Red White and Blue

[Subsea]

 I don’t know how long the flame scallop is going to stay there, so I will take the pictures now. 

[conradj5]

Wow, gorgeous tanks. Are you feeding anything special for the scallop and sponges?

[Subsea]

2 hours ago, conradj5 said:

Wow, gorgeous tanks. Are you feeding anything special for the scallop and sponges?

 

I have used every technique that my 45 years experience has given me to recycle nutrients thru complex food webs which produce live foods in this tank.  On this 75G tank, I feed heavily with flakes, frozrn mysis but each day, I feed one live oyster and one live clam to tank inhabitants each day.  When I add the oyster juice, every filter feeder in that tank comes alive.  I also dose 75ml of vinegar twice a week as well as trace addition of iodine and major trace addition of iron.

 

At 25 years maturity, the Jaubert Plenum has begin bealcing detritus for the last 6 months.  Everyone of my sand bed janitors has been eaten by the introduction of a Melinarious Wrasse 18 months ago coupled with lack of sandbed maintenance on my part, has caused a dirty sandbed.  To that end and because I have no need of a dsb for denitrification, I am siphoning out gravel from 6” deep to 2” deep.

 

also, the 30G ecosystem mud macro refugium has been converted into a cryptic refugium.  Three months ago, I turned out the lights, composted tomatoes with grape caulerpa, added dry rock, then some rock seeded with cryptic sponges.  

 

Why cryptic sponges.  You might have to get the Sponge ebook by Steve Tyree or a marine micro invert reference source like your phone and google search.  I will try to explain.  There are > 8000 species of sponges, some as differrent as night and day.  I grow as much diversity of live food in tank as possible to offer as much variety as possible.  Specifically, with respect to cryptic sponges, they consume DOC and produce DIC with is a nutrient source for coral and macro.  Cryptic sponges also produce a type of gel that is often discribed as “Marine Snow”

 

So, yes my tank produces live food for tank inhabitants.