Weeds

[Michael Hoaster]

Three quick pics:

Mangrove pods, sargassum, and a gold mine of reds coming out of the live rock. The pinks at the base of the right pod look like Halymenia Floridana to me, aka Dragon's Tongue!

Barnacle Blennies and more macro freebies busting out of the rock. Also note the caulerpa near top.

Splash of red zone.

 

[Michael Hoaster]

I'm kind of worried about my Manatee grasses. They were doing so well before, putting out new runners and blades, in a burst of life. Then, for the last month or so, they've been yellowing and dying back. It's very odd that they would do so well, then suddenly die back. I must have done something to upset them. I think it may be the dosing. I can't think of anything else I've done lately that would cause it. I'm going to back off on dosing for awhile. They shouldn't need it anyway, with the dirty sand bed. In nature they favor low-nutrient conditions, outcompeting macros, which like higher nutrients.

This weekend I did an algae export and water change. I noticed the salinity had drifted down some, so I got it back up to MG's favored salinity of 25-27 ppt. Maybe it didn't like higher nutrients combined with lower salinity. In v1, I killed my Manatee grass with hypo salinity.

The macros are doing well. I really hit the jackpot with my live rock. I counted at least eight plant species growing out of it that I'm excited to have. Also, I've had a burst of growth in the Shoal grasses. I planted most of them in the front, since they aren't as tall as Manatee Grass. One of the nuisance macros, I'll call Black Grasilaria has really taken off, unfortunately. They're like aiptasias - for every one you kill, ten more pop up its place. I may have to find a fish that eats it.

Overall, things are good. I'm just a bit bummed with the Manatee Grass. Hopefully I'll get it figured out. I suspect I may have been too heavy-handed with my 'assistance' and Nature is telling me to get out of the way…

 

[Chasmodes]

The pics look great, but I'm sorry to hear about the grass but I think that you'll figure out to bring back the growth. The pic with the barnacle blennies and your live rock macro growth blows me away, awesome!

 

[Michael Hoaster]

Thanks Kevin!

I too am blown away with what's growing out of the live rock. I'll let everything settle down for awhile, to see if the manatee grass rebounds.

 

[Chasmodes]

Michael, I meant to ask you, what specifically were you dosing prior to you stopping it? I'm just trying to better understand what was going on.

 

[Chasmodes]

Hey Michael, when I saw this video, I thought of your tank. Would these (Pseudochromis fridmani) work for you? ThRoewer's tanks are pretty cool, but man, this is a really cool idea and I don't think that many people do this with these fish.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2564212

 

[Michael Hoaster]

I'm still injecting CO2, for a carbon source. For Nitrogen, I dose ammonia or potassium nitrate. For phosphate, I feed the fish, which also covers trace elements, except that I add iron specifically, which can get used up quickly in planted tanks. Occasionally I add magnesium and iodine.

I too am trying to understand what was going on, and why my manatee grass is receding. It may have just been lower salinity. It may have been too much ammonia, or too much iron. It may be increasing sulfides in the deep sand bed. I've thought of poking the sand bed with a stick, to see if any bubbles up.

I suspect the cause was me, being a bit heavy-handed on the dosing. Manatee grass does well on low nutrients in nature, and also responds well to dosing in captivity. I've been trying to determine how much and how often to dose. Clearly, I haven't figured that out yet.

 

[Michael Hoaster]

Kevin, thanks for posting that link! You read my mind! I have been considering doing a harem of Fridmani Basslets instead of Royal Grammas. They also like vertical terrain and form harems. As a big plus, you can get them captive-bred. The big concern is aggression, as they can be pretty mean to each other. I attempted a pair, years ago, and it didn't go so well, even in a 180. As ThRoewer pointed out, it helps if one is already bigger, so they don't have to fight it out to see who gets to be 'Big Daddy'. I saw a lot of that with my Gramma harem. There was constant bickering until one finally emerged as the king. Then harmony was achieved and breeding began.

I love those fish. Their coloring is so beautiful! I think they would be a very nice pairing with the Neon Damsels. They have a similar sheen characteristic. I was thinking of getting four of them. I think they would enjoy the fake wall.

First, I need to get my QT situation resolved. I now believe all three tanks are infected with Uronema. I'm considering breaking them all down and disinfecting them (again) and then letting them sit dry for an extended time. In the meantime, I may buy an all new QT tank setup, to get more fish quarantined. I'd need to get several other fish in before I add the Fridmanis. But it is an idea I'm seriously considering!

 

[Chasmodes]

His videos mesmerized me, to the point that I'd consider keeping a harem of them in a dedicated tank. But, his blue spot jawfish vids did that to me as well. I don't have a tank of them yet either. I need a fish room!

I love their coloration, and keeping a harem of them would be awesome if it can be sustained long term. I love their movement and their curiosity as well as their brilliant colors. P. fridmani are the least aggressive of the dottybacks, so that is also promising, and captive bred might be the ticket. I kept one P. porphyreus when I was in college in a 10g tank in my room, and it was a great fish. It lived in my tank at home during the summers. They have so much personality and are so alert! Unfortunately, during my senior year, he jumped out of the tank and died. I replaced him with a P. diadema, and that was a great fish too. I never kept more than one dottyback at a time though.

Prior to either of those fish, I was sold a "yellow grouper" by an LFS. It was about 4 inches long when I bought it, and was almost 5" when I traded it a year later. I didn't know it at the time, but it was also a dottyback, P. fuscus. It had a larger mouth and would eat feeder guppies. I traded all of my aggressive fish for store credit, and eventually purchased more peaceful fish. I kept a FO tank back then. Fun times. I wish I knew then what I know now!

 

[Chasmodes]

Oh, I meant to say that what reminded me of your tank was his last video looking down on the dottybacks along his wall, and mostly when that one dottyback was darting in and out of the hole in the wall. I thought, wow, that seems like a good fit for the holes in your wall, a harem of dottybacks!

 

[Michael Hoaster]

Just back from camping over the weekend, and the Manatee Grass is still in decline. All the other plants are doing well. Growth throughout the tank is slowing, since I've stopped dosing. This is good, I think, showing me that nutrient levels are dropping. I think my next step will be to dose one thing at a time, with long enough intervals between them to see if any one nutrient is lacking. I'm going to leave it be for a little while longer, however.

 

[Michael Hoaster]

I exported a bunch of black grasilaria yesterday. Since I missed the weekend camping, it really grows in quickly. I wouldn't mind having it so much, if it looked better. It's just rather grey, and just makes the tank look dull. I'm fighting it with manual removal, lowered nutrients and increased competition.

The lowered nutrients are already affecting the ulva, with little to be seen lately. It comes and goes, and is a good indicator of nutrient levels - just like in Nature.

For competition, the caulerpa is gaining momentum. I found a few strays on the sand bed, behind the grasses. I moved a few up against the back wall, in hopes it will climb and spread across it.

I'm considering options for predation. Unfortunately, the plague of snails doesn't go after it, so I'm looking for fish that would eat it. The challenge, of course, is to find one that eats black grasilaria, and not the other macros!

In v1, I used a Caribbean Blue Tang to manage caulerpa for me, and that went very well, but eventually, he would have wiped out all of my macros, so I had to remove him. But for about six months, I was able to sit back and watch him do the pruning for me. It was awesome!

 

[Chasmodes]

Once it's overall mass exceeds the Gracilaria, maybe the Caulerpa will out compete the Gracilaria?

Is pruning the Gracilaria a pain in the butt? You need some sort of tool or something to make it easier if you can't find a fish predator.

How does the manatee grass look now?

 

[Michael Hoaster]

Yes, Kevin, that's what I was thinking. Basically, I'm treating the black grasilaria like a pest micro algae, exporting it frequently, while trying to favor the caulerpa, and all other plants. Lowered nutrients is helping to slow their growth, but it slows the grasilaria as well. It IS a pain in the butt to remove! It grows as a turf, so there are many tiny stems, impossible to get them all. I've tried a couple of different tools. The biggest problem is that many little pieces float away, so I have to quickly grab my net and try to get them all, which is almost impossible.

I have researched some fish, but I doubt I can find one that would eat it, without eating others. Maybe I can find a way to weaken them enough, so that my snails go after them. Any plant that's not fully healthy tends to get devoured. Hot water maybe?

The manatee grass doesn't look to be getting any worse, which I'll call progress. The shoal grass is growing and multiplying, which is good, but baffling. On the bright side, it points to my dirt in the sand bed not being the cause. I still wonder if low salinity is the cause. In v1, when I dropped salinity to hypo levels, the manatee grass faded, and the shoal grass flourished. This is exactly what's happening now.

I think I'll go raise the salinity. Thanks for the post Kevin! You got me thinking!

 

[Michael Hoaster]

OK, so I went after my pest macro, black grasilaria, with hot water today. I used a syringe to baste them. I made two passes. The idea is to weaken them, so that my hungry plague of snails go after them. A few hours later, I'm seeing the snails on them. Maybe by morning I'll be able to tell if they are eating it. If this works, it will be a huge relief.

The manatee grass is looking pretty rough, seriously bumming me out. I bumped up salinity levels to about 29ppt, from 25. I hope this stops their decline. I think the cause was an unnoticed downward drift in salinity. They do not like salinity lower than 25ppt. From now on, I'll be more vigilant in monitoring salinity levels.

Everything else is doing very well. Growth is stalling, with no dosing for the past couple of weeks, but no decline. One of the caulerpas I put against the back wall has started to climb it.

It sux the plants I care most about are the only ones struggling. My hope is that I'm getting conditions back to their liking and they'll rebound. I'm crossing my fingers!

 

[Chasmodes]

I hope the hot water works. That's an interesting idea, for sure. Sorry to hear about the manatee grass. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for you that it rebounds. Maybe the bump in salinity will be the ticket.

 

[Michael Hoaster]

Thanks Kevin. The hot water trick did not work. I'd like to try doing it again, on successive days next time. Maybe that would weaken it enough that the snails would 'smell blood'. Maybe even do it several times a day.

On the manatee grass, since I have narrowed it down to a drop in salinity as the cause, I've been thinking about the cause of the drop. I feed the fish frozen mysids and cyclops. I put them in ro/di water - pure fresh water. Feeding the tank two or three times a day adds up, so that may be the reason for the drop in salinity. Going forward, I will put them in tank water, so I don't gradually dilute the salinity. I'll also keep an eye out for salt creep, which can gradually lower salinity as well. I don't appear to have very much, so I doubt it is a major contributor.

 

[Chasmodes]

Too bad the hot water trick didn't work. Hopefully, it will with the successive days.

That makes sense to me how the salinity dropped. BTW, Are you heating your tank water for the hot water trick? Because the hot water trick using FW could also drop your salinity if you do it often enough. Is the manatee grass starting to recover?

 

[Michael Hoaster]

That's a good point Kevin. I was using ro/di. I didn't want to put salt water in my electric tea pot, which I just bought recently. I think I'll stick with that and just be vigilant checking salinity. I'd guess I'm using less than a quarter cup per session - one small syringe at a time. But thanks for calling it to my attention!

 

[Michael Hoaster]

Looking at my tank and comparing to how it was two months ago, you'd think it has peaked and is now in decline. The Manatee Grass has been decimated. It breaks my heart!

Oddly enough, all of my other plants are doing great. So, as the green two thirds of the tank has gotten sparse, the red one third is filling in very nicely. It's a strange feeling. Bitter sweet I guess.

There is hope! Looking closely at the manatee grass, I can see a few new shoots. Correcting the downward drift in salinity seems to be fixing the problem. So, fingers crossed, I'm on the rebound!

Today I bought a tiny emerald crab at my LFS. I went there originally to get a new peppermint shrimp, but they were out, so I decided to give this little guy a try. I have a little bit of bubble algae, which these crabs are supposed to eat, so he should fit nicely into the biodiversity puzzle.