Dawn's seahorse garden!

[Chasmodes]

Kevin, when you say backround, do you mean the mural? I wished I could do that over as I would skip the seahorse and just do shadowy silhouettes of sea grasses and coral with only the faintest hint of a seahorse and fish.

Now with such a natural aquascape the mural looks out of place to me. Thank you for the compliment though.

Yes, I was referring to the mural. I agree about skipping the seahorse because you have real ones to focus on. But I like the depth that the rest of the mural creates. It reminds me of the shadow box idea that some on RC created a while back. I am considering doing something similar in my build. My issue issue is that for my tank, I wouldn't use blue, because the biotope would be more realistic with a greenish amber color, and that isn't easy to find in plexiglass, or is very expensive.

 

[vlangel]

New tree sponge by Dawn Gilson, on Flickr

My new tree sponge in the seahorse tank.

 

[Michael Hoaster]

Very nice! I love sponges. Tank looks good too. Such a cool variety of colors and textures, pairing plants with invertebrates! The tree sponge is a nice addition.

 

[taricha]

It took me a good long while with many failures to get my orange tree sponge to open and feed consistently and not degrade.
If your sponge stays happy I'd love to compare notes and see what our methods have in common.

 

[vlangel]

Very nice! I love sponges. Tank looks good too. Such a cool variety of colors and textures, pairing plants with invertebrates! The tree sponge is a nice addition.

Thanks Michael. I like having a combination of easy to keep coral and macro algaes because, well, they are easy! LOL The red macro algaes and now the tree sponge give that pop of color which is nice.

 

[vlangel]

It took me a good long while with many failures to get my orange tree sponge to open and feed consistently and not degrade.
If your sponge stays happy I'd love to compare notes and see what our methods have in common.

This is my first real attempt so I don't know how it will go. I don't feed my seahorse tank with anything extra because of the danger of fueling bacteria which can endanger my herd. The water column does have a lot of protein and fat from seahorse wastes however. I guess I will see if thats enough to keep the tree sponge thriving. Also the tank is full of copepods.

 

[Chasmodes]

Great tank picture Dawn, and I love the new sponge. I hope that it thrives for you as well.

 

[vlangel]

Great tank picture Dawn, and I love the new sponge. I hope that it thrives for you as well.

Me too. I guess time will tell.

 

[taricha]

This is my first real attempt so I don't know how it will go. I don't feed my seahorse tank with anything extra because of the danger of fueling bacteria which can endanger my herd. The water column does have a lot of protein and fat from seahorse wastes however. I guess I will see if thats enough to keep the tree sponge thriving. Also the tank is full of copepods.

Again, I don't know how much of my anecdotal observations will hold for others, but...
I found that silica is actually pretty necessary. My orange tree sponge did not stay open consistently until I kept it above 0.5 ppm SiO2 - now I aim for almost 2ppm SiO2.
The sponge consumes a lot of silica, on days when the sponge has been open, my silica can drop by over half a ppm, on days when the sponge is closed, the silica consumption is much less (like 1/3 of that).
I found a paper that measured silica consumption in these family of sponges to see if i was crazy, and no. In the lab they measured Si consumption even larger than what I've seen.
(I use brightwell Spongexcel, and Hanna Low Range Si meter)

 

[Subsea]

Again, I don't know how much of my anecdotal observations will hold for others, but...
I found that silica is actually pretty necessary. My orange tree sponge did not stay open consistently until I kept it above 0.5 ppm SiO2 - now I aim for almost 2ppm SiO2.
The sponge consumes a lot of silica, on days when the sponge has been open, my silica can drop by over half a ppm, on days when the sponge is closed, the silica consumption is much less (like 1/3 of that).
I found a paper that measured silica consumption in these family of sponges to see if i was crazy, and no. In the lab they measured Si consumption even larger than what I've seen.
(I use brightwell Spongexcel, and Hanna Low Range Si meter)

Sponge filtration volumes are phenomenal at 100GPHr with a small sponge. Thanks for the tip on the Spongexcel, I just ordered some.

 

[vlangel]

Again, I don't know how much of my anecdotal observations will hold for others, but...
I found that silica is actually pretty necessary. My orange tree sponge did not stay open consistently until I kept it above 0.5 ppm SiO2 - now I aim for almost 2ppm SiO2.
The sponge consumes a lot of silica, on days when the sponge has been open, my silica can drop by over half a ppm, on days when the sponge is closed, the silica consumption is much less (like 1/3 of that).
I found a paper that measured silica consumption in these family of sponges to see if i was crazy, and no. In the lab they measured Si consumption even larger than what I've seen.
(I use brightwell Spongexcel, and Hanna Low Range Si meter)

Yes, thank you. I think I will also order some.

 

[Subsea]

This is my first real attempt so I don't know how it will go. I don't feed my seahorse tank with anything extra because of the danger of fueling bacteria which can endanger my herd. The water column does have a lot of protein and fat from seahorse wastes however. I guess I will see if thats enough to keep the tree sponge thriving. Also the tank is full of copepods.

On another thread, when you discussed using cryptic sponges to help with nutrient load from ponies, I did not grasp sufficiently your situation. For certain with more than 50K species of sponges, they eat differrent things. Cryptic sponges eat DOC. GAC removes DOC. GAC takes up zero space and requires no light, At one point you mentioned using a cryptic tank as a remote refugium. You also mentioned having some cyno, but not wanting to use GFO to strip out phosphate. Without knowing more, I feel that either a macro refugium or an ATS would serve you best. As I already mentioned in another thread, to combat cyno, I feed nitrogen to the tank. Macro nitrate/Phosphate Ratio is 30/1. Understand this. When you add nitrogen (I use ammonia in my large systems) both coral and macro will compete for it.

Do you have room to set up a display macro refugium that circulates water thru both?

PSS: Your display tank macro is gorgeous. How fast does that macro grow? That would be a good indicator as to if a remote macro refugium would work in your system. Imagine that for nutrient export, you sell some of that “fire engine” red macro that you got.

I got “Red Macro Envy”.

 

[vlangel]

On another thread, when you discussed using cryptic sponges to help with nutrient load from ponies, I did not grasp sufficiently your situation. For certain with more than 50K species of sponges, they eat differrent things. Cryptic sponges eat DOC. GAC removes DOC. GAC takes up zero space and requires no light, At one point you mentioned using a cryptic tank as a remote refugium. You also mentioned having some cyno, but not wanting to use GFO to strip out phosphate. Without knowing more, I feel that either a macro refugium or an ATS would serve you best. As I already mentioned in another thread, to combat cyno, I feed nitrogen to the tank. Macro nitrate/Phosphate Ratio is 30/1. Understand this. When you add nitrogen (I use ammonia in my large systems) both coral and macro will compete for it.

Do you have room to set up a display macro refugium that circulates water thru both?

PSS: Your display tank macro is gorgeous. How fast does that macro grow? That would be a good indicator as to if a remote macro refugium would work in your system. Imagine that for nutrient export, you sell some of that "œfire engine" red macro that you got.

I got "œRed Macro Envy".

Sump Sept 2017 by Dawn Gilson, on Flickr
This is my sump which does contain a middle compartment for a fuge. This was a diy sump and I know that its no beauty but it does work pretty well. I am constantly harvesting macro algae from the sump, probably fistfuls every 3 weeks. The caulerpa usually grows faster in the sump and the red grows faster in the display tank.

 

[Michael Hoaster]

Slick setup Dawn! Thanks for sharing.

 

[vlangel]

Both resin containers looked like the one in the foreground! Do you think they badly needed changed? (She hangs her head in shame) by Dawn Gilson, on Flickr
Ok, not this aquarist's proudest moment. I tested my nitrates and phosphates to see if the sand has caused them to go up and wondering if that is the reason for the diatoms or cyano (whatever is making my sand ugly). Anyway they were both up, nitrates were 10 - 20ppm and phosphates were 1 - .5ppm. I did a big clean plus Xtra big water changes but to no avail. Everything stayed the same. Then I remembered (or actually could NOT remember when last I changes everything in my RO/DI.) Uhhg, I think I know why the nitrates and phosphates are up LOL! I have change the resin and I need to order the other cartridges. At least phosphates should come down.

 

[Chasmodes]

I think that your tank is amazing. Looks like you're seeking perfection, kudos to that! I hope that gets your sand bed in a condition that you wish. Sounds logical to me.

 

[vlangel]

So far the dosing nualgi hasn't done anything for the sandbed but the sponges look good. In fact I have a very small tree sponge that wasn't dead but wasn't thriving. It has even perked up!

To fix the sandbed I changed the flow pattern again. I am blasting the floor again. Of course that created a sand-storm but when it seemed that the floor had an area that was cleared then I put rocks and coral to frame the cleared area.

 

[vlangel]

So here is the new scape with the new flow pattern.
2018-06-15_07-57-00 by Dawn Gilson, on Flickr

I am thinking about placing an order from KPAquatics for a mated pair of neon gobies, a mated pair of rusty gobies and a blenny or two, when the weather is not so hot. I may get some ricordia while I am at it.

 

[Maggie321]

I have an off topic question... Where did you buy your glass lid for your bowfront? I have been having a difficult time finding the proper fitting lid for mine. I have the same bowfront. Also, when my larger tank gets up and running stably, I will be transferring my small reef in the bowfront to the large tank. I plan on attempting seahorses and pipefish in the bowfront with macroalgae. So following along for the info. Thanks!
I should be more specific, the bowfront in the 2nd post on the right side of the photo on the wooden stand.

Maggie

 

[vlangel]

I have an off topic question... Where did you buy your glass lid for your bowfront? I have been having a difficult time finding the proper fitting lid for mine. I have the same bowfront. Also, when my larger tank gets up and running stably, I will be transferring my small reef in the bowfront to the large tank. I plan on attempting seahorses and pipefish in the bowfront with macroalgae. So following along for the info. Thanks!
I should be more specific, the bowfront in the 2nd post on the right side of the photo on the wooden stand.

Maggie

Hi Maggie, the glass lid was at the lfs where I bought the tank, stand and glass top as a combo.

I loved my bowfront but not as a seahorse tank. The high nutrients in a seahorse tank made a lot of algae on the front glass and it was a pain to clean. That was one of the reasons I upgraded to the 56 gallon column.