New project: Seagrass/Seahorse tank

I saw a purple one with yellow polyps a while ago, I regret not picking it up. Its going to be a nice seahorse tank. :clap:
 
Along with the plants, they are sending up a sea blade that looks a lot like you're describing. That one's going in the reef.

I hope this works. For me, planted tanks are trickier than corals. When corals grow, all you need to worry about is calcium and alkalinity, and feeding the tank. With plants, if any one nutrient (carbon, nitrate, phosphate, potassium, plus traces) gets depleted, you could be on the road to an ugly algae bloom. Wish me luck.

What's new with the 65?
 
They have a set up like this here in Orlando at the Living Seas exhibit in EPCOT. All sea grass and horses, I think it's about 200 gal., they've had it going for quite a few years.
 
Sounds great, I'd love to see it. I'd also like to talk to them about some technical details. You don't happen to know which species of grass they're using, do you?
 
Eh, wish I could help you with the living seas, I was just there, but didnt pay particular attention to the seagrass/seahorse tank.

Why did you chose an aragonite instead of a substrate like fluorite? AFAIK, marine grasses will pull iron (among other things) directly out of the substrate.
 
slipknottin said:
Eh, wish I could help you with the living seas, I was just there, but didnt pay particular attention to the seagrass/seahorse tank.

Why did you chose an aragonite instead of a substrate like fluorite? AFAIK, marine grasses will pull iron (among other things) directly out of the substrate.
Click to expand...
Had to decide on something, and went with what I knew had worked in others' tanks. Because iron is needed in such small quantities, I'm gambling that it can be supplemented in other ways. It may come back to bite me, I'll just have to wait and see.

If anyone knows of especially good sites describing the basic biology of marine plants, and especially culturing them in tanks, please post them. I have been hunting around, but I know there's a lot I've missed. It would also be a nice addition to the thread.

FloridaBoy,
Florida Pets was out of turtle grass this week, so it will only be manatee and shoal grass for the moment.
 
That is so cool :thm: I've been thinking about doing a planted marine for a few months now and macro algaes with a few pipefish really appeals to me. I was also going to use maybe a half pound per gallon of live rock and use the tank to propagate mushrooms. I do have most of the equipment lying around but time is the big obstacle for now.

Good luck and do keep posting pics and progress. I'm really interested in this.

Here's a quote from the grand master himself, Tom Barr, when I asked him about a 15g planted marine.

Alk and Ca++ are huge issues.

Yes, you can do EI on a smaller marine or a reef tank, weekly 50% is not bad on a 15 gal tank.

You can extend things out to 2 weeks as things settle in.

I dose roughly 3-4ppm every 2-3 days and PO4 at 0.2ppm at those same times.

This is for a densely planted Marine tank.

Traces, Ca/alk can be added liberally.

Aeration is your friend, a skilter would work well.

4" of aragonite, mulm, and well soaked mud(soaked for 2-3 weeks), about 1/4" or so on the bottom and mix with the arag 's first 1", then cap with 3".
Click to expand...
 
Last edited:
I think this kind of thing is one of those things a lot of people think about trying. It should be fun to see it develop.

Here's a better shot of "before." I'm like a kid before Christmas waiting for the plants to arrive.


As one might expect, the mushrooms are open and happy like nothing happened. Some days I'm tempted to try acclimating them to fresh water, just to see if they'd notice.


 
have you considered getting some species of pipefish to go w/ the seahorses? i saw a banded pipefish today at my LFS, it was really cool but i've heard that theyre not very hardy
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
AquariaCentral.com
Top Bottom