it. So, if you create a cool tank, whatever you call it, we will like it!

 

[JZinCO]

What do you mean by Caribbe-analog? I haven't heard of that.

Caribbean, analog. As in picking a good reference point (e.g. Caribbean seagrass meadows), and making a tank that may not have the same species composition but similar structure and function. Ergo, the tank is not a 100% replication but an analog.
Puns.. jokes never work when they have to be explained

On a separate note, did you ever run a cucumber in your tank? I've had mine for 1.5y or so now and its done well to cycle the top layer of the sand. I think the sand aggregates left behind create interesting structures that must have some value because they are broken down by some biological means.

 

[Michael Hoaster]

Thanks Kevin. I agree. I appreciate the input, from you and everyone else who has weighed in. I have really gotten a lot out of the discussion! It helps me see things from different angles, so I can make better decisions.

 

[Michael Hoaster]

Thanks JZ for explaining. That cleared it up for me. That's a good idea. But…

I think I want to say that it represents a seagrass lagoon ecosystem without saying where. Sure, a lot will have come from the Caribbean, but I'll feel freer to choose creatures based on their merit as part of the ecosystem, without worrying about biotope correctness. I think that warrants starting a new thread.

Yes, I have a lovely, white sea cucumber, named Seymour. He and the fighting conch, Mom, take good care of the sand bed surface. And they do it WITHOUT consuming beneficial worms and pods, like sand-sifting gobies and sea stars do. I agree, cucumbers are great detritus consumers, breaking it down further, in their niche of the food web. Eventually, it becomes plant food. The plants grow and old leaves drop to become detritus again. The sand bed community is basically a recycling center for aquariums!

 

[JZinCO]

I gotchya.
Ran across a photo that reminded me of your tank...