Recreating the Sargassum Sea?

[Alavaster]

Hi everyone, I'm Alavaster! I'm pretty new to the Ref central community, But I've been in the addiction for a while now.

Living on the gulf, I've always been fascinated with the huge clumps of Sargassum sea weed that wash ashore every summer. These drifting habitats host all sorts of fascinating crustacean, mollusks, and fish that travel hundreds of miles with the currents. My question is, would it be possible to recreate that specific habitat.
Through physical collection and examination I have found trigger fish, sargassum fish, spanish dancers, at least 10 species of shrimp, more varieties of snails and crabs than I can count, and even the occasional pipefish, or nudibranch! The macro algae floats along and a huge ecosystem thrives just below, and inside of it.
I would consider collection for stocking such a tank. But I only consider collection, because every year I am sad to see all the Sargassum and life aboard its yellow leaves wash up and die in droves. . So I have the opportunity to find specimens just before they wash ashore. (also local laws and regulations would need to be checked and followed before any permanent collection)What would be the best method of keeping such a macro in a small dedicated display aquarium?
Obviously the main things to consider would be
>Lighting (focused more on growing macro Algae rather than coral)
>Flow (species collected will have traveled on ocean currents just fine)
>Containment of sargassum (prevention of system clogging from Sargassum)
>Species desired (as many are aggressive)
> Filtration
> Size/ depth of tank

up until now I have considered trying a thin sand bed with various benthic species (gobies, brittle stars, conch) and then a top layer of Sargassum on the surface with Sargassum host species. creating a full range of life that would be found here in the Caribbean.

It has been suggested to me to set up a kriesel tank. Something without corners to trap the Saragassum and it's critters. With filter returns placed to promote flow and keep the Sargassum in the middle.

Has anyone had succes keeping and growing sargassum? Any information or advice would be awesome. I want to know if anyone else is as fascinated with this stuff as I am. :rollface:

 

[gnu]

I think your idea sounds amazing, it's always cool to see different tank styles. Sargassum requires pretty bright lights, so metal halides, or good LEDs would probably be your best bet. Are you opposed to anchoring it? If so, you could just protect the powerheads/overflow like you would for a seahorse tank (if a kreisel style tank is hard to come by).

 

[Alavaster]

Thanks GNU!
Several people have reported success with halides, and im sure something like Radions or Kessil's would be plenty strong enough LEDs. I would definantly consider anchoring it.
I'm excited to test this system, but unfortunately it wont be anytime soon. College has demanded a hiatus from any large systems, but a nano is not out of the question!

 

[Jackwkahn]

super interested in trying this as well

 

[Ptyochromis]

You could do a circular tank with a central drain pipe, with a large mesh drain cover that gives a wide birth. That way you could get some natural plant accumulation on the surface without blocking your drain.

I did have a design for a wave maker that used a central drain pipe. It was a hollow cylinder with a led bottom that slid up and down the drain pipe. It was connected to a few air pumps, it filled with air and rose to the top; at the top it released the air and sunk to the bottom @ the bottom flaps closed and it filled with air. Never got it to move fast enough to be that effective for coral but it could work for your application.

 

[MinuteJohn]

I think that this could be accomplished with a pretty simple setup. Since Sargasso floats there is no need for a kreisel, that tank is designed to keep stuff off the bottom and suspended(moot point since the algae floats). A rectangular tank with a wavemaker producing a small standing wave I think would produce the most realistic environment. The hardest part would be keeping the algae and critters out of the overflow. Most overflows have the drain at the top, so I would make a false wall one side of the tank and drill holes towards the bottom for the water to flow into. Then the water can go through a standard overflow into the sump area. Keep the flow through the sump real low and I don't think you'd have a problem.

I've never tried any of this mind you, but that's how I'd go about it. I enjoyed shaking out sargassum at the beach as a kid. We'd find pipefish, triggers, shrimp, crabs and occasionally the holy grail, a sargassum fish. Good luck if you decide to try it.

 

[michael_cb_125]

A very neat idea, but one that needs quite a bit of research.
Sargassum is a macro algae that requires TONS of light to survive, and requires adequate flow rates not to be covered in micro algae and sediment.

I would not recommend led lighting for this application, you are going to need lighting in the 6500 Kelvin range to get good growth from the sargassum. Since this algae floats at the waters surface it is receiving all of the red spectrum that water cuts out at depth.
I would look into either 250w or 400w halides. If you stock the tank with species that are commonly found in sargassum mats they should be able to handle higher water temps as well so a chiller should not be needed. I would recommend running the tank around 85

Good luck and keep is posted, I would love to see this pan out.

~Michael

 

[velvetelvis]

I've never tried any of this mind you, but that's how I'd go about it. I enjoyed shaking out sargassum at the beach as a kid. We'd find pipefish, triggers, shrimp, crabs and occasionally the holy grail, a sargassum fish. Good luck if you decide to try it.

My father found a sargassum fish exactly that way when I was a kid. Neat little booger, but he ate everything in our tank. He'd about quintupled in size by the time we released him.

 

[Alavaster]

A rectangular tank with a wavemaker producing a small standing wave I think would produce the most realistic environment. The hardest part would be keeping the algae and critters out of the overflow. Most overflows have the drain at the top, so I would make a false wall one side of the tank and drill holes towards the bottom for the water to flow into. Then the water can go through a standard overflow into the sump area. Keep the flow through the sump real low and I don't think you'd have a problem.

I've never tried any of this mind you, but that's how I'd go about it. I enjoyed shaking out sargassum at the beach as a kid. We'd find pipefish, triggers, shrimp, crabs and occasionally the holy grail, a sargassum fish. Good luck if you decide to try it.

I agree velvetelvis, the sargassum fish are super cool!

The false wall is a great idea! Ive been trying to wrap my head around keeping the overflow clear of all the sargassum and little critters afloat in it. But thats such a simple solution I feel dumb haha, thanks MinuteJohn!

I'm away from home at the moment, but in a couple weeks when I get back i'll go sift through some seaweed for sargassum oddities and post pics. Thanks everyone for the feed back. :spin1:

 

[Plasmodium]

Ive been growing sargassum for roughly 10 months now. It grows like crazy under 150 watt 14k MH for me. I got it as a hitch hiker on some live rock. Mine grows from a horizontal holdfasts on the rock then sends vertical branches with leaves. It prunes its self occasionally breaking off. The 2 species found in the Gulf of Mexico dont form the holdfasts. Im not exactly sure what species im growing tbh.

 

[Alavaster]

Thats awesome Plasmodium! And great to know you get excellent growth under 150 Watts.

 

[Plasmodium]

Here's a quick shot of it growing in my tank:

 

[alexander_ktn]

Looks very cool!

 

[Ptyochromis]

Nice. What are those round bits on it?

 

[alexander_ktn]

Those should be the gas-filled bladders that help the plant to float.

 

[Alavaster]

beautiful growth Plasmodium! It's so strange to see it growing upright like a regular plant/algae. P.S. your snowflake clown and rose tip are awesome!

 

[Plasmodium]

beautiful growth Plasmodium! It's so strange to see it growing upright like a regular plant/algae. P.S. your snowflake clown and rose tip are awesome!

Thanks for the complement. The picture i posted is actually kinda old. Heres a few pics of the setup currently.

 

[alexander_ktn]

Very awesome!

 

[Alavaster]

I love the mixture of gorgonians with your mangroves and macro! Is that a green corris wrasse I spy as well?

 

[Plasmodium]

I love the mixture of gorgonians with your mangroves and macro! Is that a green corris wrasse I spy as well?

Yes that is a green, i also have a yellow in there to. Sorry if i hijacked the thread with my tank, lets get back to Alavasters original post. I dont think you would need anything special like a false wall. I have some that floats and all its held in place with the mangroves. You could very easily use some clear acrylic rods as holders. I think you might have a problem acclimating harvested sargassum to tank conditions. There is a lot of commensal organisms, micro pests, etc that you really dont want in your tank. My initial sargassum grew from a few pieces of live rock i got from premium aquatics.