Weeds

[Michael Hoaster]

Thanks Kevin, thanks Dawn!

I enjoy our little 'community'. We encourage each other and bounce ideas off each other. Even with the lower traffic we see on RC these days, it still works! So thanks for hanging around and lets keep supporting each other, and our weird aquariums!

 

[Michael Hoaster]

Three weeks until the one year mark. My ecosystem in a box is doing well.

So overall, I'm happy with the progress. Highlights include beating dinos, and getting my QT game up to snuff. The biggest mistake I've made was letting many manatee grass plants die, from downward salinity drift. I'm nursing them back to recovery, but it's a pretty big bummer.

But the system as a whole is working well, making my job pretty easy. Assembling all of these natural elements to build a functioning ecosystem has been an exciting journey!

 

[lifeoffaith]

Looking great Michael! I've been following along a bit but haven't commented since my tank has taken a slightly different turn now, going for a coral setup in it now instead of the seaweed approach I originally took. I may add another tank to my mix though which will probably reincorporate some of these principles, so I'm still following along.

 

[Michael Hoaster]

Thanks for following, lifeoffaith!

I'm curious about your reasoning for abandoning weeds for sticks. No judgement, just curious. Would you care to share?

Reefing has a much better road map for success, than weed-keeping. By now, the important numbers to hit for corals are well known, as well as which devices are needed to hit them. So, I would think it would feel less daunting and mysterious to follow those well-worn steps.

For marine plant growers, there is a lot of conflicting information, and many of the methods and techniques fly in the face of conventional wisdom. I can see how some might shy away from such uncertainty.

 

[Chasmodes]

Happy almost anniversary of V2! Wow, has it been that long? You've come a long way from the time that you made the decision to redo your tank. It's been a fun journey following your build, for sure.

Community...I like that!

 

[Michael Hoaster]

Thanks Kevin! I put the start date in my signature, so it's always handy. Otherwise I have to go back through my thread to find it.

I'm glad you came along on the journey too! It's really interesting, to try this kind of tank once, then do it again with the lessons learned. I learned a lot. So the re-do strategy seems to work. It's impossible to know how everything will go before hand, it's only natural that you'd think of improvements along the way.

We are a community! I like it too.

 

[vlangel]

I can't believe it's been almost a year already! That's amazing. I remember how sad I was to see V1 come down because it seemed like it would be forever for you to get that far again. Now less than a year look how far V2 has come already. I have definitely enjoyed the ride and look forward to watch this tank mature.

I love the community we have in this topic. I have accounts on other forums but this is my favorite.

 

[Michael Hoaster]

Thanks Dawn!

I know, right? Already? I remember realizing I needed to tear down v1 and start over. I had several out-of-control pests, including aiptasias, dinos, and several macros I didn't want. And I had a good list of things I wanted to fix.

And here we are. Countless natural processes are now working in concert, forming into a functioning, mini ecosystem. It's been an amazing year. My best first year ever, no doubt. Thanks for riding along with me! We have a quality community here!

 

[Michael Hoaster]

I did some work on the tank Sunday. Mostly pruning and exporting. I waited until early this morning to get a few pics, since I clouded up the water in the process. I broke apart the remaining codium, so it will hopefully grow into new plants. The red grapes plants were really overgrown, so they got pruned heavily. A nice, yellow sponge and a 'new' plant were revealed, plus I like to see the rocks of the patch reef. The barnacle shells and a few rocks got repositioned as well. The whole patch reef arrangement has evolved over time, actually getting more compact. I'm really liking it!

Here you can see the Turtle Weed plant bottom right, along with two new transplanted plugs of it on the back wall.

Patch reef. Note the String of Pearls plant in front, doing very well.

This plant in the middle was uncovered by my pruning. I believe it is Halymenia Elongotta. It's similar to Nemastoma, but thinner. I'd love to see this plant grow large!

Obligatory end shot. Still lot's of reds, but a bit less unruly. Also note more life on the back wall.

A yellow sponge was also uncovered.

Mangroves are still growing. Golden brown Sargassum Weed in the foreground. Petticoat, fern caulerpa, and a red moss-like plant, growing on the back wall.

 

[Michael Hoaster]

I took some more pics!

String of Pearls and Botryocladia blending together.

Shoal and Manatee Grass with fern and saw blade caulerpa.

Sargassum Weed with Dragon's Tongue (I think). I moved their rock to optimize their placement in the light. I'd really like to see these two get bigger too.

The latest arrangement of the patch reef. It feels natural to me.

Another shot of the Sargassum Weed and Dragon's Tongue, and the live rock beneath.

Looking down on the patch reef.

Fun fish shot.

I'm really enjoying the mangroves! One of the things that bugged me about my fake mangrove was that it was too big. I'm digging the smaller proportions of the real deals. Of course they'll grow, if they survive. I'm rootin' for 'em!

Coralline algae on the mangroves.

 

[lifeoffaith]

Thanks for following, lifeoffaith!

I'm curious about your reasoning for abandoning weeds for sticks. No judgement, just curious. Would you care to share?

Reefing has a much better road map for success, than weed-keeping. By now, the important numbers to hit for corals are well known, as well as which devices are needed to hit them. So, I would think it would feel less daunting and mysterious to follow those well-worn steps.

For marine plant growers, there is a lot of conflicting information, and many of the methods and techniques fly in the face of conventional wisdom. I can see how some might shy away from such uncertainty.

I think part of it is similar to what you discovered in V1, that sticking to a specific region was more difficult than expected. I also had my new fish all dissapear, I suspect due to the arrow crab that was in the tank. He eventually died, and my other tanks were "out of sight, out of mind" and were being neglected. I had two fish that I wanted to put into this tank and they didn't fit with my plan to stick to Carribean species, so that kind of forced me out of the box. Also, I do really miss a decent coral set up which I haven't had for a while, so I decided to just change up my approach a bit and go back to corals.

All that said, I'm doing some very early preliminary planning for a frogfish tank, so I will likely go back to some sort of macroalgae/sponge tank in the new setup alongside my coral tank. You may remember that was my original plan for the macroalgae tank, and that got put on a back burner for a bit.

 

[Chasmodes]

Outstanding pics. Your tank is so amazing, all the variety of flora and fauna. The colors are amazing too. The patch reef looks almost an extension out from the wall, very natural. Wow, those mangroves are shooting up fast!

Two questions for ya:

How are the tuxedos getting along now?

What's the algae in the upper LH corner of the wall?

Keep up the good work, and thanks for taking/posting pics! Great stuff, man!

 

[Michael Hoaster]

Thanks Kevin!

I'm pretty stoked with how it's going! A lot of the life came from the live rock. I just provided the conditions needed, and voila! The mangroves have about a foot to go to reach the surface. I have no idea if they'll make it or not. They're turning out to be more than I expected - in a good way. The fake root was so big and horsey. These little guys are just right!

The tuxedo damsels have reached an understanding. Brutus and Papillon keep the left half of the tank, and Francois stays in the right half. At feeding time, he's allowed to eat, like everyone else. Otherwise he's basically been ostracized. Papillon, which I now believe to be female, visits him occasionally, and they seem to have some chemistry - more so than with Brutus, who shows no interest in spawning that I can see. I'm still kind of tempted to try to add one or two more. We'll see!

Is the algae you're asking about kind of gold-to-brown? If so, that's the brown grasilaria I've been trying to get rid of. It's been in decline, but it still hangs around.

 

[Michael Hoaster]

Thanks lifeoffaith! Good luck with your reef tank!

 

[Michael Hoaster]

I hate when I post pics, then it goes to the next page!

 

[Chasmodes]

Excellent pics again. The algae that I was referring to is where the tuxedo damsel is in the 3rd pic against the wall.

Also, I meant to ask before, how is your barnacle blenny doing?

 

[Michael Hoaster]

Yep, that's brown grasilaria. It can look OK as a stem plant, but it also grows as a turf phenotype, which I have, and I really don't like it. The brown color looks dingy and dirty.

My two barnacle blennies are doing well. They do fine with all the other guys. Since they were in the tank first, they're pretty bold! They're not living super close to each other, but the female swings by to visit the male occasionally. I actually tried to get some pics of them, but none were good enough to post.

 

[McPuff]

Wow, it's really filling in nicely!

 

[Michael Hoaster]

Thanks McPuff!

It's coming along. I'm not driving the system quite as hard as I did in v1. By that I mean I'm not dosing as frequently. I'm trying to maintain some control over growth, so I can rip stuff out if I want to, before it takes over.

Right now I have a macro or two I may want to remove. The more I look at it, the less I like the fern caulerpa, on the sand bed at least. It's fine on the back wall, though it's struggling against my army of snails for survival. I'm just not digging it between the grasses. I never planned for it to grow there, but I let it happen to see how it looks. I may pull it out this weekend, gumption permitting.

 

[vlangel]

The tank is looking fabulous! The mangroves really are cool and add a very pleasing dimension to the scape. Tbe grasses appear to have rebounded nicely.