Weeds

[sam.basye]

Weeds

How long did it take to prune your fingers like that? [emoji51] lol

Adding stuff to try and correct things is too complicated and trying to prove it worked blows my mind. Lol. I just leave it and hope it figures it out it's own. Haha

 

[Michael Hoaster]

I probably had my hands in the water for an hour. I enjoy the hands-on part!

Hopefully, my experimenting does no harm. I saw my ecosystem-in-the-making starting to stall. I got curious…

Last night I got a lot of algae removed from the grasses. Today I got after the stuff on the sand bed surface. A fair amount of sand gets removed in the process, so I added new sand. Now the tank is cloudy. Once it clears, it should look nice and clean.

With the cloudiness, I was able to better see algae on the front and right side glass, so I got them cleaned up too.

I'll get some pics when I can.

 

[Michael Hoaster]

I snapped a couple pics this morning. After a lot of algae export, it looks pretty tidy again.

 

[Michael Hoaster]

Here's a few more pics from today.

All cleaned up.

Getting greener, but a long way to go.

Three barnacle blennies in the foreground.

Seagrass and ulva.

 

[vlangel]

Great pics Michael. It looks like the grasses are growing a little taller? I love how the white mollies contrast with the green grasses and the wall. And those barnacle blennies are just too cute. :inlove:

 

[Chasmodes]

How long did it take to prune your fingers like that? [emoji51] lol

I thought the same thing, that maybe you were swimming in there

Thanks for sharing your recent pics. Your tank is really coming along nicely. I love the look of the wall and Ulva along with the grasses.

Spotting the blennies is like that I spy kids book. Very cool little critters. They blend in very well.

 

[vlangel]

I just thought of a question Michael, are you feeding the fish? And if so, what and how much/how often?

 

[Michael Hoaster]

Thanks Dawn! I think some of the seagrass is getting taller. Also some is getting shorter - as a result of my pruning. I don't mind the look of the white mollies either!

 

[Michael Hoaster]

Thanks Kevin! If it was big enough, I'd love to take a dip!

My tank is coming along satisfactorily. With funds getting low, there's not a whole lot to do but observe and think right now. So I export algae to favor the grasses and reds. Maybe a water change is in order…

I thought you'd get a kick out of blenny hunting!

 

[Michael Hoaster]

Dawn, I was feeding three times a day. Now it's more like one to two times a day. I want to keep the mollies hungry, so they eat algae. I feed frozen mysids and flake lately.

 

[lapin]

Wow. The tank looks so clean. I cant believe you had success in keeping that algae off the grasses. From what you described, I didnt expect to spot the sea grasses.
Salty fingers make for burning eyes at my house *-}

 

[Michael Hoaster]

Thanks lapin! I have had success getting algae off the grasses, but not keeping it off. Did you see the pic with algae covering the grasses? It's quite a job, picking clean sixty plants! I think if I can get it to a certain level, my crew should be able to take over and keep it down. I'm waiting for them to reproduce to get there.

 

[Michael Hoaster]

Dawn, I got the impression your question about my feeding regime was leading to something. Was it? Don't be shy, I love the discussion! It is helpful to have people question what I'm doing. You might well point out something I hadn't considered. Fire away!

I'm amazed how fast algae and cyano bounce back. I really picked the sand bed surface clean, and then buried it under a hefty layer of new sand. Two days later, it's all back again!

 

[vlangel]

Dawn, I got the impression your question about my feeding regime was leading to something. Was it? Don't be shy, I love the discussion! It is helpful to have people question what I'm doing. You might well point out something I hadn't considered. Fire away!

I'm amazed how fast algae and cyano bounce back. I really picked the sand bed surface clean, and then buried it under a hefty layer of new sand. Two days later, it's all back again!

Well, it was a question of gathering info. Since the idea of your tank is a natural eco system I was wondering with its size if it was able to sustain the few fish you have. The barnacle blennies would eats pods and so they would not be competing with the mollies who would primarily eat algae. I did think since it is so new that maybe only the blennies would need fed as algae seems to be plentiful, (although maybe not their favorite varieties) and pods may be still in the growing stage.

 

[Michael Hoaster]

Ahh! I see. I love the self-sustaining aquarium ideal. I do hope to have some natural, hunting and eating behavior, but I want more fish, so I'll need to feed. It would be nice right now, with all the algae I have growing, to not need to feed, but I think I should let Nature take its course. Not feeding at this point would likely throw off the development of the ecosystem.

That would be awesome to reach the point where the system is self-sustaining. If there were only mollies in there, I definitely wouldn't need to feed the tank. I did add pods a few weeks ago, but they need to multiply to have more of an impact. Once their population gets big enough, they will also consume a descent amount of algae. The pods I got are more benthic, so the blennies likely don't even know they are there. They are more pelagic plankton pickers. I've yet to see them hunt and eat any pods. I suppose I could add some pelagic pods.

What I'd really like to do is add some mysids! In an ideal world, they would help out with algae and detritus, reproduce prolifically, and sustain a population that could feed all the carnivorous fish in the tank indefinitely. Unfortunately, I'll likely end up with too many carnivores. In fact, I doubt I could maintain enough, in this size tank, to feed the five blennies I have now.

Mysids are actual, natural residents of seagrass beds. I'd love to have them! If I can figure out a way to keep a sustainable population going, that would be awesome. I wonder if my overflow refugium would be big enough to make it work. Or, after I have added all the fish I want, I could convert one of two QTs into a mysids grow out tank. Hmm…

 

[vlangel]

Ahh! I see. I love the self-sustaining aquarium ideal. I do hope to have some natural, hunting and eating behavior, but I want more fish, so I'll need to feed. It would be nice right now, with all the algae I have growing, to not need to feed, but I think I should let Nature take its course. Not feeding at this point would likely throw off the development of the ecosystem.

That would be awesome to reach the point where the system is self-sustaining. If there were only mollies in there, I definitely wouldn't need to feed the tank. I did add pods a few weeks ago, but they need to multiply to have more of an impact. Once their population gets big enough, they will also consume a descent amount of algae. The pods I got are more benthic, so the blennies likely don't even know they are there. They are more pelagic plankton pickers. I've yet to see them hunt and eat any pods. I suppose I could add some pelagic pods.

What I'd really like to do is add some mysids! In an ideal world, they would help out with algae and detritus, reproduce prolifically, and sustain a population that could feed all the carnivorous fish in the tank indefinitely. Unfortunately, I'll likely end up with too many carnivores. In fact, I doubt I could maintain enough, in this size tank, to feed the five blennies I have now.

Mysids are actual, natural residents of seagrass beds. I'd love to have them! If I can figure out a way to keep a sustainable population going, that would be awesome. I wonder if my overflow refugium would be big enough to make it work. Or, after I have added all the fish I want, I could convert one of two QTs into a mysids grow out tank. Hmm"¦

Your explaination is exactly what I thought. I figured that you couldn't possibly have enough pods yet so I figured that you must be feeding. In fact I also did not think your size tank could sustain the blennies but I couldn't remember how many you had. (I read a thread years ago where a seeded 40 gallon breeder tank was tried out to keep dwarf seahorses. It could almost keep 2 but had to be reseeded from time to time. The dwarf seahorses were eating pods, and mysid larvae shrimp. It would work until the seahorses ate the adult mysid.) Anyway then I began to wonder what foods would be best to start the food webs or even if that mattered. Maybe detritus and fish wastes in any form work. I am trying to understand the workings of your tank for future reference.

 

[Michael Hoaster]

OK, good. Sorry I was a bit long winded, but you got me going! I am trying to understand the workings of my tank too. In a sense, all aquariums are the same, as far as natural processes, that are there, working in the background. No matter how we go about it, Nature always makes it work. That's amazing!

 

[Subsea]

Your explaination is exactly what I thought. I figured that you couldn't possibly have enough pods yet so I figured that you must be feeding. In fact I also did not think your size tank could sustain the blennies but I couldn't remember how many you had. (I read a thread years ago where a seeded 40 gallon breeder tank was tried out to keep dwarf seahorses. It could almost keep 2 but had to be reseeded from time to time. The dwarf seahorses were eating pods, and mysid larvae shrimp. It would work until the seahorses ate the adult mysid.) Anyway then I began to wonder what foods would be best to start the food webs or even if that mattered. Maybe detritus and fish wastes in any form work. I am trying to understand the workings of your tank for future reference.

BRS TV video series Friday release was on coral nutrition and was quite advanced tying in to a 6 part Advanced Aquaria series on Coral nutrition by Dana Riddle. It was quite an eye opener. Between BRS, World Wide Coral and Triton Method research scientist there was much agreement that to run a reef tank requires a lot of food input. Surprisingly, the single biggest component in a reef tank nutrition to coral was fish feces kept in suspension with turbulent flow.

 

[vlangel]

BRS TV video series Friday release was on coral nutrition and was quite advanced tying in to a 6 part Advanced Aquaria series on Coral nutrition by Dana Riddle. It was quite an eye opener. Between BRS, World Wide Coral and Triton Method research scientist there was much agreement that to run a reef tank requires a lot of food input. Surprisingly, the single biggest component in a reef tank nutrition to coral was fish feces kept in suspension with turbulent flow.

Hhmmm, that sounds worth checking out. I really like those BRS videos and I have learned a lot from them.

 

[Michael Hoaster]

Today I did a water change and I fired up the UV as well.