Sargassum in fuge

[Marc G-L]

Has anyone used fresh sargassum from the ocean with lettuce Marco alagae in an refugium? I have some of both that I've quarrantined for two months in containers with a bubbler and fugue lights. Both kinds have grown nicely with the addition of micronutrients. So far I got ride of the sargassum crabs and there are a few very tiny Sargasso shrimp and a variety of planktonic creatures swimming about, no real pests to be seen. These containers have no fish or corals just sand harvested from about ten feet from shore. Only found non-bristlled worms and false cerith and miniature ceriths in the beach sand.

Am I flirting with danger?

 

[Subsea]

Sounds like an adventure.

I have tried maintaining Sargassum seaweed with little success. Some was collected in floating mats and some was purchased from GulfCoast Ecosystems. I probably didn’t have enough light.

Any pictures?

 

[Tritie]

I read that sargassum releases allelopathic compounds which might harm corals. I keep some in my macro tank, but the only corals I have in there are discosoma and xenia.

 

[Subsea]

I read that sargassum releases allelopathic compounds which might harm corals. I keep some in my macro tank, but the only corals I have in there are discosoma and xenia.

What intensity light are you using on the tank? Pictures?

Would you post a link to the article that says that about allelopathic compounds in Sargassum seaweed?

All photosynthetic organisms have exudates of DOC: as a generalization, coral exudates are lipids & proteins and seaweed exudates are glucose.

https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.0912095107

“Chemically rich seaweeds poison corals when not controlled by herbivores”​

Results​

Seaweed Effects on Corals.​

“When the coral Porites porites (Panama) was placed in direct contact with seven common seaweeds for 20 d, Ochtodes secundaramea, Dictyota bartayresiana, Lobophora variegata, Halimeda opuntia, and Amphiroa fragillisima caused significant bleaching relative to controls (P< 0.001, n = 9) (Fig. 2A), while Padina perindusiata or Sargassum sp. did not”

PS: In the above peer reviewed article, 7 seaweeds were tested with five producing negative results in tested coral: Pandina & Sargssum did not.

 

[Tritie]

There are several peer reviewed studies. You can look up "sargassum allelopathy corals" on Google or Google Scholar.

 

[Marc G-L]

Sounds like an adventure.

I have tried maintaining Sargassum seaweed with little success. Some was collected in floating mats and some was purchased from GulfCoast Ecosystems. I probably didn’t have enough light.

Any pictures?

Here's the Sargassum and small shrimp photo, lettuce algae has quadrupled in 4 weeks along with a ton of West indies false cerith snails, several worms non- bristle variety and a squad of planktonic creatures I'm feeding or they are at least stable in numbers.