Seagrass Aquarium at the Ocean Discovery Visitors Center

[Brandon McHenry]

We had a really great opportunity to go out in the field with the FAU Harbor Branch Marine Botany Program. This team has been monitoring the health and abundance of local seagrass beds between Fort Pierce and Vero Beach since 2005! Seagrass communities are vital because they serve as a nursery habitat and food source for many organisms, and they are also very productive environments! In 2015, the Marine Botany Team began collaborating with the FAU Harbor Branch Aquaculture Program to create closed, land-based nursery tanks for seagrass restoration efforts.

Here is the team getting ready to teach us how they collect their seagrass planting units to later put in the nursery tanks!

We used a large seiving pan to separate the seagrass and sediments.

The collected seagrasses were sorted through and the root systems that had 5+ shoots were kept in the containers until we were back to the Aquaculture Park.

Later we went back to their nursery tanks to watch the team plant the seagrass! These established tanks will allow the seagrasses to grow in conditions that don't threaten their health until they are healthy, self-sustained and ready to be planted back into the Lagoon! Throughout the years, there has been a 60% loss of seagrass beds in the Indian River Lagoon, so these restoration efforts can help restore these vital habitats.

While we were out at the monitored seagrass site, Brandon and I seined for fish and invertebrates to add to new display! We pulled this large net about 5 times total and sorted through what we had collected to determine which organisms were best suitable for the seagrass aquarium.

Here are the fish and invertebrates that we decided would be best for the tank!

The invertebrates could be placed into the seagrass aquarium right away. The fish were put in a quarantine tank for 3 weeks and treated with PraziPro and Copper to ensure they had no parasites.

After the 3 weeks, we collected them from the quarantine tank, acclimated them to the new aquarium, then carefully put them in!

Thank you for following along Stay tuned for my last post on this thread to see our final product!!

 

[Brandon McHenry]

The day for the big reveal has finally come! This was an ambitious project to accomplish within 10 weeks, but with all the amazing help I received along the way the new seagrass display at the Ocean Discovery Visitors Center looks amazing! Don't just take my word for it, check out the pictures below!

A quick reminder of the display my very first week before any renovations!

And this picture was taken my last week after all of the updates and installments!

Now visitors can learn all about seagrass, as well as the research and restoration efforts being done here at FAU Harbor Branch. Not only that, but the aquarium allows them to see what a local seagrass community actually looks like!

Just some pictures of the seagrass tank close-up with our new fish out and ready for dinner! The seagrasses have become more established and are looking really healthy.

Thank you to everyone who followed along on this journey, and a huge thank you to Brandon for helping me throughout the project and allowing me to do this. I hope everyone enjoyed, and if you are in the area come check out the new display

 

[siggy]

Fine Job with the project and the journal, it was very enjoyable and informative. Keep them coming!

 

[Brandon McHenry]

Fine Job with the project and the journal, it was very enjoyable and informative. Keep them coming!

Thank you so much! Abbey did a fantastic job with her internship project and we were very lucky to have her. I will definitely keep this thread updated with how the tank is progressing. I’m glad you enjoyed it!

 

[fishybizzness]

The day for the big reveal has finally come! This was an ambitious project to accomplish within 10 weeks, but with all the amazing help I received along the way the new seagrass display at the Ocean Discovery Visitors Center looks amazing! Don't just take my word for it, check out the pictures below!

A quick reminder of the display my very first week before any renovations!

And this picture was taken my last week after all of the updates and installments!

Now visitors can learn all about seagrass, as well as the research and restoration efforts being done here at FAU Harbor Branch. Not only that, but the aquarium allows them to see what a local seagrass community actually looks like!

Just some pictures of the seagrass tank close-up with our new fish out and ready for dinner! The seagrasses have become more established and are looking really healthy.

Thank you to everyone who followed along on this journey, and a huge thank you to Brandon for helping me throughout the project and allowing me to do this. I hope everyone enjoyed, and if you are in the area come check out the new display

Excellent work! And great choice with the fish!

 

[Brandon McHenry]

Excellent work! And great choice with the fish!

Thanks! I was so excited when we caught that wrasse, totally unexpected!

 

[fishybizzness]

Slippery Richard, as my wife calls it!

 

[Brandon McHenry]

Slippery Richard, as my wife calls it!

Yeah we opted to call it “Wrasse” in Abbeys final presentation lol

 

[Brandon McHenry]

It’s amazing there is any grass left with this much shedding. Turns out it’s actually a good sign to see the Seagrass replacing it’s blades on a regular basis.

 

[Brandon McHenry]

Our yellowtail snapper cruising through our lush seagrass bed. Our new camera is finally letting me catch some of these fish in action!

 

[MrWheelock]

Awsome!

 

[Brandon McHenry]

Awsome!

Thank you!

 

[Brandon McHenry]

Seagrass still looking lush! Haven’t updated in a while so just wanted to share!

 

[C. Eymann]

Another awesome build!
Really enjoy these updates
Have you thought about adding a common grass bed inhabiting coral in there? maybe a manicina? or a little ball of solenastrea ?

 

[Brandon McHenry]

Another awesome build!
Really enjoy these updates
Have you thought about adding a common grass bed inhabiting coral in there? maybe a manicina? or a little ball of solenastrea ?

Thanks! Glad to hear it! We have not for a few reasons. The logistics of getting certain caribbean corals is challenging but more importantly we have tried our best to not cross organisms and research groups between tanks becuase of how we talk about them on our tour of the visitors center. It’s much easier for guests if the tanks represent just one specific topic we work on. I do agree that it would be pretty cool though (says the hobbyist in me)

 

[User]

This is awesome info- thanks Brandon and Abby!!

I'm converting an empty 40gallon section f my simp into a macro Alga display, and am doing a 5" deep mud bed along the back. Plan is to plant shoal grass along the back and some gracillara, shaving brush, halemeda in front

Im just having a big problem trying to find a source for shoal grass .

This thread has been an inspiration and has got me fired up to keep looking

 

[Brandon McHenry]

Check out this beautiful deer cowrie in our seagrass lagoon!

 

[Sltloser]

I love the seagrass tanks, they look phenomenal. I'm using my refugium to create a seagrass bed myself.

Quick question, what have you found to be the best invertebrates for harvesting algae off the blades of manatee grass? I've started to get a bit of fuzzy brown/green algae growing on the blades which I've been removing by hand. I was curious of any small invertebrates you might recommend (the seagrass area is only about 5 gallons, it's an all in one custom made 40 breeder).

Keep up the great work!

 

[Brandon McHenry]

I love the seagrass tanks, they look phenomenal. I'm using my refugium to create a seagrass bed myself.

Quick question, what have you found to be the best invertebrates for harvesting algae off the blades of manatee grass? I've started to get a bit of fuzzy brown/green algae growing on the blades which I've been removing by hand. I was curious of any small invertebrates you might recommend (the seagrass area is only about 5 gallons, it's an all in one custom made 40 breeder).

Keep up the great work!

Thanks! I’d love to see a picture of yours. I have not had much luck with epiphytic grazers mostly because this tank has fish and they eat most of them lol. I’ve had the best luck by keeping decent flow and water column nutrients low while fertilizing strictly the sandbed for the roots to uptake. However, if your refugium is fishless then copepods, amphipods and tiny Mexican cerith snails do a nice job!

 

[Sltloser]

Thanks! I’d love to see a picture of yours. I have not had much luck with epiphytic grazers mostly because this tank has fish and they eat most of them lol. I’ve had the best luck by keeping decent flow and water column nutrients low while fertilizing strictly the sandbed for the roots to uptake. However, if your refugium is fishless then copepods, amphipods and tiny Mexican cerith snails do a nice job!

Hey Brandon, thanks for the ideas. Unfortunately I haven't been able to get any cerith snails in my area, however I do have a healthy amount of copepods and amphipods in that section. I've also got some rather interesting slugs, I think they are http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/bullampu but I'm not sure. They absolutely love eating algae and are multiplying like nuts!

Anyways, I've attached a few pictures but algal growth is only a few days old. I used caribsea oolite sand and Caribsea refugium mud, mixing them together for the initial layer and then put a 1" layer of sand on top of that. The total sandbed depth is approximately 4".

Initial:

Today: