Billy's Deep Sandbed Experiment

[billygoat]

Hello N-R friends! In this thread I will documenting my latest project: attempting to grow seagrasses in a home aquarium.

 

Seagrasses typically don't get very much attention from hobbyists, mostly due to the fact that marine planted aquariums can be difficult to get going and are less visually impressive than reef tanks filled with colorful coral colonies. Information on setting up and maintaining a seagrass tank is very limited, and seagrasses themselves can be difficult to source. Despite these obstacles, trying to grow seagrass has been on my hobby to-do list for ages, so I'm excited to finally give it a shot! This is very much uncharted territory for me so this tank could end up being a total disaster, but even if it is I will be sure to meticulously document my failures so that others can learn from them. 😅

 

Here is what I have so far:

 

 

• LifeGard Aquatics 17g all-glass aquarium (~24"L x 12"W x 14"H)
• Finnex 50w titanium heater
• Aqamai KPS powerhead
• AquaClear 30 HOB filter
• Current USA Serene Sun 25w freshwater LED light (to be installed in a few days) + a big window for natural sun

 

Seagrasses are true vascular plants with roots, leaves, and flowers. This means they have a few special needs in the home aquarium - namely a very thick sandbed rich in organic nutrients. My tank's substrate has an average depth of 4.5", and consists of a mix of Miracle Mud (10 lb.), dry aragonite sand (10 lb.), dry crushed coral (10 lb.), CaribSea Fiji pink live sand (10 lb.), and CaribSea Bahamas oolite live sand (40 lb.). I suspect this mix of sand will provide the plants with an appropriate mix of grain sizes but it may require supplementation with additional nutrients down the line, probably in the form of pond pellets or some similar sub-surface fertilizer. Seagrasses absorb nutrients through their roots rather than directly through their tissues like macroalgae do, which means the richness of the sandbed is of special importance.

 

I decided to go with shoal grass (Halodule wrightii) as my starter species of seagrass. I read that shoal grass transplants better and is a bit hardier and easier to keep than the other species (manatee grass and turtle grass) available to the hobby. The only places I could find seagrass for sale were Floridapets.com (which seems to be perpetually out of stock) and https://aquaticusplants.com/. I ended up buying from Aquaticus since it's apparently just about the only option. 😅

 

As for other "starter stuff" - I ordered 10 lbs. of ocean live rock from gulfliverock.com, and also picked up a refugium starter package (mud, pods, live sand from the ocean, other miscellaneous micro-goodies) from Indo-Pacific Aqua Farms in Hawaii. My rock (and plants, for that matter) may end up being delayed due to the hurricane that's currently impacting Florida, so in the meantime I've added some ceramic biomedia from my 40g tank to this system's HOB filter just to get the ball rolling. 

 

Other livestock will be added down the line, but I have to see what the tank looks like with rocks and plants in it before I decide what to get.

 

Anyway, that's just about it for now, but here are a few more photos of my setup process. Stay tuned for more updates as this system comes together! 🙏

 

Here's the tank situated next to a huge window. My 40g Florida biotope is on the left.

 

First fill on 7/4/21. 80 lbs. of sand and mud makes quite a mess. 🤔

 

Closeup of the sandbed. It's deep!

 

 

[seabass]

Interesting.  I had a contest tank with star grass in it.  It did well for awhile, then developed problems.  I feel that with the changes in how we feel about nutrients, success with seagrass is probably more likely.  I'd certainly acquire sources for nitrate and phosphate.  You might try https://aquariumfertilizer.com/  However, Brightwell has both of these products in bottles.

 

I also had issues with cyano in the DSB.  I didn't really work through this problem, but I really feel that cyano is primarily caused by excess organics in the substrate.  This was likely the result of dying seagrass roots and insufficient aeration from sand bed critters.

 

Today, I'd try to keep the inorganic nutrients high, while trying to control organic wastes.  I always felt that I'd like to give it another go.  Hopefully, you'll have more luck than I did.  Following...

[Zer0]

Following as well. I love these kinds of tanks.

[billygoat]

19 hours ago, Zer0 said:

Following as well. I love these kinds of tanks.

Thank you! Hopefully it ends up being interesting and not just a gigantic mess. 😅 Although I guess that would also be interesting in its own way.

 

20 hours ago, seabass said:

Interesting.  I had a contest tank with star grass in it.  It did well for awhile, then developed problems.  I feel that with the changes in how we feel about nutrients, success with seagrass is probably more likely.  I'd certainly acquire sources for nitrate and phosphate.  You might try https://aquariumfertilizer.com/  However, Brightwell has both of these products in bottles.

 

I also had issues with cyano in the DSB.  I didn't really work through this problem, but I really feel that cyano is primarily caused by excess organics in the substrate.  This was likely the result of dying seagrass roots and insufficient aeration from sand bed critters.

 

Today, I'd try to keep the inorganic nutrients high, while trying to control organic wastes.  I always felt that I'd like to give it another go.  Hopefully, you'll have more luck than I did.  Following...

Thanks for sharing your seagrass thread @seabass! I read through the whole thing and found it very interesting. You tried some pretty wild stuff (h2o2 dosing? pig dewormer!? 😂) and definitely went about things in a very different way from what I am planning, but there's a lot of awesome knowledge recorded in that thread. I appreciate it.

[gena]

1 hour ago, billygoat said:

Thank you! Hopefully it ends up being interesting and not just a gigantic mess. 😅 Although I guess that would also be interesting in its own way.

 

Thanks for sharing your seagrass thread @seabass! I read through the whole thing and found it very interesting. You tried some pretty wild stuff (h2o2 dosing? pig dewormer!? 😂) and definitely went about things in a very different way from what I am planning, but there's a lot of awesome knowledge recorded in that thread. I appreciate it.

There can be beauty in chaos!!!!  I think it's going to turn out awesome.

Way back in 2000 I got my DSB critters (detritivore kit), etc. from Indo-Pacific Aqua Farms.  They sent me two free corals along with the items I bought.  I was freaking out LOL.  I wasn't ready for coral.  But turned out just fine.  One was a leather and the other was some anthelia polyps.  Two of my favorite corals now.  All thanks to IP Aqua Farms 😊.

[billygoat]

1 hour ago, gena said:

There can be beauty in chaos!!!!  I think it's going to turn out awesome.

Way back in 2000 I got my DSB critters (detritivore kit), etc. from Indo-Pacific Aqua Farms.  They sent me two free corals along with the items I bought.  I was freaking out LOL.  I wasn't ready for coral.  But turned out just fine.  One was a leather and the other was some anthelia polyps.  Two of my favorite corals now.  All thanks to IP Aqua Farms 😊.

Thanks for the vote of confidence! 😁 I've heard good things about Indo-Pacific Aqua Farms, but the stuff I bought for this tank was my first order from them. I think it should be arriving sometime today, so I'll be sure to document whatever they send me! (I ordered a mix-and-match package and honestly I don't really remember exactly what I decided to put in it. 😅) Free corals would be super cool!

[DevilDuck]

I have an interesting experience with seagrass. I was snorkeling in a shallow seagrass bed in Puerto Rico. As I drifted and brushed against the seagrass I began to notice a stinging sensation. The stinging grew more intense the furthered I ventured into the plant bed until it felt like my bare skin was on fire.

 

I learned later that seagrass often host colonial hydriods. They appear as a fuzzy layer on each blade of seagrass. Those hydroid have a nasty sting on bare skin. So when you get the seagrass order handle them with gloves!

[billygoat]

16 minutes ago, DevilDuck said:

I have an interesting experience with seagrass. I was snorkeling in a shallow seagrass bed in Puerto Rico. As I drifted and brushed against the seagrass I began to notice a stinging sensation. The stinging grew more intense the furthered I ventured into the plant bed until it felt like my bare skin was on fire.

 

I learned later that seagrass often host colonial hydriods. They appear as a fuzzy layer on each blade of seagrass. Those hydroid have a nasty sting on bare skin. So when you get the seagrass order handle them with gloves!

Definitely worth watching out for! Hydroids are particularly nasty because they're often transparent and very difficult to spot. I believe the grass I am getting is aquacultured in closed systems and therefore should not have too many epiphytes growing on it... but it never hurts to be careful! 😅

[billygoat]

First stuff is in! My order from Indo-Pacific Sea Farms was the first to arrive.

 

 

Lots of different stuff came with this order: a whole bunch of gammarid amphipods, a bag of "nitrifying bacteria culture" (I think it might just have been dirty seawater, but sure, why not? 😂) some live sand, some nice mud, a small army of little Hawaiian hermit crabs, and a whole bunch of periwinkle snails that I am 100% sure I will be finding in the various corners of my aquarium room over the course of the next week or so (they started crawling out of the tank almost as soon as I added them 😅). I also got a small coral frag (Anthelia), some bristle worms (lol) and several different kinds of macroalgae - a holdfasted species of Sargassum which was purposefully shipped in a bag of its own, Ulva, and Gracilaria. A snippet of each of these latter two algae was shipped in each bag of snails/hermits/pods as an anchor for the animals during transit. I gathered up these anchors and tied them together with monofilament line, then glued them to a piece of rock. I am pretty sure they will grow if conditions are good, and if not they'll at least give the pods and hermits something to do while I wait for my rocks and plants to arrive.

 

All things considered I think I am pleased with my purchase. It seems like a lot of money to pay for a bunch of marine dirt, some seaweed, and a handful of super common intertidal animals, but I think that such critters will be critical for the long-term health of my deep sandbed. The mud also made a bit of a mess of the tank, but it should clear within a couple of hours. 

 

 

I think my rocks and plants may be delayed for a week due to the impacts of Hurricane Elsa, but stay tuned. More updates to come!

 

[gena]

Woah now that is a sight to behold (all those bags)!!!!  Super awesome right there!!!!  Did they give you any freebies?  I ordered a second time from them a few years after the first and they didn't send me any freebies that time.  So, maybe they have stopped doing that.  Unless you got a free coral or two?

 

Cool...you got the anthelia.  I got some of that yesterday too from another vendor.  It grows like a weed and it stinks out of water LOL.  I forgot that putrid smell until yesterday.  Same stink as xenia.  I'm hoping it does what it's supposed to do and grow like a weed in my tank.  

Can't wait to see it all cleared up!  

[billygoat]

On 7/9/2021 at 8:11 AM, gena said:

Woah now that is a sight to behold (all those bags)!!!!  Super awesome right there!!!!  Did they give you any freebies?  I ordered a second time from them a few years after the first and they didn't send me any freebies that time.  So, maybe they have stopped doing that.  Unless you got a free coral or two?

 

Cool...you got the anthelia.  I got some of that yesterday too from another vendor.  It grows like a weed and it stinks out of water LOL.  I forgot that putrid smell until yesterday.  Same stink as xenia.  I'm hoping it does what it's supposed to do and grow like a weed in my tank.  

Can't wait to see it all cleared up!  

Many bags, that's for sure! I could just barely fit all of them into my tank at once! 😂 I didn't get any freebies except for an extra bag of amphipods (can never have too many amphipods... until you do, and then it's way too many! 🤣), so I must have added that Anthelia to my original order. It's definitely nothing flashy but it's a neat little coral that is free to do whatever it wants in a tank like this. I didn't smell it before putting it in the tank - actually I just dumped every bag from that IPSF order directly into the tank, water and all, so I could collect ALL the bacteria and stuff in there - but I'll take your word on the aroma, haha.

 

It's just a little frag on a piece of rubble! But I am sure it will be all over the place before long.

 

I also got my new light yesterday - a Current USA Serene Sun 25w LED. This is my first time trying a low cost strip-style LED like this. I think it's a nice little light and it will probably be more than sufficient for a tank like this, but I have to admit that the difference in quality between this one and the Kessil light on my other tank is extremely dramatic. Still though, I think it's a worthwhile purchase and I am pleased with it.

 

Here's a crooked picture of my empty sandbed! 😅 More stuff to come next week!

[gena]

I could use some amphipods.  Haven't seen a single one in my tank since I set it up.  I have the sneaking suspicion that the previous owner rarely fed the clownfish and the fish relied on pods for survival.  Why else would a tank running for 6 years have no visible signs of pods?????  That's my big question LOL.

 

Your anthelia looks just like what I had 20 years ago!  Same light tan coloration.  I'm sure it's from the same colony they've had for YEARS!!!!  Be glad you didn't smell it LOL.

 

My anthelia that I just got is a darker pink variation.  I think both colors look nice.  Maybe we can do a trade some day LOL.  Let's document how our anthelia grows since we got ours at the same time and the same size.

[WV Reefer]

On 7/7/2021 at 2:11 PM, billygoat said:

Hello N-R friends! In this thread I will documenting my latest project: attempting to grow seagrasses in a home aquarium.

 

Seagrasses typically don't get very much attention from hobbyists, mostly due to the fact that marine planted aquariums can be difficult to get going and are less visually impressive than reef tanks filled with colorful coral colonies. Information on setting up and maintaining a seagrass tank is very limited, and seagrasses themselves can be difficult to source. Despite these obstacles, trying to grow seagrass has been on my hobby to-do list for ages, so I'm excited to finally give it a shot! This is very much uncharted territory for me so this tank could end up being a total disaster, but even if it is I will be sure to meticulously document my failures so that others can learn from them. 😅

 

Here is what I have so far:

 

 

• LifeGard Aquatics 17g all-glass aquarium (~24"L x 12"W x 14"H)
• Finnex 50w titanium heater
• Aqamai KPS powerhead
• AquaClear 30 HOB filter
• Current USA Serene Sun 25w freshwater LED light (to be installed in a few days) + a big window for natural sun

 

Seagrasses are true vascular plants with roots, leaves, and flowers. This means they have a few special needs in the home aquarium - namely a very thick sandbed rich in organic nutrients. My tank's substrate has an average depth of 4.5", and consists of a mix of Miracle Mud (10 lb.), dry aragonite sand (10 lb.), dry crushed coral (10 lb.), CaribSea Fiji pink live sand (10 lb.), and CaribSea Bahamas oolite live sand (40 lb.). I suspect this mix of sand will provide the plants with an appropriate mix of grain sizes but it may require supplementation with additional nutrients down the line, probably in the form of pond pellets or some similar sub-surface fertilizer. Seagrasses absorb nutrients through their roots rather than directly through their tissues like macroalgae do, which means the richness of the sandbed is of special importance.

 

I decided to go with shoal grass (Halodule wrightii) as my starter species of seagrass. I read that shoal grass transplants better and is a bit hardier and easier to keep than the other species (manatee grass and turtle grass) available to the hobby. The only places I could find seagrass for sale were Floridapets.com (which seems to be perpetually out of stock) and https://aquaticusplants.com/. I ended up buying from Aquaticus since it's apparently just about the only option. 😅

 

As for other "starter stuff" - I ordered 10 lbs. of ocean live rock from gulfliverock.com, and also picked up a refugium starter package (mud, pods, live sand from the ocean, other miscellaneous micro-goodies) from Indo-Pacific Aqua Farms in Hawaii. My rock (and plants, for that matter) may end up being delayed due to the hurricane that's currently impacting Florida, so in the meantime I've added some ceramic biomedia from my 40g tank to this system's HOB filter just to get the ball rolling. 

 

Other livestock will be added down the line, but I have to see what the tank looks like with rocks and plants in it before I decide what to get.

 

Anyway, that's just about it for now, but here are a few more photos of my setup process. Stay tuned for more updates as this system comes together! 🙏

 

Here's the tank situated next to a huge window. My 40g Florida biotope is on the left.

 

First fill on 7/4/21. 80 lbs. of sand and mud makes quite a mess. 🤔

 

Closeup of the sandbed. It's deep!

 

 

Yay!!!…… Following. 

I’d take a natural looking tank before an overly manicured reef any day. 😊

[billygoat]

On 7/11/2021 at 6:58 AM, gena said:

I could use some amphipods.  Haven't seen a single one in my tank since I set it up.  I have the sneaking suspicion that the previous owner rarely fed the clownfish and the fish relied on pods for survival.  Why else would a tank running for 6 years have no visible signs of pods?????  That's my big question LOL.

 

Your anthelia looks just like what I had 20 years ago!  Same light tan coloration.  I'm sure it's from the same colony they've had for YEARS!!!!  Be glad you didn't smell it LOL.

 

My anthelia that I just got is a darker pink variation.  I think both colors look nice.  Maybe we can do a trade some day LOL.  Let's document how our anthelia grows since we got ours at the same time and the same size.

Yeah really... if there are no pods and nothing that seems like it ought to be eating pods, chances are that something is going on there. Clownfish aren't usually the biggest pickers around, but if there's nothing else to eat I imagine they can be pretty liberal with their dietary choices. 😂

 

I'll keep careful track of that Anthelia! It will definitely be cool to compare growth between both of ours, especially since our tanks are so different! So far my frag seems to be doing well (I could swear that it's already starting to add new polyps), but it's only been in there for a week so things could certainly change.

 

I've been in contact with Aquaticus Plants in Tampa, and they've informed me that my shipment of seagrasses has been delayed due to an outbreak of red tide in their region. I told them to take their time with the shipment as I definitely don't want any toxic dinoflagellates in my tank (I'm all about collecting as many natural microorganisms I can, but that particular kind of natural microorganism is one I would rather avoid! 😅), so they told me they were going to try and ship my plants this week on Wednesday. That happens to be today, so we'll see if I get a shipping notification. If I do, my plants could arrive as soon as tomorrow!

 

Right now there's still nothing in the tank but pods, hermit crabs, bristle worms, and a few sprigs of algae. Still no word on what's going on with my ocean rocks from Gulf Live Rock; I'm going to need to reach out to them about that pretty soon. If I get the seagrasses in and like the look of them in the tank with no rocks I may just end up cancelling my order with GLR anyway.

 

Diatoms have started to grow on the glass as of yesterday. I ordered some snails from Reef Cleaners and should get them by Friday.

 

Here's a shot of my still-mostly-empty tank. I'm really loving the natural sunlight. I think I am going to try and employ sunlight in every tank that I put together in the future. Even the best halides or hybrid LED-power compact fixtures can't replicate that special something that the sun has to offer.

[seabass]

With not much in your tank, what are your nutrient levels?  I'd probably try to target phosphate of at least 0.05ppm and nitrate of at least 5ppm.  I might also consider dosing phyto for your pods and to encourage some green film algae.

[billygoat]

1 hour ago, seabass said:

With not much in your tank, what are your nutrient levels?  I'd probably try to target phosphate of at least 0.05ppm and nitrate of at least 5ppm.  I might also consider dosing phyto for your pods and to encourage some green film algae.

Good question! I tested this afternoon and came back with 5-10ppm nitrate (thanks Salifert) and about 0.03ppm phosphate. I've been lightly feeding the amphipods and hermit crabs with PE mysis pellets once a day. It looks like green sheeting algae is starting to appear on the glass along with the diatoms that have been there for a few days, so hopefully the copepods can subsist on that for the time being.

 

That being said, do testable nutrients even matter for seagrasses? As true plants they get most of their nutrients through their roots, not by absorbing them directly through their body tissues like algae do. It seems like the nutrient content of the deep sandbed would matter a lot more than the nutrient content of the water, unless I am mistaken in my understanding. That's the reason I was considering seeding the bed with pond pellets or some other sort of sinking fertilizer. Or maybe the dissolved nutrient levels in the water are just a reflection of the levels in the sandbed? I'm really not sure how that works. 🤔

[seabass]

I can't say that I've totally figured that out.  However, if you think about it, true plants can uptake nutrients out of the water from their roots.

 

 

So I don't really think you need fertilizer pellets.  Although you might want to consider dosing F/2 which will contain more than just phosphate and nitrate.

[billygoat]

15 hours ago, seabass said:

I can't say that I've totally figured that out.  However, if you think about it, true plants can uptake nutrients out of the water from their roots.

 

 

So I don't really think you need fertilizer pellets.  Although you might want to consider dosing F/2 which will contain more than just phosphate and nitrate.

That does make some good sense! I am just thinking that nutrient levels in the sand (or in the water that's in the sand, even) are bound to be pretty dramatically different from nutrient levels in the ambient tank water, which suggests to me that traditional water quality tests are less reliable as an indicator of what nutrients are actually available to the plants. A reef tank, for example, might show 5ppm nitrate and 0ppm phosphate... until you stir up the sandbed and liberate all the nutrients that are sealed away down there, after which your test kits will tell a very different story!

 

Hopefully the reef test kits will at least give a decent idea of what's going on down in the sand though! They're certainly better than nothing. 

 

I have a feeling that some sort of fertilizer dosing is almost certainly going to be necessary at some point down the line, so thanks for the recommendation! I am going to see if I can gather some more information about growing techniques and dosing, possibly by reaching out to public aquariums that have had success growing this stuff. 🤔

[billygoat]

Well as it turns out I did not end up getting a shipping notification from Aquaticus Plants... but my seagrass arrived regardless! It was just shipped without tracking I guess. All's well that ends well.

 

Definitely seems like a pretty down-home operation there at Aquaticus. The grasses were mailed inside of a pair of heat-sealed plastic bags of the sort used in countertop vacuum-pack machines like the one I have in my kitchen. Seems to have worked though, so I can't complain! 😅 They even sent me an extra plant! Pretty good service, all things considered.

 

 

I ordered plants in "grow bags" - little burlap sacks tied with twine that hold a small amount of mud around the roots of each plant. Beau from Aquaticus informed me that these are mostly for public aquariums who want to "plant" seagrasses without actually having them grow into the substrate, and also for retailers who wish to resell the plants. I wanted them for that sweet, sweet native substrate - and boy did I get it! The package was rich with foul-smelling, hypoxic mud. It's exactly what I was hoping to get and I couldn't be happier.

 

 

Planting the seagrasses was a little bit difficult. I tried to be gentle so as not to damage the roots, but also I wanted to be sure to get as much of the native mud into each planting as possible. After the second clump of grass the water in my tank was ink, so I had to go mostly by feel. I'll likely have to make some adjustments after the water clears, but for the time being I think everything will be okay. I'm convinced that the bacteria included in the grow bags is going to be enormously beneficial to my deep sandbed in the long run. In fact, after planting all six clusters of seagrass I took all the black, stinking mud left over in the bottom of the package and poured it into my aquarium. Perfect! 👌

 

 

In other news, I did a water change on my 40 gallon reef today and ended up pulling out a bunch of scraggly Halimeda that was growing in there. In the process I dislodged a handful of tiny brittle stars, so I added them to this seagrass tank. Hopefully none of the various critters in here were inadvertently buried during my blind excavations! My apologies to any hermit crabs that have to dig themselves out of putrid mud this afternoon. 

 

 

More pictures to come after things clear up! Stay tuned! 😁

[billygoat]

Snails arrived from Reef Cleaners today! Unfortunately the small conch I ordered was DOA, as were a few of the Astraea snails. I think I'm only going to use express mail when ordering livestock online in the future. USPS mail just sucks nowadays.

 

I got my first look at the seagrass today! I had to scrape a bunch of gunk off the glass to get a good view, but the water seems to have cleared up nicely.

 

 

Still no word from Gulf Live Rocks regarding the rocks I ordered two weeks ago... so I am thinking maybe I will go ahead and cancel that order. I'm imagining this tank filled up with seagrass and honestly I am not even sure if it needs any rocks in it. What do you guys think?

[seabass]

I think something like this would work pretty well.

[Murphs_Reef]

That looks ace! I would definitely want a few small fist sized rocks in there though. 

[billygoat]

On 7/17/2021 at 7:48 AM, Murphych said:

That looks ace! I would definitely want a few small fiat sized rocks in there though. 

Thanks! I was thinking the same thing - in fact I had some small chunks of dry rock marinating for just this purpose - but yesterday I learned that my order for 10 lb. of ocean live rock is going to come through after all! Sure enough it was delayed due to Hurricane Elsa. It should be arriving within in a few days, so I am going to hold off on putting more rocks into the tank until I get that order. It feels weird to add live rock as the last addition to a newly set up system, but here we are.

 

On 7/16/2021 at 6:55 PM, seabass said:

I think something like this would work pretty well.

I love the minimalist look for this sort of setup. Hopefully my order of live rock doesn't leave me with too much rock... although if that's the case, I can always put some of it into my 40g tank. There's still plenty of space in there.

 

For the time being there's nothing much going on in the tank. I moved the biomedia in the HOB filter back into my other tank and replaced it with some floss to help clear some of the silt out of the water. Unfortunately my Reef Cleaners order was kind of a dud (in addition to my DOA strawberry conch, only 2 of the 10 Astraea snails I ordered survived) so I'll need to source some more snails soon, but I think the tank should be fine with a skeletal clean-up crew for a little while.

 

I also moved some mangrove propagules over from my other system. Not sure if those are going to stay but they can hang out in this tank for the time being.

 

[billygoat]

My live rock is in folks! I am very pleased with it. The look of the tank has changed pretty dramatically, but I still like it. The water is still pretty hazy, but here it is!

 

 

Lots of really cool stuff came in on these rocks, and it looks like much of it has a good chance of surviving. These star corals for example - they may look dead, but I am actually pretty sure they're alive! The back side of this rock also has a large bivalve (some kind of clam?) attached to it.

 

 

Here's a cool gorgonian that is not often available to hobbyists - a slit-pore sea rod (Plexaurella sp.). It was damaged during transit, but as you can see it is still very much alive! The orangeish thing to the right of the gorg is a large solitary tunicate. I got two of those as well, and at least one of them is definitely alive (the jury is still out on the other).

 

 

Here's another cool find: fire coral! I believe the brownish crust at the top of this rock is an encrusting Millepora. There's also a large encrusting sponge on the bottom.

 

 

Those are only a few of the super cool things growing on my rocks. Unboxing real live rock right out of the ocean is one of my favorite parts of this hobby, and I'm really glad I got some again this time.

 

As for the seagrass, I managed to put the rocks into the tank without damaging my grasses, and I think the plants will do just fine with the new configuration. I gave them a haircut a few days ago to remove the dead blades that had been lost during shipping, and they're looking nice and green and good. Let's hope they stay that way! This tank grows an insane amount of film algae (I could scrape it every day - maybe even twice a day! - if I had a mind to) so more snails will be a must to keep the seagrass clean. I have reinforcements on order; they should arrive early next week. I'll post again when they get here!

 

Thanks as always for reading! 🙏

[seabass]

Wow, awesome rock.  It looks very much at home in your tank too.  There's not quite as much room for your seagrass, but I like it.