Caribbean Biotope Seagrass Tank

[Michael Hoaster]

Well, it's been a lovely weekend in the caribbean! In my tank I mean. There's a couple feet of spring snow outside. Cleaned the tank a bit saturday morning, then kicked back and watched it.

The Purple Condylactis Gigantea Anemone has done some roam'n! I am so fortunate to have it in a tank that will allow it to do so without killing other inhabitants. So, it started at the back wall, meandered across the sand bed, through the seagrasses, onto and over the rock planter, not far from the original placement. It was in the caulerpa, but now it's found bare rock, where I pulled out caulerpa. It's a cool location!

Zippy added a discernible shade of blue today! But he's very hard to photograph. It was cool to see. Such a fun fish!

 

[cksss]

Love love the latest photos

I noticed the magnifying glass at the front of the tank, there must be alot of surprise find in such as huge tank. Looking forward to new photo of Zippy!

 

[Michael Hoaster]

Thanks, cksss! I did a good glass cleaning saturday, so you know I've got to get some pics!

The magnifiers are handy! I do find a lot of stuff in there. After the latest caulerpa export, I found a near black sponge growing on the the rock DSB planter, behind the barnacle shells. I'm still dosing sodium silicate for sponge growth, so this is encouraging. Someday, the fake root will be sponge-encrusted!

I'll chase Zippy around again and see if I can get a descent pic. Speaking of descent pics, I'm especially proud of the shot I got of the anemone shrimp above (Money!). You can see into his eyes!

 

[Michael Hoaster]

You can see some pattern on his side and some blue on the gill cover and cheek.

 

[McPuff]

You can see some pattern on his side and some blue on the gill cover and cheek.

Looks like he's definitely beginning to transition into adult colors. That is pretty cool to see. With all the macro he's looking really healthy and fat.

 

[Chibils]

Michael -
None of your pictures are loading on Tapatalk from post #1546 onward. Except #1559, which did for some reason. Regardless, the one that loaded looks great!

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[Michael Hoaster]

Thanks, McPuff!

Zippy's doing well on the homegrown macro algae, plus he's joining in the feeding frenzy at feeding time.

 

[Michael Hoaster]

Thanks for letting me know, Chibils. I got a little greedy on the image size with the last bunch. I'll repost them at the recommended 600 pixel width.

 

[Michael Hoaster]

Can everyone see all ten pics in the above post, #1568?

 

[sam.basye]

I can now, same boat as Chibils.

Glad to see the Condy is better.

 

[Michael Hoaster]

Good! Thanks Sam.

This morning, some of my caulerpa went sexual. My water is a little cloudy as a result. I'm wondering how big a deal this is, in my tank. I would think the pods and filter feeders would be enjoying it. I'm tempted to do a water change, but I don't know if it's necessary. I guess I better do a little research…

 

[Michael Hoaster]

Well, I looked into it. Without sensitive corals, I doubt any harm will come from it.

I'm tempted to remove the caulerpa that turned white and do a water change. I'm also considering doing nothing. I'd like to see what happens next. Do conditions worsen? Do they self-correct?

If I understand the gist of what's happening, basically all the nutrients that were sucked up by the plant are dumped back into the water column-like an un-measured dosing event. So, I think I will suspend nitrate dosing for a few days, and observe.

For now, I'm going to do nothing, but observe. If conditions worsen, I'll take the above mentioned actions. If they improve, I'll relax and thank Mother Nature for taking care of business.

 

[nawilson89]

Well, I looked into it. Without sensitive corals, I doubt any harm will come from it.

I'm tempted to remove the caulerpa that turned white and do a water change. I'm also considering doing nothing. I'd like to see what happens next. Do conditions worsen? Do they self-correct?

If I understand the gist of what's happening, basically all the nutrients that were sucked up by the plant are dumped back into the water column-like an un-measured dosing event. So, I think I will suspend nitrate dosing for a few days, and observe.

For now, I'm going to do nothing, but observe. If conditions worsen, I'll take the above mentioned actions. If they improve, I'll relax and thank Mother Nature for taking care of business.

In February when I was down with the flu, I could on watch in horror as prolifera went sexual. The prolifera went white, the tank got cloudy. For a day I couldn't barely anything. After it cleared up, I lost 90 percent of prolifera, dragons breath and sargassum. The grape caulerpa took all the nutrients and exploded in growth.

Now I can see prolifera coming back. Shoots keep coming up.

Hope to see what happens for you. Maybe an explosion of growth somewhere else!

 

[Michael Hoaster]

Thanks for sharing your experience, nawilson89.

Looking at the tank now, the cloudiness is almost gone. I'm not running activated carbon or any mechanical filtration. This indicates to me that something is consuming the soup.

So far, I've seen nothing to indicate any stress on the system. Maybe the size of my tank, and the lack of sensitive organisms, like SPS corals, gives me more leeway in dealing with this kind of event. A large sexual event in a smaller tank would be a much more serious situation.

An explosion of growth somewhere else would be delightful! How about in the new codium and the old grasilaria hayi!

 

[nawilson89]

Thanks for sharing your experience, nawilson89.

Looking at the tank now, the cloudiness is almost gone. I'm not running activated carbon or any mechanical filtration. This indicates to me that something is consuming the soup.

So far, I've seen nothing to indicate any stress on the system. Maybe the size of my tank, and the lack of sensitive organisms, like SPS corals, gives me more leeway in dealing with this kind of event. A large sexual event in a smaller tank would be a much more serious situation.

An explosion of growth somewhere else would be delightful! How about in the new codium and the old grasilaria hayi!

I've been meaning to ask. Do you know why you lost the gracilaria? Since I have some now in my 29g I'm a bit anxious.

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[Michael Hoaster]

If you are referring the Grasilaria hayi, I haven't lost it, but it is reduced in size. I thought it may have been caused by a lowering of iodine levels, but I've since started dosing iodine, and I've not seen improvement. So I don't know. With the recent reduction in caulerpa biomass, I'm hoping there will be more nutrients to go around. I'm using a different iron supplement now, so maybe that's a factor. My best guess at this point is I'm missing a trace element that gets sucked up quickly. I'll keep playing with it.

 

[Chibils]

Yes, and they're beautiful!

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[Michael Hoaster]

Thanks, Chibils! I freaked when you said my pics weren't showing up. Especially since one of them is the best anemone shrimp pic I've ever taken! You can see right into its eyes!

Now, if I could just get one good pic of Mr Zippy!

 

[jraker]

How are the blennies doing? Do you even see them in a tank that large?

 

[Michael Hoaster]

The blennies are great! Their heads are visible at all times, which is good because their faces are priceless. Someone looking at my tank for the first time may not notice them. They do blend in. But knowing where all their homes are makes them easy to spot. I enjoy them immensely, even in the big tank. With a surplus of holes and real estate, I hope to provide them with a near-natural, low stress environment.