Amp's 25g Cube Seagrass build REDUX

[Amphiprion]

Interestingly enough, the algae in mine never even started growing anywhere else. That has more to do with the fact that lots of light shines right on the glass, making it a prime spot for growth. The PAR there is higher than on the rocks, so it works out.

Now for some pics after scraping some of the algae away (the thicker portions, anyway) to make room for more growth. this is showing how much the seagrass has spread from just the small handful of sprigs you see in the initial pics (and after all my newest shipment simply dissolved).

Pic with my camera shy ( ) male clown:

The amount of life in the sand, as you may be able to see, is incredible for the short amount of time I've had it. I attribute that to all the daily feeding. You'll also note how the seagrass tends to trap particulates at the base, encouraging cyanobacterial growth.

Also, the tank is much brighter in person. I'm going to have to play with the settings to try to make the intensity more representative of the actual tank. All of those seagrass leaves are constantly pearling oxygen bubbles.

 

[Amphiprion]

Now that I have a more appropriate tank for it, I'm considering getting a few individuals of Berghia verrucicornis, not only for the few Aiptasia that managed to pop up in this tank (no wonder with the amount of food that goes into it), but to potentially generate some extra means to fund this tank. Granted, the overhead is very low with this setup, which was the original idea, but every little bit helps.

Edit: I will have to make a plastic canvas-based cage around the nanostream, though. Easy enough to do, though.

 

[Ace25]

How do you plan on sustaining the feeding that Berghia's require? Won't one eat all your aiptasia within a week.. and then? Or do you plan on "renting" them out to locals, which I have seen done in the Los Angeles area quite often.

 

[Amphiprion]

How do you plan on sustaining the feeding that Berghia's require? Won't one eat all your aiptasia within a week.. and then? Or do you plan on "renting" them out to locals, which I have seen done in the Los Angeles area quite often.

The latter was what I had planned on. The only sustainable way for most folks, myself included, to do it.

 

[Amphiprion]

Great news! I'm starting to get sprouts of Syringodium that I thought had completely melted away. I can't wait to see what it does. I just happened to notice a good amount of it popping up amidst the Halophila. They weren't there a few days ago. :nilly:

 

[greech]

Gotta be honest, I have no idea what you are talking about but you sure sound happy so I'm happy for you . I can say that the pics look great! Would love to try a mangrove setting one day but that will be way down the line.

 

[Amphiprion]

Halophila decipiens:

Syringodium filiforme:

Those are the two that I have. Basically, I got the Syringodium as an accidental hitchhiker along with my Halophila. All the rhizomes that I could see turned brown and simply rotted away to nothingness. There were only two little rhizomes of it, too. Lastly, my sand is a bit shallower than it usually prefers/does well in, so I wasn't terribly optimistic. That should explain why I'm pretty happy/excited about it. Cool stuff!

Oh, and a word of warning on Gracilaria--This stuff takes off like mad. I started off with a little bit and it exploded on me. I'm probably going to have to get rid of it.

 

[Jstdv8]

LFS should set up a tank with nothing in it but berghia's and or peppermint shrimp and charge people to bring in thier live rock and leave it there overnight to clean it up for them LOL

 

[Jstdv8]

one of our LFS's did this with peppermints so he could video it. Didn't charge the customer, but told people to bring in thier aip rocks. fun watchingt he peppermits pounce on the new rock like a cop on a donut... err crook.

 

[Amphiprion]

No Berghia yet, but news nonetheless. I finally settled on an anemone and ended up with a nice, healthy specimen of H. malu. Not what I wanted, but with the tank size, I felt I needed to compromise. I had initially planned to somewhat curb the growth of larger species, but concluded that that wasn't how I wanted to grow an anemone. Pics to come once the little guy settles down. I'll actually wipe the front glass for this one, too .