I just recently got back into saltwater after going to the coast of texas at port aransas. We saw so much of the sargassum being washed ashore that I didn't feel bad about collecting because these fishes and inverts never leave the sargassum even when it washes ashore and eventually perish either to the seagulls or by becoming fish jerky. Unfortunately I had the small half gallon tanks crash on me due to the sargassum breaking down on me . Those that didn't crash I still have. A big sargasso frog and about six sargasso crabs survive
Recreating the Sargassum Sea?
- Thread starter Alavaster
- Start date
http://marineplantbook.com/marinebooksargassumhystrix.htm
http://marineplantbook.com/marinebooksargassumplatycarpum.htm
These two variety of Sargassum both grow in GOM attached to live rock. As a rule, Sargassum prefers cooler water.
Good fortune with your project.
Patrick Castille
Mgr, Aquaculture Ranch, LLC
http://marineplantbook.com/marinebooksargassumplatycarpum.htm
These two variety of Sargassum both grow in GOM attached to live rock. As a rule, Sargassum prefers cooler water.
Good fortune with your project.
Patrick Castille
Mgr, Aquaculture Ranch, LLC
You are in an awesome place for collecting. This past year I received a large shipment of diver collected live rock in 30' of water, 30 miles west of Tampa Bay. It is amazing the amount of diversity in the nutrtient rich Gulf of Mexico waters. Also, the only time that a fish has drawn blood from me was a bite from a Trigger Fish. You have collected some very neat specimens. It could get to be dueing gladiators. Be careful with your blue crab, they grow big and they eat well.
La bonne temps roulee,
Patrick
Hey Patrick, I need to stp by and see your shop the next time I am in Austin. I had to switch to floating plastic plants for my frog fish. The next time I collect I will use plastic only to help the tank from crashing and to reduce the stress on the newly collected . I had the pipefish also but those perished in my transport tank on the way home. Do you have any sargassum growing on any of your liverock and if so what lighting do you have on it
Yes, I have several emerging starts. I am growing it under T5 and indirect sunlight all day on my south porch. That tank is coupled to three 150G Rubbermaid tanks buried in the ground for geothermal heating and cooling.
This May, I brought eight more 150 tanks on line to grow mono specific cultures of macroalgae under my greenhouse. This week, I completed structural upgrades to the 5K tank and plan on adding salt next week.
You are welcome to visit the Bear Creek facility. It is my home and I am here most of the time.
La bonne temps roulez,
Patrick
Patrick how did the temps in the tank fare when most of texas was above 100F. That gives me ideas for an outside tank. I also brought home quite a bit of hermit crabs and I was hoping to do a shallow lagoon type where some of the sand is exposed for the crabs to climb up . When I had collected them there was quite a bit of ulva growing in the shallows. I just didnt know how to cool this tank without spending aton of money chilling it. In August I am headed to Galveston so I plan on getting a bucket of live mud. louis
I have a 20g prior-Arabian Gulf Biotope (explained shortly), within it a 4-5 inch DSB.
The tank pretty much runs itself, I use no external filtration on it other than a TLF 150 reactor with carbon.
When I started it, I had used about 2 inches deep of new sand that I had prewashed, and another 2 inches deep of local reef sand I personally collected near a small LPS / SPS / Zoa reef near my beach house. So a total of a 4 in DSB.
The water I used for setup was also collected on the reef.
Within the tank is two large pieces of LR, which came with some type of green macro hair algae (it never grew, but stays alive).
I also added, a Mangrove tree, a small ball of Chaeto, a rock with some Zoa's and two varieties of Halimeda and a handful of Caulerpa. In the beginning, the Caulerpa took over and grew profusly along with the Halimeda. After 2 months of Caulerpa growth, it suddenly stopped and within a week all my Caulerpa died out and viola! I had sargassum "buds" popping up everywhere on the sandbed. So now it seems like I have a sandbed with a little sargassum bushes randomly placed that are growing pretty well but slowly considering my very low bioload with so many types of macro algae's to consume waste.
As for the lighting, I've been using a single Kessil A150 10k the entire time. The lens has always been dirty (covered in salt and i scratched it from cleaning), and not to mention there is always a little film on the water level which also further blocks some more light so I doubt they need light that is as intense as some people are claiming.
Hope this helps.
The tank pretty much runs itself, I use no external filtration on it other than a TLF 150 reactor with carbon.
When I started it, I had used about 2 inches deep of new sand that I had prewashed, and another 2 inches deep of local reef sand I personally collected near a small LPS / SPS / Zoa reef near my beach house. So a total of a 4 in DSB.
The water I used for setup was also collected on the reef.
Within the tank is two large pieces of LR, which came with some type of green macro hair algae (it never grew, but stays alive).
I also added, a Mangrove tree, a small ball of Chaeto, a rock with some Zoa's and two varieties of Halimeda and a handful of Caulerpa. In the beginning, the Caulerpa took over and grew profusly along with the Halimeda. After 2 months of Caulerpa growth, it suddenly stopped and within a week all my Caulerpa died out and viola! I had sargassum "buds" popping up everywhere on the sandbed. So now it seems like I have a sandbed with a little sargassum bushes randomly placed that are growing pretty well but slowly considering my very low bioload with so many types of macro algae's to consume waste.
As for the lighting, I've been using a single Kessil A150 10k the entire time. The lens has always been dirty (covered in salt and i scratched it from cleaning), and not to mention there is always a little film on the water level which also further blocks some more light so I doubt they need light that is as intense as some people are claiming.
Hope this helps.
With shallow tanks less than 2', heat will be a problem if they see direct sunlight. The most econominal method of cooling outside tanks is with a 20" box fan placed horizontal to blow at 90 degree angle to water surface. I use a 60% shade cloth which reduces ambient air temperature in greenhouse 15 degrees. Ambient air temperature is not the major source of heat gain. Direct light on tank is the major source of heat gain. In my system, all temperatures were maintained below 81.5 degrees. Because I have tooo many tanks, I am in the process of installing a 12" diameter duct with a 3/4 HP industrial blower with many smaller drops of 3" diameter duct at each tank.
Every gallon of evaporation is equivalent to 8500 BTU of cooling.
Patrick
Alavaster
New member
Yeses I am, As well as attending school in sarasota I have access to the diverse life all across the Florida coast. I agree it would have turned into a battle having something as aggressive as a blue crab in a little tank with gentle shrimp and pipefish. Proper species compatibility is incredibly important! I simply collected these for the sake of showing everyone what's in my local area.
I am taking a brief hiatus from the hobby, but counting down the days till I can get back into it!
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Alavaster
New member
Yeah Defuniak is not to far at all! I would suggest literally anywhere along the Destin/Okaloosa island shores. I particularly go to the passes where the choctaw bay meets the gulf. ONLY GULF SIDE THOUGH!
Also sorry for disappearing from the forum for quite a while! But I have Bad news. As of a few weeks ago during a thunderstorm, somewhere around a couple hundred thousand tons of raw sewage was flooded into the Choctawhatchee Bay. . . needless to say the once emerald waters of my home town are now brown and red like a severe red tide. (which is actually dinoflangelates) It will be hazardous to swim for who knows how long, and I have already seen quite a bit of die off in the wild life. . .
Hey alavaster, I hope to keep this thread going because. I still have my sargassum angler. I also had 4 sargasso crabs in a 29 gallon. I see the big female crab finishing off the last of her tank mates today. These guys are vicious. I always fed them krill and frozen silversides. The big female has tripled her size yet I must not have been feeding them enough. It's funny to watch them have a silverside in each claw and chow down as if they hadn't eaten in weeks. I guess they have to be mean if they float at the surface all day. Attacks can come from below, above or from within the sargasso. I might consider them more aggressive than blue crabs. I also used fake red plastic plants to help them settle down otherwise they were freaking out looking for some shelter.
SargassoGirl
New member
Where would one find the bulbs you've recommended that might fit on a fairly long tank, say...3-4feet long? Thanks! This forum has been really helpful.
SargassoGirl
New member
Where would I find long 240-400w halide bulbs to fit on a..3-4 ft long tank? Thanks, this forum has been really helpful!
Calappidae
Harlequin Shrimp
Calappidae
Harlequin Shrimp
If you go metal halide, you more then likely will need a chiller. I'd rather go LED since it is alot safer.
Calappidae
Harlequin Shrimp
Thats terrible! People seriously need to wake up already.. how many oil spills, sewage spills, and such will it take until it gets through their thick mindless skulls to stop all this..
Ptyochromis
Member
OMG thats horrible! Seeing how many storms Florida gets, you would think that sewage contamination would be easily prevented. People just don't seem to understand how sensitive marine ecosystems are. From the humanistic viewpoint; things could be very bad if there was inland flooding with the red tide bloom.
NanoJosh
New member
+1 we need to stop polluting the ocean is resilient but there is way to many people and too many people dumping in our planets circulatory system.
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