Caribbean Biotope Seagrass Tank

Gracilaria (or what I think it is) does attach...by itself. Tufts get stuck on rock or other places, spread holdfasts, and start growing...I had a plague of it at one point due to heavy feeding (there was a toby in the tank that I couldn't say no to).
 
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I had no idea how much I would enjoy these fish! I can watch them for hours. As they grow older and sexually mature, it's only going to get better! I've already seen some hints of spawning behavior. Oh yeah…
 
That's our weird cousin...
Gonna be making fish porn videos and posting them online before long.

Lol looking good in there!
 
The vertical school of gramma is very neat.

The red macro in that picture looks like Gracilaria Hayi. I grow this in a tumble culture. It's flattened leaves are stiff with calcium. Just line many Red Gracilaria species, in reduced lighting, the macro will take on a dark maroon color. In medium lighting, they will be bright red and in intense lighting these macros will have a yellow/orange color.

I attach G. Hayi with plastic tie wraps. Other macros reseed/attach themselves.
 
Thanks, Sam. I have attempted shooting video a few times. I've solved the reflection issue shooting at night. What I haven't solved is my shaky camera hand! I'm working on it. With any luck, I'll have something worthy of posting soon. It'd be easy enough just to park myself in front for a full tank shot, but of course I want do something a little more dynamic. I'll keep trying.

Thanks, Subsea. I like the gramma harem social structure too. I'm surprised I haven't seen it before. I'm sure it's been done. The key, I think, is that everyone has their own hole in the wall. If anyone gets tired of the party, they can just go home and chill. I highly recommend it for folks with larger tanks. I think it would be a disaster in a small tank though.

Yes, I think it's grasilaria hayi too. Definitely calcified. That one just started growing out of the fake root one day. Now it's my favorite red!
 
I'm finding more tidiness around the tank, not done by me. My tang handles all that now. Thanks, Buddy!

Can my tank grow enough macro algae to support this growing herbivore? At this point I'm not sure but it's a very interesting scenario. I think I can boost (plant) growth if needed, through dosing. The idea of supporting this fish on food grown right in the display is so cool!
 
I'm struggling keeping my tangs fed too. I'm up to 4 sheets of Nori a day for 12 herbivores.

Of course I'm growing fields of hair algae in my ATS and mounds of chaeto in my sump (along with Botryocladia now). The shrimp have competition now from crabs and starfish that have found their way to the refugium.

If you can control your macro growth rate, you could tune it in to the tang's consumption... balance is beautiful. Is it keeping away from the grasses?

I love the grammas, by the way. Social behavior looks amazing.
 
Question: If the tang is keeping your tank tidy now, while it's at this size, doesn't it mean that it'll proceed to wipe out the entire population of macroalgae and/or seagrass once it gets bigger unless you supplement feed?
 
That is the million dollar question. I suspect his grazing will eventually overtake plant growth. But there is a lot of caulerpa, and if I can accelerate growth through dosing, I may be able to facilitate a balance. We'll see!

To clarify, my tank is not tidy now-there are just a few tidier patches, so far. What's interesting to me is that the tang's tidying looks much better than the tidying that I do!

So, if I can reach an equilibrium, that's the ideal scenario. It is one of the goals I set out for this tank, to see if I could do it. It's definitely easier to dose than prune. Stay tuned…
 
Something I read in a book about sustainable farming, was that cows kept in a single pasture, tended to overeat their favorite foods (like clover), and leave foods they didn't like (say, dandelions) alone. Eventually, the unfavored foods prospered, with large populations of unfavored foods, and bare ground where the favored foods used to exist (but where now gone due to overgrazing). I'm not criticizing you, but it might be that the tang will favor the Gracilaria over the Caulerpa, only touching it once all the Gracilaria is gone.
 
I realize that ALL my macros are potential food for the tang. Of course they are! If he chooses to eat the gracilaria, I'm okay with that. Gracilaria was never a focus of this tank. It's just nice to have a few touches of red here and there. I have already removed a lot of it, but there are pieces scattered about. I think he'll leave the G. hayi alone since it is pretty calcified. The only problem I would have, would be him eating the seagrasses, which I doubt he'll do. But if he did, I would remove him, because the seagrasses are my pivotal species.

I know this tang/macro equilibrium thing is a long shot, but it is an ideal I'm shooting for. And it's worth a shot! I bet I'll be able to maintain an equilibrium for some time, say, 6 months, and then as he (and his appetite) gets bigger, he'll consume it at a faster rate than it can grow back.

After seeing that some of the macros have been pruned back a bit, I've resumed water column dosing to hasten its growth rate.
 
May want to keep a protected area to maintain a safe culture of each algae? Like a Noah's ark in case of tang overindulgence.
 
My Big 'Ol Low-Tech Aquarium

My Big 'Ol Low-Tech Aquarium

I wanted to talk a little about my setup. It's a bit unusual for its minimalism and low-techness. 180 gallons, with no sump and no skimmer, no controller and very few gizmos. I'm not saying this is the way to go, but it is one way to go, and it seems to work pretty well for what I'm doing. If you love your skimmer and apex and reactors and other gizmos, this is not the setup for you. I'm not sure it would be adequate for the extreme control required for SPS corals. But if you'd like to return to the basics of aquaristry, the simplicity is sublime.

So what DO I have? I have a Reefflow Dart Gold main pump on a closed loop and a Tunze Classic powerhead in the fake mangrove root. These take care of water movement. For lighting, I have one 400 watt metal halide bulb in a spider light reflector. I also have a LED moonlight. These are plugged into simple appliance timers, for consistent on/off times. I have a 300 watt heater and a thermometer. I realize that MH lighting is out of vogue, with the welcome advancement of LED lighting, but it is simple. Pick a kelvin rating and wattage and you're done-with one bulb. This gives you a single point light source (like the sun) for a very natural look.

The heart of my setup would have to be my canister filter, or as I like to call it, my multi-gizmo. I've made one modification-I run CO2 through it, by simply plumbing airline tubing into the intake tube. It has a section for sponge filtration, which I have removed, and 3 compartments for various media. These compartments are the key. Right now, I've got aragonite in one, for a basic calcium reactor. It's probably not adequate for a stony coral reef tank, but I do have plenty of coralline algae and the calcified macro, gracilaria hayi does well. In another, I have bio pellets, to generate additional bacteria for filter feeders. In the last I have some basic, high surface area biomedia. This I use to supplement nitrate.

The beauty of the canister filter is all the media options, and the flexibility that gives you. You can run GFO or carbon or whatever you need-almost like having 3 reactors in one. And each one can change with an easy media change. You can see how this versatile device keeps my setup so simple!

And that's it. Everything else is Mother Nature's job.

This not a rejection of technology, but a minimization of it, relying instead on the understanding of natural processes. The better we understand what nature wants to do, the easier (and simpler) our task, to establish a healthy micro ecosystem.
 
very true. if nature can do the job with the greatest economy, then let it.

if I could simplify and get the results I want, I would do it in a heartbeat.

Motivational-Einstein-Quotes.jpg

Occam’s razor
 
Hello Michael,

in my opinion, low-tech is definitely not the way you're running your tank, cause Nature is high-tech. ;)
Could you please describe your canister filter with more details?
Which brand do you run?
How many gallons per hour?
This mod with the Co2 injection sounds great, where exactly do you keep the aragonite, up or down in the canister?
Did you notice a valuable change with the biopellets?

thanks and sorry again for my poor english... :facepalm:
 
Piquesegue, it's basically a sealed plastic box with a pump, moving water through 3 baskets of whatever media you choose. I have a Fluval. I have no idea who makes the best one. I forget the gallons per hour, but, in my setup that's not important. I don't use it for water circulation, though it does move a little water. I don't think it matters which basket you put the aragonite or any other media in. I have not noticed any valuable changes using the biopellets yet. I haven't had them in for very long. The danger with them, and other carbon dosing methods, is a higher potential for bacterial blooms and cyanobacteria. My hope is that it will spur growth of filter feeders like sponges, and maybe even allow me to keep a scallop or two someday.
 
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