Caribbean Biotope Seagrass Tank

GCE is simply the best. I do wish they offered their live sand as separate item, so tweaking orders wouldn't be necessary. I think it helps to keep it simple so it's not a PITA for them. Just telling them what to leave off, and letting them sub whatever they want, seemed to work well.

I look forward to following your progress, BonesCJ! What did you decide on for lighting?
 
Probably going to go withe Orbit Marine Pro LED light, it looks like it will server its purpose and its about half the price of two Kessil units
 
I have zero experience with LED lighting, so I'm no help. Just make sure it is adequate for your tank's depth. So often it happens that we try to save a buck, but end up spending more, because we have to compensate for the inadequacies of a cheaper choice. I'm as cheap as they come, so research is very important. Luckily, with the internet, we have access to tons of good info to help guide us. Good luck!
 
How are all the weeds doing Michael?? - did you like my 4/20 pot reference for you Colorado folk? Haha

Find any potential cool new fish??

I had the older orbit LED fixture and it's not enough to sustain high light critters. The new pro fixture is better, but I wouldn't use it to try and light anything more than a bubble tip at 15-20". All really depends on tank size and what you plan to stock it with. For a little more, you can get one of the numerous Chinese "black box" fixtures that are way brighter and penetrate much better.
 
The weeds are doing well, thanks Sam! It's funny, I didn't catch the reference until you pointed it out. Colorado is a nice place to be!

The seagrasses seem to be recovering. It's not as fast as I'd like, but is it ever?

Not a lot to report for potential new fish. Lately, I've been leaning towards more small fish, and maybe no big personality fish at all. After watching the tiny molly fry explore my big tank, I'm more convinced. Without a big 'attention hog', I'm more able to enjoy my tank as more of an ecosystem, and less of a 'stage' for Mister Personality.

Having said that…If my condylactis doesn't make it, that will open up the door to try a Caribbean butterfly fish or two. Right now, I'm looking at the smallest fish first, to get them in before the more boisterous ones.

Good info on the lighting!
 
Yes, Chasmodes, I think I remember seeing ulva in one of your videos. It's a freaky seaweed, looking more like wadded up plastic wrap than a plant. Great nutrient uptake and loved by all herbivores. It moves great in the current too, which is nice and mesmerizing.
 
I know you are thinking about not having any big "show fish" and possibly keeping lots of little fish, but...
Have you thought about some sort of Caribbean angler?
They more or less stay in one spot and can constantly feed on Molly fry. Plus they're neat fish.
The only downside is it could eat a Gramma or Blenny.
 
I was just looking at a sargassum angler! No doubt he'd be in hog heaven with the molly fry. I'll look into it. My main concern would be that they grow to be big enough to threaten the 'paid for' fish. There are some Caribbean file fish that might work as well. The cool thing about anglers and files is that they are more camouflaged and low key, compared to say, a tang. So they wouldn't hog the show so much.
 
Today I removed the three adult mollies from the display. That leaves me with around twenty fry. The adults were just getting a bit large, and I want to add the barnacle blennies soon.

I did some more plant placement, for what it's worth. I don't think I've ever gotten a plant to attach where I placed it. I bumped up the CO2 rate to see if I can get things to grow faster. It's been three weeks since I buried some plant tabs. I'm not seeing the grasses respond yet, but I did move a lot of them around, so they probably need more time to settle in.
 
New pics!


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The whole shebang.


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I got most of the reds placed.


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Views from the right end.


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The seagrasses are slowly coming around.
 
The tank's coming along pretty well I think. Unfortunately, something went wrong, and four out of five blennies died in QT. I don't know what happened. My best guess is that they were stung by some larger aiptasias. So now I'm breaking down the QT tank to rid it of all aiptasias, before I try to add anything else.
 
Sorry to hear about your blennies, condolences. I'd rank aiptasias right up there with ticks and mosquitos in the top ten types of critters that need to go extinct. I think with regard to my oyster reef concept, I don't have to worry about aiptasias because they don't do well at our latitude, so none to collect as hitchhikers. I still need to worry about ticks and mosquitos :hmm4:
 
Thanks Chasmodes. I had never thought of aiptasias as dangerous to fish. So, when I moved my live rocks into QT, it was to keep the life on them alive, while the display was in hypo. I knew there were aiptasias, but I didn't know of a danger from them. Even when I googled it, I found very little info on their possible danger to fish. And, of course, I don't know for sure that they were the culprit.

I've had a few pop up in the display too. I tried the hot water trick without success. So I decided to try ammonia, since I was already dosing it in small amounts, for the plants. It seems to be working, but I would not recommend anyone else use ammonia, because of the danger of ammonia poisoning. I'm only able to get away with it because of my large tank volume and large plant bio mass. Seagrasses, and most plants, prefer ammonia as their nitrogen source, but in the confines of aquariums it's dangerous, so nitrate is a safer nitrogen source. The best, safest way to give plants ammonia, is to keep a high number of fish. They give off small 'doses' continuously and much more safely.

So there's another big difference between planted tanks and reefs. A high fish load in a reef tank, puts a strain on the system. In a planted tank, a high fish load actually benefits the system.
 
So there's another big difference between planted tanks and reefs. A high fish load in a reef tank, puts a strain on the system. In a planted tank, a high fish load actually benefits the system.

I think that is going to be my strategy in my tank too. I want a high fish bioload, and also the plants (macros and grasses) make the tank so much more realistic, especially my biotope that is very similar to what you're doing.

Regarding my tank, I've decided on all of my equipment and will be ordering very soon, should have everything by mid May. That means that I better get the FW tank done fast, so I'll be working on that this weekend.

For my lighting, I'm going LED. The AquaIllumination Hydra 52 HD. My tank is only 18" deep, so I think that this will work fine. At first I was going to go cheap, but hey, this is one piece of equipment that I can always move to a reef later if I build one, so I'm going for something nice. Also, it supposedly can cover a 36"x36" area. That might be the biggest difference, you with MH and me with the LED. My tank will be temperate, so keeping heat out of it as much as possible is a must (since I'm not doing a chiller).

If it wasn't the aiptasias that killed your fish, it's possible that just the stress of collecting/shipping etc. could have been a problem, or something like that. Stuff happens. Are you going to get more of them?
 
Page 100! Triple digits, Baby! Ok I'm done.

I doubt my plants will really take off until I get more fish in there. That's how it happened when the tank was new. I love that about planted tanks.

How's the FW tank progressing? Post a link to the thread? Your rock wall puts us all to shame!

I'm so glad to hear you've decided on your equipment. LEDs sound like the right choice. And it totally makes sense to invest in high quality stuff. It often SAVES you money! I'm not anti-LED. I just already had the MH setup, that I knew was adequate for my tank's 30" depth.

I doubt shipping stress, since I've had the blennies for a month. I really don't know what killed them. I have one, tiny guy left. I would like to get more, but I'm feeling a bit gun-shy right now.
 
Page 100! Triple digits, Baby! Ok I'm done.

Noooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :facepalm: :D

Well hang in there... I think that your plans are solid, but just had a run of bad luck for sure.

I'll try and post an update on my FW tank soon. I'm working on the roots now, and the latest update is kinda ugly, LOL. But, here's a picture of the rock work, still needs to be painted and installed into the tank:

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There certainly were some complicating factors associated with treating my display with hypo salinity. So yeah, I had some bad, as well as good luck with it. I think it'll all work out.

The ecosystem is bouncing back. I've got lots of busy pods now. I'm hoping I got some spaghetti worms in the last live sand shipment, and as soon as they become available, I'll add some tiny brittle stars. I'd probably have more fish if KP aquatics had them in stock, but it's a waiting game. The same goes for plants - there just isn't a great selection right now. From my point of view, those collectors don't go out collecting nearly enough! It seems to me, they'd all make a lot more money if they kept their inventories up.

Chasmodes, your wall is awesome. The roots giving you trouble? You're using PVC pipe, right? I have seen attempts with PVC. To me they didn't work because pipe is straight, nature is not. I know that most have doubts about the technique I used, but 2+ years later, my roots are still working perfectly. Also, consider using real wood. I gathered driftwood from Boulder Creek. It took quite awhile to get it water logged enough to sink, but they worked well in my FW planted tank.
 
Today I broke down, cleaned up, and got the QT running again.

As I was netting up the muck on the bottom I discovered a spaghetti worm, then another and another! Soon, I was in full obsession mode and carefully went through ALL the muck. I spent hours painstakingly extricating gooey worms! I didn't count but I'd guess I moved around forty worms to the display. I also found a few sponge fragments, which were mostly red tree sponge and a little of the white, encrusting sponge I had before. However, I also found a couple of purple beauties! Too small to call right now, but they look really good. I'm super stoked to score these finds, right in my QT!

I added the remaining barnacle blenny to the display. I think he's in or under the barnacles. He's insanely tiny!

Big ecosystem addition with those worms today! Woo! Hoo! I'm a weirdo…
 
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