Turtle grass question

F

Fredfish

New member
How long do the leaves get when you grow them in a tank?

I was thinking it would be 12 - 18 inches, but I remember some posts mentioning that the leaves died before they got very long.

Fred.
 
I've had them get anywhere from 6 to about 12 inches. Depends on lighting, available nutrients and tank depth ;)
 
mine are usually in the 6 - 8 range and every now and again one will make it taller before it falls off.
 
Hmm, ok. Water debth will be 16 - 18", sand debth will be 4-6" and the sand will be enriched with soil (or at least the bottom layer will be.

Lighting will probably be a 250w MH (possibly 175).

The reason I am asking is that I am planning my setup now and am trying to decide on the basics. I was planning on 18" of water but will go with 16" if Turtle grass only gets to 8"

The tank will be a 130g/150g 6' long with seagrass on one side an open sand area and a rubble pile at the other end. The tank is mainly for horses and pipes.

Fred.
 
I was under the impression that thalassia turtle grass is protected by law. Where might one obtain captive grown turtle grass?????? Please!!!
 
Turtle grass is protected in some locales, but not all, so it is available.

Fred,

I'd go with the 250 MH's for the size tank your planning.

I need to take some current pictures, but here's a shot of the base substrate for a 29 gallon Sea Grass Lagoon I set up about a month and half ago. The base layer is an iron enriched sand/mud that I placed a couple of inches of LS over. The plastic eggcrate rack is to hold a small rock pile without having the rock sink into several inches of muck.

32Rack_partially_buried_under_mineral_mud.JPG
 
I think your setup sounds cool, I have about 4" of sand on the side with grasses, it slopes down to about 2" in the middle. If I was going to do it over I would do at least 4 all over and 6 in some places. I also think you should go with 250's in a tank that tall, but I'm no lighting expert.

But I do seahorses have several tanks of them, I'm not sure feeding even CB seahorses in a 150 is going to be very productive. They don't really "go after" food, so you are going to have to be able to target feed them, pretty tough in a 150g. I wouldn't do them in a tank that big unless you are very familiar with horses! We had our hands in the tank all the time just feeding 4 horses in a 55g, trying to make sure everyone got feed. They got moved to a 20h and things got easier. But it would be a pretty awesome tank if you get it worked out so feeding isn't a problem.
 
Thanks for the info. I actually just looked at that thread.

I took a coral reef ecology course several years ago in the Exuma Cays (Bahamas), where all seagrasses are protected. I guess not everyone is as conservative.

I'll have to obtain some grasses soon. Thanks.
 
wow Bill, nice tank! Kinda what I had in mind. I have a couple of questions for you. How deep is the enriched sand? What is the ratio of sand to dirt/mud? What type of iron did you use to enrich with? You have probably worked out a lot of things I will be puzzling over as I set up the tank.

hmott. Thanks, I've been dreaming about this one for quite a while now. I have one 250 MH from a previous tank already so I will use it over the grass area. I get exited just thinking about it.

I have read that seahorses can be trained to eat from feeding trays in smaller tanks. My plan was to block off a small portion of the tank to get the horses used to the feeding area, and then gradually expand the barrier until the have the whole tank.

My understanding is that they have a large territory in nature and I have yet to keep a fish that dosn't figure its territory out, including where the food is.

You guys down south are so lucky you have easy acces to turtle grass. I gotta add at least $100 for an import permit for live plants.

Damn that is a nice tank Bill!!

Fred.
 
Beautiful setup Bill. I hope I can get my 50-gallon refugium to look like your tank one day. BTW, does anyone inject their macroalgae tanks with CO2 or is there something with the chemistry of salt vs. freshwater or the fact that saltwater plants and macroalgaes grow so quickly that makes this unnecessary?
 
Hey Bill, how about posting a "how I did it" with your new setup, all the gory details?

Very nice looking, and I have a spare 29g with a MH hood lying around, so I'd like to know what and how you did it, I'm sure I'm not alone in that either.
 
i was looking for some turtle grass. the other dayi bought a colony of white zoos and attached to it was a hunk of turtle grass. i want to keep this piece of grass going, so can i put in into the aragonite bed in my main tank, or would i be better of putting it in my sump which is filled with miracle mud
 
Fred,

Life just got a bit hectic. I'll start a thread on my tank after the holidays and get few more pictures together ;)

jwalters103,

Are you sure it's turtle grass? Turtle grass roots in substrate much like a typical garden plant. It doesn't grow attached to rocks normally.
 
this colony of zos was obviously growing on the substrate as it is holding onto bits of sand and clam shells. it is most definately turtle grass and does have roots like a terrestrial plant. my guess is that a zoanthid floated around and landed on a bit of this grass and grew outward onto the substrate from there.
 
I think Bill suggests that if you put turtle grass into pure aragonite sand, it needs to be mature (some nutrient build up) or you can use fertilizer "pills" like the fresh water tetra ones.

Fred.
 
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