Thalassia question

[graveyardworm]

I bought a couple Thalassia plants a little while back maybe a month and a half. So far one is doing great, the two leaves it came with are slowly dieing back, but it has added three new leaves. With the other one It's one leave died back and it hasnt sprouted any new ones. Now its been leaveless for a couple weeks. I know this is kinda typical, but how do you tell if the rhizome is dead, and how long should I wait for a new sprout if it is still alive. By the way the one which ist doing so well had a rhizome which was much larger than the healthy one. Thanks for your help.

Here's a picture of how I got them the one with the larger leaves is the one which is doing well.

 

[billsreef]

Feel the rhizome, if it is nice and firm it is good. If it is soft and spongy it is dead and decaying. Assuming it is good, give a couple of weeks to sprout new growth. You also might want to try root feeding it with one of the fertilizer tablets sold for FW planted tanks.

 

[graveyardworm]

I've been dosing KNO3 ( stump remover ) to the water to maintain 5ppm no3 and have considered dosing directly into the substrate around the plants. Any suggestions? BTW when do you think you'll have thalassia in stock again? Thank you for response.

 

[graveyardworm]

As much as I hate to take this thread off topic how large do your sea cucumbers get? Species? Would they be okay with thalassia and halodule ( shoal grass )? I already have a fighting conch and 10 or so nassarius snails, 100 gal tank 72 x 18 DSB.

Also should I dig up the rhizome or would I be better to sink my fingers into the substrate to test the firmness of the rhizome?

 

[billsreef]

For dosing around the plants, look in the LFS for something like Tetra's Hilena Crypto. It's a fertilizer tablet that you just push into the substrate by the roots. I've also used Jobe's fertilizer spikes (the small ones) broken into thirds with sucess. Don't use the Miracle Grow spikes, they are loaded with metals. So far the Jobe's are the only ones I've seen that I consider safe for use in our tanks.

For testing the Thallasia, dig your fingers in. Don't want to disturb it more than necessary.

Thallasia I'm aiming to bring in a bunch late April/early May. The cukes are Holuthuria floridana. Biggest I've seen them is about 6 inches. Great sand moppers, and they are collected in the sea grass beds

 

[graveyardworm]

Thanks Bill, for dosing I was thinking of using the stump remover ( KNO3 ) mentioned in the NO3 dosing thread. Dont the spikes also contain PO4?

 

[AndyL]

Depends on which version of the Jobes Spikes you get, I believe if you read the packaging, you'll see the spikes for ferns contains little to no PO4.

 

[icyuod2]

i've owned a few cuc's over the years. right now i house a yellow cuc Colochirus robustus they grow to 2-2.5" in size. i've also cared for Colochirus sp or the pink spiny cuc. they grow upto 5"(looks the same as the yellow, but pink and larger)

many more will grow larger than your arm. i've had nothing but good experiances with the 2 listed above. heck my blue tuxedo urchant crawls right over top of them without conflict.
heres a few others listed at liveaquaria.
http://liveaquaria.com/search/default.cfm

 

[billsreef]

The spikes do contain PO4, however the grass needs that too In practice I've never had any microalgae or cyano blooms when using them, so I wouldn't be too worried about it.

 

[graveyardworm]

Icy, that cuc is more of a filter feeder feeder isnt it? Do you dose phyto or anything for it?

 

[icyuod2]

i do get photoplankton from reefcrew.com here in canada.
i usually add it once a week. i stock alot of other live foods also.
its in my reef tank, not my planted tank. both are filter feeders and can usually be found hanging out on the bottom of my overflow.
i didnt realize there were sand sifting cuc's till today.
show's my inexperiance