Recreating the Sargassum Sea?

[Alavaster]

not a problem Plasmodium, I easily get distracted by all the cool things in this hobby. As for flow several posts have suggested a wave box system. This would most likely be a smaller system within the 20 to 50 gallon range. Any specific suggestions or specs for the power heads/wave boxes? I'm sure with some digging the I can find one on the DIY forum as well.
The acclamation of so many inverts is definantly a challenge but with a devoted tank I wont really mind what I bring into the system. (within reason of course. and In addition I will be carefully going through each piece of sargassum for what I want to stock and what I want to remove) I feel like with such a large variety of life it will be a learning curve stocking the tank. A process of finding what looks interesting and then observing it within the aquarium to determine its aggression and diet. (be it tank mates or a supplemented diet.) compatible specimens would be a must for the long term.

 

[Jackwkahn]

Caught me a sargassum fish yesterday (2 actually, but the bigger already ate the smaller one, along with two baby filefish). I would like to grow some algae for him but not at the expense of metal halides. Any suggestions?

 

[Alavaster]

That's awesome Jackwkahn! Sorry he devoured his tank mates though. . Speaking from several peoples experience it's pretty demanding when it comes to light. So if you dont want to break the bank for halides, strong LED's or quite a few T5's aught to do it. although good LEd's will be expensive up front as well. how big of a tank is he in? and how deep is it?

 

[Jackwkahn]

hes in a 2.5 mangrove tank with a piece of sargassum atm because I coudn't put him in my main 40 breeder reef. What would you say is the minimum tank size for these guys?

 

[Jackwkahn]

heres some pics of the sargassum fish in his temporary home in my mangrove pico
<a href="http://s1075.photobucket.com/user/jackwkahn/media/null_zpsb7fb3442.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1075.photobucket.com/albums/w426/jackwkahn/null_zpsb7fb3442.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo null_zpsb7fb3442.jpg"/></a>
<a href="http://s1075.photobucket.com/user/jackwkahn/media/null_zpsed6da06d.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1075.photobucket.com/albums/w426/jackwkahn/null_zpsed6da06d.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo null_zpsed6da06d.jpg"/></a>
<a href="http://s1075.photobucket.com/user/jackwkahn/media/null_zps1da38248.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1075.photobucket.com/albums/w426/jackwkahn/null_zps1da38248.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo null_zps1da38248.jpg"/></a>

 

[Alavaster]

How cool, I love the coloration and the big spot on his side. From what I understand they can grow to a mature size of 6"! and need around 30 gallons with macro to hide in. He may eat his tank mates but he is reef safe! so thats a plus.

hopefully here in the next couple weeks the sargassum will start washing ashore, it's been an off year and i havent seen any yet. but as soon as it shows up ill be sure to update with all my findings!

 

[Jackwkahn]

How cool, I love the coloration and the big spot on his side. From what I understand they can grow to a mature size of 6"! and need around 30 gallons with macro to hide in. He may eat his tank mates but he is reef safe! so thats a plus.

hopefully here in the next couple weeks the sargassum will start washing ashore, it's been an off year and i havent seen any yet. but as soon as it shows up ill be sure to update with all my findings!

cool! cant wait for it to start full swing

 

[Alavaster]

So after about two hours of perfect weather and crystal clear waters i ended up with a bucket of some pretty awesome stuff. In order, Some large orange shrimp, A small decorator crab, a baby blue crab, some interesting little fish, and a baby trigger fish.

 

[Alavaster]

Hooray Update!

Hooray Update!

Saving the best for last, I found two good sized pipefish. One about 4 inches long and the other hiding in the sargassum about 2 inches. And sense this is a macro board I have some nice colse ups of the Sargassum. (Which comes in quite a few different colors)

 

[wii64brawl]

Looks good so far!

 

[alexander_ktn]

Really awesome animals! I hope they'll thrive.

Wish I could just go out and collect my livestock...

Edit: the trigger looks more like a filefish to me, but I might be wrong...

 

[wii64brawl]

Really awesome animals! I hope they'll thrive.

Wish I could just go out and collect my livestock...

Edit: the trigger looks more like a filefish to me, but I might be wrong...

+1. I was thinking that too.

 

[burnah]

very nice catch! i would also say filefish... looking forward to seeing what will come out of this!

 

[Alavaster]

Woops that was my bad, yeah it's absolutely a file fish. I could not believe how small he was. about the size of my pinky nail.
(I'm not sure why I labeled it a trigger)
Unfortunately I dont have a tank up and running at the moment for anything I found, but hey they're happy back in the ocean.

 

[RadReefer]

I had a piece of sargassum about 8 months ago. Now I have a tank full of it. Prune all the time, it grows everywhere, even I the backs of snails. I obtained it from a Florida dealer in the fall. I'm from RI and plan on harvesting some macros locally this summer. As you can see, it is thriving under T5 and the flow is generated by my return and one MJ 1200.

 

[alexander_ktn]

Very cool growth!

 

[SaltwaterSensei]

I really like the look of that pipe fish. I wonder how well it would do in a typical reef without sargassum...

 

[btreyes]

that looks awesome!

 

[Giga]

Update

 

[SOCOMMike]

I need to have alavaster show me where he goes to collect! I'm 30 miles from fort Walton!