Welcome to Reef2Reef!
Very long (informative on a point by point basis) post here.
I'll let others handle the filtration and equipment questions, but to answer some of your biological questions:
Another big question I have is what kind of macroalgea is best for a lettuce nudibranch but will not over grow or take over my tank?? I'm nervous about introducing algea.
Assuming the slugs they sent you are
Elysia crispata (the species pictured on their site), you have a few options; Penicillus may not grow fast enough while the others may all grow too fast - certain Caulerpa and/or Halimeda species may be your best options here, but it has been a while since I really looked into keeping algae like those in the display instead of a refugium, and I know some of these species can be invasive in our tanks:
Yeah, here's what I've found on the feeding of
E. crispata:
"For example,
Caulerpa was described as the primary food source of the sea slug
Elysia crispata (Jensen, 1980), while Clark and Busacca (1978) reported that the same species did not consume
Caulerpa but instead fed on macroalgae of the genera
Halimeda,
Penicillus,
Bryopsis, and
Batophora."*
*Source:
https://academic.oup.com/jxb/article/64/13/3999/436339?login=false
They've recently been shown to be the same species,
E. crispata, just different morphotypes (meaning they look distinctly different, but they're genetically the same - this is discussed in the last link, which also contains feeding/rearing info).
Feeding info for them:
https://solarslug.info/slugkeeping/breeding-and-rearing-elysia-clarki/https://treatment.plazi.org/id/A04A7E6D9C59FFA046C9FC88FEE91C6C
I understand some of the things I recieved like the horseshoe crab is going to need a bigger home eventually.
Horseshoe crabs grow remarkably slowly, and if you're able to keep it long enough for it to outgrow your tank, you'll be doing better than most. The main problem with keeping these seems to be dietary, so really high quality food seems to be key:
It seems to just be the diet/feeding.
Horseshoe crabs are actually aquacultured by a few biomedical companies, and they seem to be basically bulletproof as far as water parameters go (they thrive in conditions that would likely kill half the stuff in our tanks), but they do have a reputation for being impossible to keep the hobby, and it’s speculated to be a nutrition deficiency- from what I’ve seen it’s probably a mix of both too little food (the groups culturing them feed like 5% of the crab’s body weight per day, IIRC, so these things eat a ton) and food that doesn’t meet their nutritional needs.
Edit: It was 3% of the body weight per day.
Honestly, I’m not sure - one of the groups listed what specific feed they were using, but it’s a commercial feed from a company (Skretting) in Utah that doesn’t list their ingredients. From what I’ve been able to find, though, it seems to just be a relatively standard, high quality aquaculture feed (good protein and fat contents, a wide range of food items in it to ensure a good spectrum nutritionally, etc.), so I’d assume pretty much any good feed (like LRS, Hikari Mega Marine, or Rod’s, for frozen examples; TDO Chromaboost & NLS Marine or Otohime & NLS Marine for pellet examples) should work.
The gelatin was to keep the food (the Skretting aquaculture feed I mentioned) stable in the water. Some of them have been successful with the larval rearing, and more research has been/is being done to make egg production in captivity more efficient (to the point where it is seen as a viable method of collecting the blood needed):
https://horseshoecrab.org/research/sites/default/files/DONE Schreibman and Zarnoch.pdfhttps://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/publication/FA254https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars.2020.568628/full
With regards to the parameters (in case the studies already listed aren't proof enough that these things are basically bullet proof):
https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.2307/1543539Also, the Skretting feed used in one of the studies:
https://www.skretting.com/en-us/feed-and-services-for-aquaculture/classic-brood-US77/
Expected growth rates:
Fair question- looking at it, they are slow growers (the PDF with a graph detailing average growth per year in mm won’t let me select the graph, but I’ll link it below). They take ~9-11 years to reach maturity, and they molt ~16-17 times over that timeframe (molting less frequently the larger they get). They hit ~2 inches wide at 4 years old, ~6 inches wide by 9 years, ~9” by 15 years, and - for the females, which grow larger - ~12” by 18 years (though their growth does vary depending on their location), so, OP, you may have a lot more time I would have guessed.
https://www.int-res.com/articles/meps2003/246/m246p225.pdf
Random fact that explains why we've learned to aquaculture these:
The blue blood is factual, and their blood - as mentioned - is used to make tests to determine if things like batches of vaccines are clean or contaminated (contaminated vaccines could be lethal, so it’s pretty important to have).
I recieved a horseshoe crab, an aneome, emerald crab, sea cucumber, razor clam, lettuce nudibranch, and an arrow crab.
We covered the horseshoe crabs grow remarkably and lettuce nudibranch (actually a Sacoglossan slug instead of a nudibranch):
-What are you feeding the razor clam? (If I recall correctly offhand, this one will require phytoplankton feedings - I believe I have a paper on it saved somewhere).
-What kind of anemone is it?
-What are you feeding the crabs?
-Is the cucumber a filter-feeding one or a sand-sifting (deposit-feeding) one?
For sea cucumber advice:
I'd recommend being aware that sea cucumbers can release a fish poison when extremely stressed, but as long as there's nothing harassing them in the tank, they should be totally fine (so just don't get a fish or invert known to eat or pester sea cucumbers and you should be fine; if you're concerned about it, my suggestion is to run carbon/keep carbon on hand to run, and keep mixed saltwater ready to be used for a water change just in case). I have more info on the toxin if you'd like.
Some general feeding info for sea cucumbers:
there are basically two types of sea cucumbers: filter feeders and sand-sifters. The filter feeders need fed things like Isochrysis galbana (T-Iso), Tetraselmis sp., Thalassiosira sp., and Chaetoceros sp., while the sand-sifters should do find on pretty much any tiny/ground up food (pellets, frozen, etc.) with plenty of greens (phytoplankton/microalgae and/or macroalgae) added in - you just want to make sure the mix reaches the sand so that they could sift the sand to get the food; you could do this by using sinking feeds, or by mixing the feed in with some sand in a dish that you take out and put in to the tank at feeding time for the cuke:
And some more feeding info specifically for sand-sifting cukes:
With regards to the sediment feeding cucumbers, as mentioned, you can ghost feed the tank and they'll do just fine on that. For example, the Chocolate Chip Sea Cucumber (Isostichopus badionotus) has been bred in captivity on the following diets*:
"Two feeding protocols were tested: In the first year, the broodstock were fed with commercial tilapia and rabbit feed which was ground, supplemented with Spirulina powder, and blended with disinfected beach sand (30g food/kg sand). In the second year, the food was changed to a mixture of ground Ulva sp., Sargassum sp., and Macrocystis sp. meals (Baja Kelp, Ensenanada, B.C., Mexico) blended with disinfected beach sand (30g algae mixture/kg sand). The food was changed every third day to prevent fungus formation."
I don't remember the other species I've looked at at the moment, but, generally speaking, sand sifting sea cucumbers are not picky about what they eat (though the food likely needs to be relatively decently sized so as to fit in with the sediment they're sifting - for example, the food they fed to the juvenile sea cucumbers when they reached 3 cm in the study above was sieved 55 at microns). Some easy foods you could offer that should work even for smaller cucumber species would be things like TDO Chromaboost Type A and Spirulina powder like used in the study I referenced.
I've seen a removable dish of sand mixed with food used successfully in sea cucumber aquaculture,
I'd try to get the food in the ~100-500 micron range, preferably closer to 50-200 microns (especially if the cuke isn't full grown). I know foods in that size can be hard to come by - Otohime and TDO Chromaboost offer pellets in that general range, and they're amongst the best pellet feeds on the market (no pellets on the market for hobbyists are as good as fresh food or a high quality frozen food).
I don't know the Florida Sea Cucumber's (
Holothuria floridana's) preferred food size, but most other species in the genus prefer feeds that range from ~60-200 microns, with a handful of exceptions that prefer either medium-small foods (~200-600 microns) or huge foods (~2,000-3,500 microns).*
Pretty much every pellet on the market will contain grains of some variety (almost always to act as a binding agent to hold the pellets together; sometimes also to provide enough calories/energy to make the food an efficient feed) - if used in small enough quantities, it's not really an issue, but when there's too much grain (too many carbohydrates) it can cause some nutrition issues.
For the spirulina, you can buy spirulina powder which will probably be closer to the right size for the cuke.
*Source:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9293300/
Lastly:
I have 2 10k watt biocube light bulbs and it seems like they are running hot. Do I need these for the creatures I have in my tank now? How long should I be running them for a day?
You will need some sort of lighting (PAR) to grow at least the algae; depending on the species, your anemone may need light as well (some anemone species are non-photosynthetic while others need a lot of light). Generally, lights are typically run for either 12 or 14 hours a day (essentially mimicking nature), but some people run different schedules.
Saltwater aquariums can be pretty confusing at first, so don't be afraid to ask questions - welcome again!
