25yr old 75G Jaubert Plenum

[Lula_Mae]

1 hour ago, Subsea said:

It is a graceful seaweed.  

 

When at Texas Maritime Academy in Galveston, I  would collect critters from the mats of floating Sargassum.  These mats probably traveled > 2000 miles.  In those days, we did not have enough light to keep this “graceful seaweed”.  I am stoked that this Sargassum that I now have is grown from an attachment.  I had already doubled PAR to provide for photosynthetic Caribbean Gardonions..

I had it grow out of a piece of live rock in my first 5.5 and fell in love.  Had it till a stupid zebra hermit took care of it.

[Subsea]

Russ Kronwetter got me four beautiful mature bushes, one being 16” tall.  With my change from softies only, I have focused on Caribbean biotheme with light loving Gorgonions and Sargassum swaying to their own music.  I have also shifted focus to include filter feeders and deep water gorgonions, by providing a shade platform for NPS.

 

On the third picture with red tree sponge and orange encrusting sponge, note on the left branch about two thirds up:  

Yellow Cucumber.

 

 

[Subsea]

Things I am thankful for.  Grandkids are first.

 

Triple Red Zone:

Chilli is flying his feathers

[Subsea]

I opened up my aquascaping.  Also removed 2/3 of gorgonions that we’re shedding too often.  I removed some Sargassum to outside growout system.

[Subsea]

First light

 

Much landscape changes.

[vlangel]

Looking great!  I am with you about being thankful for grandchildren!

[Moolelo]

Filter feeders and sea cucumbers are some of my favorites, they look great! Just keeping it all going with the microfauna population?

[Subsea]

While I feed tank live clams and frozen mysis shrimp, I rely heavily on complex food webs that recycle nutrients and grow livefood for tanks.

[Subsea]

Update

 

1.  Chilli is not doing well and  was moved to cryptic mud refugium last night.  This morning, Chilli has quadrupled in size with a

      healthy fire engine red color.

      There are two plausible reasons that happened independently.   First problem with Chilli in main display was excessive  

      detritus from sandbed maintenance.  That alone caused me to dust him off 3-4 times a day.  In a EcoSystem mud refugium,    

      the first chamber drops out detritus and performs gas exchange.  The second chamber spreads out the flow.  I can  

      understand this being important enough of a factor to be the complete problem.  However, I look at most things from a  

      holistic viewpoint.     Without detritus interfering with feeding, exactly why would a deep water non photosynthetic coral

      prefer cryptic refugium to Jaubert Plenum display.  Light is one possibility.  However, I think that Chilli likes the live food in  

      the cryptic refugium.  .  

 

What live food grows in my refugium?  Amphipods, copepods, micro stars, micro fauna & fana including free swimming bacteria.  Three months ago, I changed out macro for sponges.  Macro is good for nutrient export but it produces much DOC.  While there are > 8000 species of sponges, with diverse nutrient requirements, cryptic sponges are unique in there input output.  Cryptic sponges consume DOC and produce DIC and marine snow, both are food for coral.

 

Nothing conclusive.  I think Chilli likes “sponge food”.

[markalot]

Beautiful tank.  Look at all those punk yellowtails.    My little one in my 150 still tries to kill me if I get too close to his home area, fun little damsel.  

 

I wonder if the chili is sensitive to light, even what we consider dim light, since it's not photosynthetic?  

 

 

[Subsea]

On 12/18/2017 at 9:18 PM, markalot said:

Beautiful tank.  Look at all those punk yellowtails.    My little one in my 150 still tries to kill me if I get too close to his home area, fun little damsel.  

 

I wonder if the chili is sensitive to light, even what we consider dim light, since it's not photosynthetic?  

 

 

Yes, light grows algae which could plug up feeding polyps.  In this case, I have tooo much detritus in 25 year old sandbed.  Sandbed detritus was previously dealt with by janitors; Cerith snails, micro stars,  bristle worms and the pod brothers, amphipods & copepod.  I brought in a predator of Red Planaria, Melanarious Wrasse, 18 months ago.  I have no janitors left in my sandbed.  If I could grab “my wrasse”, I would gladly catch it and remove it from this tank.

[Subsea]

Replaced 12K light bar with royal blue,  108W led.

[Subsea]

Changes:

1.  I removed all Red Grapes and put into #2 55G growout tank.  Detritus continued to collect in branches requiring multiple cleaning each day.

 

2.  I removed last Gorgonion and put into #1 55G growout tank.   Slimmed too often, contributIng to detritus buildup in macro and coral branches.  

 

3.  Added three cured Gulf Live Rock Nano sized pieces.

 

PS.  At this time, I have coupled my 25 year old Jaubert Plenum system with this 120G new build at a flow rate of 250 GPHr.  Two good things happen.  The new start up tank at 150G total compared to 100G total is biologically carried by the 25 year old system, which at the same time is seeding tank with microscopic spores and larvae that will contribute to complex food webs.

[Subsea]

I did not like the blue reflection off rock.  With 16’ of light, I removed the blue 4’ bar.  I see little loss of illumination.  I like the ascetics better with less intense light.  

 

What do do you think?

[Subsea]

Big changes.  75G Jaubert Plenum coupled to 120G new build.

[Subsea]

I have removed all of the Sargassum seaweed as well as Red Grapes.  Both accumulated detritus requiring frequent cleaning each day to look good.    

 

Macro presently in 75G display is Caulerpa Paspaloides, Caulerpa Prolifera and Enterorpha, a cousin to Ulva.

 

https://www.marineplantbook.com/marinebookprolifera.htm

 

https://www.marineplantbook.com/marinebookpaspaloides.htm

 

https://www.marineplantbook.com/marinebookenteromorpha.htm

 

 

 

[Subsea]

Flame Scallop continues to move.

[vlangel]

I have been reading your thread and posts and l am becoming fascinated with cryptic sponges.  My 2 large dense rocks in my seahorse tank are very old.  I have had them since 2004 and I got them from a tank someone broke down and sold to me.  They always had a lot of sponges on them, so much so that I sucessfully kept a beautiful navarchus angel for years until I sold it to get seahorses.  Since setting up my current seahorse tank, the sponges are really taking off.  I have white, charcoal gray and a pretty magenta variety.  I also bought a puffy yellow sponge and a photosynthetic purple sponge.

 

Where I am going with this is someday when my current ponies have lived out their natural lives I will probably take this tank in a different more natural direction much like your tank/s.  I'd like to build a natural rock wall  to partition off a portion of the tank to create a multi level effect, (which will also allow for a DSB and a SSB).  I will seed the sand bed with life before I add any creatures.  I will invest in more diverse macro algaes (GCE) and maybe a very small amount of rock from KP Aquatics.  I may even try incorporating a mangrove.  Do you have any suggestions that you have learned over the years?

[Subsea]

The first time that I read about sponges was in a book, Reef Invertebrates, co-authored by your hometown boy, Anthony Calfo with Robert Fenner.  This book is a serious description of reef invertebrate and how they fit into the ecology of our captive reef tanks, if we want complex food webs to process nutrients and produce live food this book is an excellent place to get “knowed up” as us country boys would say.

 

There are over 8000 species of sponges.  They will filter massive amounts of water.

 

Your rock wall separator sounds somewhat like Steve Tyree’s cryptic zone filtration.  

 

For me, natural,filtration makes this addiction enjoyable and easy to maintain.  I don’t spend 30 minutes a week on any tank.  Between the microbes and the micro fauna & fana, they do a better job than I could ever do.

[MortalWombat]

Awesome!

[vlangel]

3 hours ago, Subsea said:

The first time that I read about sponges was in a book, Reef Invertebrates, co-authored by your hometown boy, Anthony Calfo with Robert Fenner.  This book is a serious description of reef invertebrate and how they fit into the ecology of our captive reef tanks, if we want complex food webs to process nutrients and produce live food this book is an excellent place to get “knowed up” as us country boys would say.

 

There are over 8000 species of sponges.  They will filter massive amounts of water.

 

Your rock wall separator sounds somewhat like Steve Tyree’s cryptic zone filtration.  

 

For me, natural,filtration makes this addiction enjoyable and easy to maintain.  I don’t spend 30 minutes a week on any tank.  Between the microbes and the micro fauna & fana, they do a better job than I could ever do.

Thanks subsea, I will look for Anthony's book.  The first book I ever bought was Robert Fenner's the contientious marine aquarist, right before I switched from freshwater to salt.

 

I adore the seahorses but they are very needy and require a somewhat sterile enviroment.  I look forward to a day when my tank wont be so expensive and energy consuming.

 

I read last night that cryptic sponges do reduce bacterias in the water column so they are definitely a plus in the seahorse tank.  I can't really encourage the fauna and flora in a sandbed however without running the risk of seeding a nasty bacteria that could quickly kill the ponies.  Thats why atm I am bb.

[Subsea]

Would a UV sterilizer help your messy eaters?

 

Oddly enough, I have been convinced by research technicians/scientist with Texas AgriLife Mariculture Research Facility that I need to sterilize my tank water for the seaweed culture before adding salt.  Since I will couple the 450G of Rubbermade tanks buried in ground as an intensive grass shrimp culture, this organic nutrient rich water will go thru a 40W UV sterilizer.  I read three separate mariculture manuals.  They all sterilized their water.

 

 

[Subsea]

I continue gravel vac to get excess detritus out of sandbed.  If I could catch the Melanarious Wrasse, I would be able to hire Janitors.

 

I have opened up aquascaping some more by transferring mature colonies into 120G new build.

[vlangel]

I do not think a UV will help for the seahorses.  A UV only kills the water borne bacterias and for seahorses its the bacteria that grows in pockets of trapped food and detritus that are dangerous.  

 

When I raised seahorse fry I dealt with keeping the fry and their newly hatched artemia free of bacteria by using sanolife mic-F, a probiotic. I am sure that is the only reason I was successful my very first try.  You can buy sanolife from Seahorse Source.

[Subsea]

I continue gravel vac to get excess detritus out of sandbed.  If I could catch the Melanarious Wrasse, I would be able to hire Janitors.

 

I have opened up aquascaping some more by transferring mature coral colonies into 120G new build.