Chronicle of a 40g Grassland

[cosmicbread]

Hello everyone. I’ve been fiddling with one of my 40g breeders, and since it is approaching a new stage in its life, I have felt and heeded the sacred siren call of the Forum to begin a journal.

The Premise
This will be a dedicated seagrass bed ("shoal" Halodule wrightii and "manatee" Syringodium filiforme) with perhaps some choice macros. I want to showcase unusual peaceful inverts like Pederson anemone shrimp and their nems, ALL of the tube worms and feather dusters (seriously, I want to keep as many as I possibly can), limpets, conchs, chitons, cowries, porcelain crabs, sponges, small stars, and maybe a cuke and emperor shrimp combo.

I may or may not add a few small fish (maybe pink streaked wrasse or tiny gobies) down the road once the grass has grown in more and there is a substantial pod population. I’ll be depending on pods to help me with cleaning Epiphytic algae off the grass blades.

The Plan
Sea grasses depend on a lot of “dirt” in terms of microbes, bacteria, and what have you, which this gunky old sandbed has in spades. This tank has in fact been established for almost a year and has been run exceedingly dirty. It was once a grow-out tank for a mid-sized snowflake eel; following that, it became a long-term nursery for a batch of fancy ocellaris babies that I raised from eggs. My children spent months in here once they had morphed from the larval stage. I had unlimited access to rotifers at the time, so raising them was relatively easy and very gratifying, but maybe not something I will do again any time soon.


The kids.

Caulerpa prolifera has always been a feature of this system. I’ve thrown in other macros but this stuff triumphed over everything else since I allowed it to take up so much room. It has always done a seriously fine job at keeping nitrates in check and providing shelter for the creatures, but I yearn for something new so I will likely remove it completely from this system.

A close-up of my beautiful orange leviathan, whom I've had the honor of caretaking for two years now.

The macro forest at its peak.

The babies have moved on to other homes and my glorious serpent star is back in my 32g mixed reef tank. Somewhat recently, I began to struggle mightily with aiptasia and ended up throwing most of the rocks outside to reset them…so, for the moment, this tank is sand only with the exception of rubble in the HOB filter.


There is a lot of dense, nutrient-rich mulm in here leftover from the previous inhabitants, which I am leaving as plant food. The sand is teeming with spaghetti worms and some bristle friends. My fighting conch Snorch has been enjoying the open space.

Absolutely staggeringly FILTHY. I've since removed the second heater.


I will be adding several more pounds of live sand (as well as some sparse live rock) from TBS in mid-January, and I will add even MORE bagged store sand and mud in with that.

So, don’t fret at the sand depth :)

I currently have a small, very upset crop of shoal grass from Aquaticus Plants (it got left out in the cold, so I am not super confident in its longevity) and several healthy sprigs of manatee grass from Rusalty planted.
SeaChem fertilizer tabs have been prodded in evenly throughout.

The beginning.

What's next?
I'm current waiting on:
An order of IPSF Live Sand Activator + "Wondermud" (I've ordered this before in the past and I've been pretty pleased).
An order of 10 lbs TBS Live Sand and a few pounds of live rock.
A couple peppermint shrimp to help me with the remnants of the aiptasia.

Current specs
40 gallon breeder and stand
AquaClear 70 HOB
Unknown Tidal HOB
Heater
Fluval Spec freshwater light
AI Prime freshwater light


Current animal inhabitants
1 large fighting conch "Snorch"
Several small chitons
Several asterina stars and pieces of asterina stars

 

[Tinnerito]

Hello everyone. I’ve been fiddling with one of my 40g breeders, and since it is approaching a new stage in its life, I have felt and heeded the sacred siren call of the Forum to begin a journal.

The Premise
This will be a dedicated seagrass bed ("shoal" Halodule wrightii and "manatee" Syringodium filiforme) with perhaps some choice macros. I want to showcase unusual peaceful inverts like Pederson anemone shrimp and their nems, ALL of the tube worms and feather dusters (seriously, I want to keep as many as I possibly can), limpets, conchs, chitons, cowries, porcelain crabs, sponges, and maybe a cuke and emperor shrimp combo.

I may or may not add a few small fish (maybe pink streaked wrasse) down the road once the grass has grown in more and there is a substantial pod population. I’ll be depending on pods to help me with cleaning epithetic algae off the grass blades.

The Plan
Sea grasses depend on a lot of “dirt” in terms of microbes, bacteria, and what have you, which this gunky old sandbed has in spades. This tank has in fact been established for almost a year and has been run exceedingly dirty. It was once a grow-out tank for a mid-sized snowflake eel; following that, it became a long-term nursery for a batch of fancy ocellaris babies that I raised from eggs. My children spent months in here once they had morphed from the larval stage. My first try. I had unlimited access to rotifers at the time, so raising them was relatively easy and very gratifying, but maybe not something I will do again any time soon.

View attachment 3941159
The kids

Caulerpa prolifera has always been a feature of this system. I’ve thrown in other macros but this stuff always triumphed over them since I allowed it to take up so much room. It has always done a fine job at keeping nitrates in check and providing shelter for the creatures, but I yearn for something new so I will likely removed it completely from this system.

View attachment 3941161
A close-up of my beautiful orange leviathan, whom I've had the honor of caretaking for two years now.

View attachment 3941162
The macro forest at its peak.

View attachment 3941188


The babies have moved on to other homes now, and my glorious serpent star is in my 32g reef tank. Somewhat recently, I began to struggle mightily with aiptasia and ended up throwing most of the rocks outside to reset them…so, for the moment, this tank is sand only with the exception of rubble in the HOB filter.


There is a lot of dense, nutrient-rich mulm in here leftover from the previous inhabitants, which I am leaving as plant food. The sand is teeming with spaghetti worms and some bristle friends. My fighting conch Snorch has been enjoying the open space.

View attachment 3941189
Absolutely FILTHY. I've since removed the second heater.


I will be adding several more pounds of live sand (as well as some sparse live rock) from TBS in mid-January, and I will add even MORE bagged store sand and mud in with that.

So, don’t fret at the sand depth :)

I currently have a small, very upset crop of shoal grass from Aquaticus Plants (it got left out in the cold, so I am not super confident in its longevity) and several healthy sprigs of manatee grass from Rusalty planted.
SeaChem fertilizer tabs have been prodded in evenly throughout.

View attachment 3941194
The beginning.

What's next?
I'm current waiting on:
An order of ISPF Live Sand Activator + "Wondermud" (I've ordered this before in the past and I've been pretty pleased)
An order of 10 lbs TBS Live Sand and a few pounds of live rock
A couple peppermint shrimp to help me with the remnants of the aiptasia.

Current specs
40 gallon breeder and stand
AquaClear 70 HOB
Heater
Fluval Spec freshwater light
AI Prime freshwater light
A powerhead of some sort View attachment 3941195

I love the theme here! It gives a lot of natural beauty. :)

 

[cosmicbread]

I love the theme here! It gives a lot of natural beauty. :)

Thank you! I adore corals but I have always been very drawn to seaweeds and marine plants. :smiling-face: The grasses will be a new challenge, for certain.

 

[kevgib67]

Thank you! I adore corals but I have always been very drawn to seaweeds and marine plants. :smiling-face: The grasses will be a new challenge, for certain.

Interesting build, first time I’ve read the words “ relatively easy “ when it came to raising clownfish fry, well done.

 

[cosmicbread]

Interesting build, first time I’ve read the words “ relatively easy “ when it came to raising clownfish fry, well done.

Haha, thank you. It's highly likely it was beginner's luck. I was a laboratory aquarist in another life and was in charge of our breeding stock there too (tetra species), and to be honest, the clowns weren't too dissimilar.

I'll miss the fishball though. :,(

The 'rents. At one point they were spawning every other week and getting quite fat...:downcast-face-with-sweat:

 

[kevgib67]

Haha, thank you. It's highly likely it was beginner's luck. I was a laboratory aquarist in another life and was in charge of our breeding stock there too (tetra species), and to be honest, the clowns weren't too dissimilar.

I'll miss the fishball though. :,(

The 'rents. At one point they were spawning every other week and enjoying a feast every time...:downcast-face-with-sweat:

View attachment 3941628

That probably gave you a step up but I’m still impressed!

 

[Tahoe61]

My kind of tank. I really appreciate the more natural mangrove, back back reefs.
So you don't think that the substrate is not loaded with Aiptasia planulae?

 

[mjszos]

This is awesome, following along for the ride. Should lead to a really natural looking ecosystem.

 

[vlangel]

Wow, cool idea! I tried seagrasses without a lot of success so will be following along.

 

[ieatbugman]

That is really cool! Have you considered seahorses?

 

[cosmicbread]

That probably gave you a step up but I’m still impressed!

It was really fun. ^_^

My kind of tank. I really appreciate the more natural mangrove, back back reefs.
So you don't think that the substrate is not loaded with Aiptasia planulae?

I oogle over coral tanks that are run like precision spaceships, but I've learned that I personally tend to operate best as an agent of chaos who tries to recreate "slice of life" natural ecosystems. I'm sure there are tiny aips in my substrate, but I was reluctant to completely throw it out since the seasoned dirt will be key for my grass, I think. I'll be trying to rely on predation (peppermint shrimp, maybe bergia again) to keep them in check. I don't mind a small number.

This is awesome, following along for the ride. Should lead to a really natural looking ecosystem.

Thank you, I'm hoping to document an interesting process.

Wow, cool idea! I tried seagrasses without a lot of success so will be following along.

I'm gonna be applying a lot of what I've learned with my longterm experience in planted freshwater tanks, but I'm expecting some struggles. Keep your fingers crossed for me :winking-face-with-tongue:

That is really cool! Have you considered seahorses?

I would be SEVERELY tempted to keep seahorses or pipefish in this system once it matures.

 

[vlangel]

It was really fun. ^_^

I oogle over coral tanks that are run like precision spaceships, but I've learned that I personally tend to operate best as an agent of chaos who tries to recreate "slice of life" natural ecosystems. I'm sure there are tiny aips in my substrate, but I was reluctant to completely throw it out since the seasoned dirt will be key for my grass, I think. I'll be trying to rely on predation (peppermint shrimp, maybe bergia again) to keep them in check. I don't mind a small number.

Thank you, I'm hoping to document an interesting process.

I'm gonna be applying a lot of what I've learned with my longterm experience in planted freshwater tanks, but I'm expecting some struggles. Keep your fingers crossed for me :winking-face-with-tongue:

I would be SEVERELY tempted to keep seahorses or pipefish in this system once it matures.

Pipe fish might be a good choice although I do not know as much about them as seahorses. Seahorses would be at risk for bacterial infection since this system is not sterile. The detritus and breakdown of plants could potentially fuel pathogenic bacteria and all seahorses are extremely vulnerable to infections of the gut, gills and skin. I guess that does not happen in the ocean because it's such a vast system, (with natural checks and balances) unlike our closed tank systems where one specie (like pathogenic bacteria) can quickly take over. I loved my seahorses but they were very high maintenance.

Like you, I tend to operate best with letting nature do it's thing with a bit of taming by me only to maintain at least an illusion of control! I love macroalgae and it's as important to me as coral. Fish are my 1st love so I always have as many as my tank can support.

 

[TheClown]

Hello everyone. I’ve been fiddling with one of my 40g breeders, and since it is approaching a new stage in its life, I have felt and heeded the sacred siren call of the Forum to begin a journal.

The Premise
This will be a dedicated seagrass bed ("shoal" Halodule wrightii and "manatee" Syringodium filiforme) with perhaps some choice macros. I want to showcase unusual peaceful inverts like Pederson anemone shrimp and their nems, ALL of the tube worms and feather dusters (seriously, I want to keep as many as I possibly can), limpets, conchs, chitons, cowries, porcelain crabs, sponges, small stars, and maybe a cuke and emperor shrimp combo.

I may or may not add a few small fish (maybe pink streaked wrasse or tiny gobies) down the road once the grass has grown in more and there is a substantial pod population. I’ll be depending on pods to help me with cleaning Epiphytic algae off the grass blades.

The Plan
Sea grasses depend on a lot of “dirt” in terms of microbes, bacteria, and what have you, which this gunky old sandbed has in spades. This tank has in fact been established for almost a year and has been run exceedingly dirty. It was once a grow-out tank for a mid-sized snowflake eel; following that, it became a long-term nursery for a batch of fancy ocellaris babies that I raised from eggs. My children spent months in here once they had morphed from the larval stage. I had unlimited access to rotifers at the time, so raising them was relatively easy and very gratifying, but maybe not something I will do again any time soon.

View attachment 3941215
The kids.

Caulerpa prolifera has always been a feature of this system. I’ve thrown in other macros but this stuff triumphed over everything else since I allowed it to take up so much room. It has always done a seriously fine job at keeping nitrates in check and providing shelter for the creatures, but I yearn for something new so I will likely remove it completely from this system.

A close-up of my beautiful orange leviathan, whom I've had the honor of caretaking for two years now.

The macro forest at its peak.

The babies have moved on to other homes and my glorious serpent star is back in my 32g mixed reef tank. Somewhat recently, I began to struggle mightily with aiptasia and ended up throwing most of the rocks outside to reset them…so, for the moment, this tank is sand only with the exception of rubble in the HOB filter.


There is a lot of dense, nutrient-rich mulm in here leftover from the previous inhabitants, which I am leaving as plant food. The sand is teeming with spaghetti worms and some bristle friends. My fighting conch Snorch has been enjoying the open space.

Absolutely staggeringly FILTHY. I've since removed the second heater.


I will be adding several more pounds of live sand (as well as some sparse live rock) from TBS in mid-January, and I will add even MORE bagged store sand and mud in with that.

So, don’t fret at the sand depth :)

I currently have a small, very upset crop of shoal grass from Aquaticus Plants (it got left out in the cold, so I am not super confident in its longevity) and several healthy sprigs of manatee grass from Rusalty planted.
SeaChem fertilizer tabs have been prodded in evenly throughout.

The beginning.

What's next?
I'm current waiting on:
An order of IPSF Live Sand Activator + "Wondermud" (I've ordered this before in the past and I've been pretty pleased).
An order of 10 lbs TBS Live Sand and a few pounds of live rock.
A couple peppermint shrimp to help me with the remnants of the aiptasia.

Current specs
40 gallon breeder and stand
AquaClear 70 HOB
Heater
Fluval Spec freshwater light
AI Prime freshwater light
A powerhead of some sort

Current animal inhabitants
1 large fighting conch "Snorch"
Several small chitons
Several asterina stars and pieces of asterina stars

Love the macro grassland! You should check Adictive reef keeping- they sell actual sea grass just btw. You might have just inspired me to make one of these.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Following along!

 

[vlangel]

Hello everyone. I’ve been fiddling with one of my 40g breeders, and since it is approaching a new stage in its life, I have felt and heeded the sacred siren call of the Forum to begin a journal.

The Premise
This will be a dedicated seagrass bed ("shoal" Halodule wrightii and "manatee" Syringodium filiforme) with perhaps some choice macros. I want to showcase unusual peaceful inverts like Pederson anemone shrimp and their nems, ALL of the tube worms and feather dusters (seriously, I want to keep as many as I possibly can), limpets, conchs, chitons, cowries, porcelain crabs, sponges, small stars, and maybe a cuke and emperor shrimp combo.

I may or may not add a few small fish (maybe pink streaked wrasse or tiny gobies) down the road once the grass has grown in more and there is a substantial pod population. I’ll be depending on pods to help me with cleaning Epiphytic algae off the grass blades.

The Plan
Sea grasses depend on a lot of “dirt” in terms of microbes, bacteria, and what have you, which this gunky old sandbed has in spades. This tank has in fact been established for almost a year and has been run exceedingly dirty. It was once a grow-out tank for a mid-sized snowflake eel; following that, it became a long-term nursery for a batch of fancy ocellaris babies that I raised from eggs. My children spent months in here once they had morphed from the larval stage. I had unlimited access to rotifers at the time, so raising them was relatively easy and very gratifying, but maybe not something I will do again any time soon.

View attachment 3941215
The kids.

Caulerpa prolifera has always been a feature of this system. I’ve thrown in other macros but this stuff triumphed over everything else since I allowed it to take up so much room. It has always done a seriously fine job at keeping nitrates in check and providing shelter for the creatures, but I yearn for something new so I will likely remove it completely from this system.

A close-up of my beautiful orange leviathan, whom I've had the honor of caretaking for two years now.

The macro forest at its peak.

The babies have moved on to other homes and my glorious serpent star is back in my 32g mixed reef tank. Somewhat recently, I began to struggle mightily with aiptasia and ended up throwing most of the rocks outside to reset them…so, for the moment, this tank is sand only with the exception of rubble in the HOB filter.


There is a lot of dense, nutrient-rich mulm in here leftover from the previous inhabitants, which I am leaving as plant food. The sand is teeming with spaghetti worms and some bristle friends. My fighting conch Snorch has been enjoying the open space.

Absolutely staggeringly FILTHY. I've since removed the second heater.


I will be adding several more pounds of live sand (as well as some sparse live rock) from TBS in mid-January, and I will add even MORE bagged store sand and mud in with that.

So, don’t fret at the sand depth :)

I currently have a small, very upset crop of shoal grass from Aquaticus Plants (it got left out in the cold, so I am not super confident in its longevity) and several healthy sprigs of manatee grass from Rusalty planted.
SeaChem fertilizer tabs have been prodded in evenly throughout.

The beginning.

What's next?
I'm current waiting on:
An order of IPSF Live Sand Activator + "Wondermud" (I've ordered this before in the past and I've been pretty pleased).
An order of 10 lbs TBS Live Sand and a few pounds of live rock.
A couple peppermint shrimp to help me with the remnants of the aiptasia.

Current specs
40 gallon breeder and stand
AquaClear 70 HOB
Heater
Fluval Spec freshwater light
AI Prime freshwater light
A powerhead of some sort

Current animal inhabitants
1 large fighting conch "Snorch"
Several small chitons
Several asterina stars and pieces of asterina stars

Check out Michael Hoaster's Caribbean biotope on Reef Central in the seagrass/macroalgae topic. He has been off the forum for awhile so you will have to go back a few years to find it. He meticulously documented his process and it was very successful. His was a 180 gallon so much bigger but I don't see why his methods would not work for you. It's back 6 pages.

 

[cosmicbread]

Check out Michael Hoaster's Caribbean biotope on Reef Central in the seagrass/macroalgae topic. He has been off the forum for awhile so you will have to go back a few years to find it. He meticulously documented his process and it was very successful. His was a 180 gallon so much bigger but I don't see why his methods would not work for you. It's back 6 pages.

Oh yes, I love that thread and am disappointed that a lot of the photos of his early days setting it up did not travel to the new forum. He is the seagrass GOAT as far as I am concerned. I dream of a tank near those dimensions for such an experiment...

Today I added a second HOB, some sort of Tidal (I can't remember the GPH but it's much larger than the AC50). Funds are tight at the moment, so a lot of this build is sourcing older equipment I have laying around. It holds rubble only, and a bit of carbon that I will likely remove once the live sand/rock gets here.
I removed the powerhead to clean it. The tank has plenty of flow with the dual HOBs and the longer blades of grass were being sucked into the propeller.

I need to find a suction cup to position the heater vertically along the back, so I'll start scrounging about for one or two of those next.

While my filters were both off, I noticed that a single strand of manatee grass was pearling -- releasing a stream of oxygen bubbles toward the surface. In the freshwater community, pearling is typically seen as favorable and means that the plant is actively photosynthesizing. I'll take this as a sign that this piece of grass is healthy and happy.

 

[cosmicbread]

Pipe fish might be a good choice although I do not know as much about them as seahorses. Seahorses would be at risk for bacterial infection since this system is not sterile. The detritus and breakdown of plants could potentially fuel pathogenic bacteria and all seahorses are extremely vulnerable to infections of the gut, gills and skin. I guess that does not happen in the ocean because it's such a vast system, (with natural checks and balances) unlike our closed tank systems where one specie (like pathogenic bacteria) can quickly take over. I loved my seahorses but they were very high maintenance.

Like you, I tend to operate best with letting nature do it's thing with a bit of taming by me only to maintain at least an illusion of control! I love macroalgae and it's as important to me as coral. Fish are my 1st love so I always have as many as my tank can support.

Oh man, I did not know that about sea horses! Great information. No ponies for me!

I am a long time fan of your tank, by the way. Thank you so much for commenting.

Love the macro grassland! You should check Adictive reef keeping- they sell actual sea grass just btw. You might have just inspired me to make one of these.

Didn't know about them so I will definitely check that out. Please try grass! The more people we have messing with it, the more information gets disseminated throughout the community. :))

 

[cosmicbread]

I received a few peppermint shrimps from @AlgaeBarn -- supremely well packaged and healthy. Once they take care of the aiptasia, I'll be donating them to my LFS as I don't quite trust a peppermint :downcast-face-with-sweat:

Showdown.

My conch has been happily snarfling up the gunk on the top of the sand bed, and now has a caulerpa hat for some reason.

Hecka cute. I'm not convinced this will be a good long-term critter due to it being a literal bulldozer, and if that's the case I will need to find a better home. My other tank is too restrictive in terms of open sand to comfortably house it. But for now, Snorch is Queen. All Hail Snorch.

 

[kevgib67]

I received a few peppermint shrimps from @AlgaeBarn -- supremely well packaged and healthy. Once they take care of the aiptasia, I'll be donating them to my LFS as I don't quite trust a peppermint :downcast-face-with-sweat:

Showdown.

My conch has been happily snarfling up the gunk on the top of the sand bed, and now has a caulerpa hat for some reason.

Hecka cute. I'm not convinced this will be a good long-term critter due to it being a literal bulldozer, and if that's the case I will need to find a better home. My other tank is too restrictive in terms of open sand to comfortably house it. But for now, Snorch is Queen. All Hail Snorch.

You need to summit your conch for POTM! Your conch is something to see and needs to be shared. Consider the aptasia gone, those peppermint shrimp do a great job.

 

[cosmicbread]

You need to summit your conch for POTM! Your conch is something to see and needs to be shared. Consider the aptasia gone, those peppermint shrimp do a great job.

Hahaha, I didn't know there was a POTM! I'll submit and maybe Snorch will have a time to shine.

The shoal grass is really...not looking...alive...

Oh no

I'm leaving it be for now with the naive optimism that the root system is OK-ish and it will regenerate some fronds in time. I think shipping really did a number on it.

In better news, since I peer at my ten solitary blades of manatee grass so much like an absolute psycho, I HAVE noticed some promising developments.

Wow.

Yes.

New growth! In addition, I've gone around and chopped off any dead pieces and removed them from the tank. So looking forward to my first order of ocean goodness from IPSF, with the supposed arrival date of Jan 8.