My turtle grass bed needs....?

[xcreonx]

I have a nice size (half of my 90gallon tank) bed of turtle grass in my display.

It's been doing well under a 250w 10k DE halide/ 2x54watt T5 actinics... I don't add anything to the tank as far as supplements. except kalk, phyto for the corals and fish food of course

I have a deep sand bed (live gulf sand) for the grass half of the tank.

Any supplements i should be adding? I hear Iron is good. Anything else?

I will have some photos soon.

 

[xcreonx]

A shot of the grass. Lots of epiphytes growing on it

<img src= "http://www.goodmorningheartache.com/tank/grass.jpg">

 

[billsreef]

If your feeding the tank heavily, that will do for the bulk nutrients such as Nitrogen and Phosphorous. I find that iron supplementation is indeed very beneficial to growing sea grasses. If the sand bed isn't rich in organics, than using fertilizer tablets like the ones used for FW plant tanks can be usefull to help get the grass established.

 

[xcreonx]

Is there a better brand of fertilizer tablets to use? some to avoid all together?

 

[xcreonx]

also, are my lights too much or possibly too little? 250w DE and 2x 54w T5s.

 

[Meisen]

If anything, you should err on the overkill side as far as light goes. Have you ever snorkeled the grass beds? Serious amount of light!!!! I dont think you could overdo it if you tried. I have some turtle grass going in my reef as well and its not really growing much under 175s....could be the iron issue though I am a little reluctant to put fertilizer in my reef just yet!!!! Also, the higher intensity light keeps coraline from growing on the grass surface (stems that are not in direct light get covered in my tank).

 

[beaslbob]

I say that whatever you are doing must be working. Looks like a pretty good grass bed to me.

 

[kmk2307]

xcreonx,

Do you have more pictures you could share?

Thanks!
Kevin

 

[xcreonx]

i will take some tonight

 

[Cody Ray]

I have a couple of question, does a skimmer compete with turtle grass for nutrients? And how large of a tank do you need to keep turtle. Lastly, how deep does the sand need to be? Sry for changing the subject xcreonx.

 

[billsreef]

Turtle grass needs a fairly deep sand bed, at least 4 inches or more. Preferably nice old and organic rich Add to this, the grass grows a good 6 inch or longer blade and you want probably at least a 20 gallon tank as a minimum tank size. Naturally the skimmer will be removing some nutrients, but those can be added back in and usually are in the form of feeding the fish

 

[Cody Ray]

Cool, thnx.

 

[mellen]

Laterite in little mesh bags (can make with new knee-hi hoisery) tucked under sand bed in a few places will probably be o.k. It's standard for ongoing low infusion of usable form of iron for FW plants. I've used it in very small (2-3 tbsp) sacs near marine plants for years with good results. Lasts a long time, and sacs can be gently prised away from roots/holdfasts to change out. Plants will start losing some intense green when laterite has depleted. Less is best, as seawater is very efficient in precipitating the iron in laterite compared to FW.