Weeds

[Michael Hoaster]

START DATE, November 28, 2018

Today I moved what little plant material I have left, over to the display. So I guess today is my start date! I'm still adjusting salinity. In v1, I kept it at 25ppt. In v2, I'm shooting for 26-30ppt. I want to see if manatee grass likes a little more salinity. Right now, the water is still a little cloudy, after all my activity.

My two little shoal grass plants look pretty pitiful all alone on the sandbar. I like humble beginnings. The substrate is super soft and muddy. My red macro frags are also rather modest, over among the rocks. They're pretty tiny as well. I really hope they all make it.

Tomorrow I'll add the barnacle blennies! That will start food inputs to the system. Combined with the light, the beginnings of life should emerge. Once algae moves in, I'll add snails and mollies. Detrivores will come a little later, when there is ample food for them. I spotted a tiny serpent star today, when I was collecting macros. I didn't know I still had any!

I still have a few system items to attend to. I need to see if my main pump is reparable. Not having it running means I don't have the powerful current that really plays a big part of the overall system. I'm still tweaking the water level. I'll need to get the float adjusted for the auto top off. I'm also still fiddling with the wave box. My wave is still only around an inch high. It may be at it's performance peak. My tank size is at the upper range for the model. I'll keep playing with it. Even at this level, the back and forth surge is impressive, and so natural looking! And I'd like to see if I can reintegrate my UV back in with the canister plumbing. So, stuff to do…

I have an aquarium again!

 

[Chasmodes]

Woo hoo!!!! :bounce1::bounce2: :bounce3:

It's cool when you discover beneficial life in the tank that you weren't expecting. If there is one serpent star still in your system, perhaps there are more!

I didn't address your comments about my procrastination previously, but not on purpose. I just got busy and distracted. But, it's all true, what you said, and what I need to do. I'm dedicating my time to working on the large oyster reef build this weekend.

After almost two years with the smaller system up and running, I've found that the reef holds up pretty well, but, things like overhangs or loosely glued shells come apart if not enough Gorilla Glue was added, so I'll be beefing up the oyster cultches that have yet to be dunked in water.

And next week, I'm going to try and schedule an electrician to come install two electrical lines to meet my needs (one in the basement for the sump, and one in the rec room on the other side of the wall).

Sorry to hijack... The point is that your suggestions helped to motivate me. Now, I just need to get to work.

I can't wait to see your tank come to life! The more that I learn from what you are doing, the more that I want to grow eelgrass. I only want a small patch of it toward the back of the tank, but if it spreads on it's own, that's not a bad thing and will probably mimic what nature what do anyway. That is the point right? Let nature do the work?

 

[Michael Hoaster]

Thanks Kevin! I am pretty excited! I was thinking the same thing! If there is one little sea star, there must be more!

I'm sorry I was a bit harsh. I hope I didn't offend you. It felt like we were in the exact same place, so I wanted to share my "just do one thing" method. It helps me when I feel paralyzed and overwhelmed by what I need to do. I hope it is helpful.

It's great to hear that you're gettin' after it this weekend! That's actually another motivational trick I play on myself. I commit to an action, writing it down for all to see, here on RC!

Hiring an electrician is huge. I know that's been a big holdup for you. For me at least, I hate having to pay someone to do something that's just beyond my abilities. I do a ton of handyman honey-dos around the house, so hiring someone just feels like defeat. Do it! That will allow you execute your plan without compromise.

It's no hijack in my eyes. Honestly, I'm grateful to you for your insights. I feel like we are so like-minded, we can learn a lot from each other.

I think eelgrass would be very cool in your oyster reef tank!

 

[Chasmodes]

No problem at all. You definitely weren't harsh and I wasn't offended. :beer:

It felt like we were in the exact same place, so I wanted to share my "just do one thing" method. It helps me when I feel paralyzed and overwhelmed by what I need to do. I hope it is helpful.

This is the way that I took it, as a helpful nudge.

 

[lapin]

That sounds like a good idea, but I have no foam. I should be able to get the two shoal grasses in. I've almost got salinity to where I want it.

You can open up that old bean bag chair and use some of those??

 

[Michael Hoaster]

Oddly enough I don't have one, lapin. I do have a styro cooler from Live Aquaria I could take a few pinches from. I'm reluctant to do anything in the tank right now. I just moved over some fish so I want to give them some peace. I'm not sure the test grass thing would be accurate anyway. I may just wait until I get the real thing, hopefully next week.

It's funny, the fish and the plants I've added would seem dinky in a nano tank! That's cool. I like to start small.

Signs of new life are appearing. I have a small patch of diatoms on the sand. My water still hasn't cleared, but I think the light is penetrating OK for the plants.

 

[vlangel]

Hooray! I am excited to see this tank in action!

 

[Michael Hoaster]

Thanks Kevin! Well put - a helpful nudge. That's what I was going for.

Hooray! Yes thanks Dawn! Ah, aquarium life! How I missed you! It feels like I just moved back to the beach! It really felt like a part of me was missing. And now that part is back. I'm on the jazz!

Sandbar, before the manatee grass moves in. The simplicity takes me to a zen place…

Barnacle Blenny, chillin' down by the rocks. Top left you can see a one inch hypnea plant.

Barnacle Blenny, "Seems like a good barnacle. I could live here."

A little String of Pearls.

View from the right end. Middle plant was a freebie. Can't remember the name. It survived in my holding tank better than the plants I paid for. I'll get a better pic of it next time.

Shoal grass 1.

shoal grass 2.

It seems like a good idea to document the very beginning of this naturalist adventure! I'm already back on the couch, staring at my little slice of the ocean. I got the moonlight going tonight. With nothing to block the light, the shimmer on the sandbar was mesmerizing. It's good to be back…

 

[vlangel]

I love it Michael! And those barnacle blennies :celeb3:. They are adorable! Its going to be so much fun watching the grasses grow from sprigs to a seagrass flat swaying back and forth with the wave. Talk about mesmerizing! This tank is going to nail it !!!:celeb1:

 

[McPuff]

Those blennies are going to be so fun to watch! I love to see mine come out.

The tank looks great so far. You've really got something special and it's going to be exciting to watch it take shape.

 

[Michael Hoaster]

Thanks Dawn! I really enjoy the barnacle blennies too. When I stare at the tank, I can picture it with the seagrasses filled in. Can't wait for that!

 

[Michael Hoaster]

Thanks McPuff! The blennies are comically small in big tanks, but they're just so darn cute. The tank's coming along, with a few things still to work out, but so far, so good!

 

[lapin]

Lookin great. It actually looks very professionally done. Something you might see at a large aquarium complex. Cant wait to see some green.

 

[Michael Hoaster]

Thanks lapin! That's high praise. I look forward to green as well!

 

[wilder]

Hey Michael
The progress on v2 has been wonderful to read about. I’ve been in the background cheering you on. I’m excited to see how the changes you made impacts your overall goals.

 

[Michael Hoaster]

Hey thanks wilder! I'm so glad you've enjoyed it! I think it will be cool to apply what I learned in v1 to this aquarium. I have so much more info, experience and a clear idea what I want this time. If all goes well, it shouldn't be too difficult to get where I want. The look will be more minimal and simple, I hope!

 

[Chasmodes]

Everything looks fantastic so far. Yeah, those blennies are so cool. I want a species tank just for them now Your background, the sand bar, and the rockscape looks very natural, nicely done!

 

[Michael Hoaster]

Thanks Kevin!

 

[Michael Hoaster]

No real progress on my part this weekend. I've just been observing the gradual progression of new life, or to put it more mundanely, diatoms.

I'm still playing around with the wave box. I removed the top, which made it more quiet and possibly work better. I'm finding that the water level plays a big part in it's performance too. Right now, I'm running the water level higher, and I'm getting almost no wave at all. So, I'm still checking all the variables to see how they effect it. Once I find optimum water level, that's where I'll keep it.

When I captured the blennies for transfer, I only could find four of them, so I just added the four, hoping that the fifth would turn up. Finally, I saw it today, still in the QT. Of the four that were transferred, two went straight into the back wall and disappeared. Today, one of them finally came out. She's now hangin' in the barnacles. So now there are two in the barnacles and one in the rocks. Hopefully the last straggler will emerge from the wall soon.

My next actions include getting another round of fish in quarantine, and hopefully, planting new seagrass. I've got more guys, like worms and snails, etcetera, to transfer over, from the holding tank, but I want to wait awhile, so they'll have food in the tank.

 

[vlangel]

I am glad that the 5th barnacle blenny did NOT show DOA! When the last one in the wall makes its appearance your tank must just be streaking blennies everywhere at feeding time. I only have 2 but they zip here and there and back to their holes in no time at all. Of course your tank is more than 3Xs the size of mine so maybe its not as wild as I am picturing, LOL.

What sort of fish are you putting into QT next? And how many?