Seaweed Project

[Subsea]

The two bottom tanks are less than 1 week set up. IndoPacific SeaFarm supplied mix & match special with super size me addition to include two people editable seaweeds: Red Ogo & Sea Grapes. Red Ogo was deteriorating in shipping bag and is the reason for discolored water in right hand tank. Sea Grapes & Bortacladia are in tank on left.

The top tank is my problem because of flatworms. While the ecosystem is healthy with numerous filter feeders including several types of ornamental sponges, the flatworms are an eyesore that prevents me from using the red macroalgaes that dominate this tank. I had some Feather Caulerpa that went sexual and bleached white. My goal is to use ornamental red macro algae’s and ornamental sponges of different colors to build designer live rock.

The live rock mostly came from Gulf Live Rock with some Texas Holy Rock.

 

[Fish Fan]

Novel idea! Following.

 

[Subsea]

What I hope to establish is a protocol to transfer desirables from 55G top tank while eliminating Red Planaria from being transferred with desirables.

These flatworms are immune to flatworm exit. I nuked this tank with 4 fold dosage of Exit: back to back within a two week span. In 6 months, red planaria showed up again. So, I drained the tank and left it in place for 6 months. Three months ago, I decided to restart that tank. Without removing damp sand, I filled tank with fresh water, flushing thru sand bed and draining tank several times to remove organics. I then added hydrogen peroxide to water that covered sand bed and left overnight, approximately a 10% solution of 3% peroxide.

75G at 25 years mature and 120G at 5 years mature both had red planaria and both have been eliminated for more than 4 years. I don’t know what eliminated flat worms in these two systems, I do know that these red planaria have built up immunity to Flatworms Exit.

 

[Subsea]

@ByranM

Can you recommend a dip to remove flatworms from ornamental seaweeds and ornamental sponges? So that I can remove desirable corals, macro algae’s and sponges into established tanks without bringing in the flat worms.

@Fish Fan
I want to build designer live rock as a centerpiece for invert & seaweed tanks. I hope to develop a 30 day window from design to delivery for select customers. Initially, I build “entry level” designer live rock for sale to LFS. I have already done this with rubble and ornamental red macros like Bortacladia, Gracilaria Hayi or Halmenia. Or some greens like Feather or Grape Caulerpa.