Garage Refugium update II

[rayray]

the 90g fuge finally cycled. I held my breath as I opened it up the the main system. dual 120w triband grow lights installed and on reverse daylight photoperiod. got some cheato, and soon returning my legal caulerpa strains in there.

the lights are so bright, looking at them for 1 second then looking away makes everything supergreen in color for 5 minutes.

I might place some low maintenance stuff in there. no fish or mangroves, and these lights are prob no good for coral. too much work anyway! ugly mag9 in there for auto waterchange.

oh, and gratuitous pics of my American Idol, Gill jr..

 

[crazydante23]

Wow. Nice fish, jr is so fat and happy. Nice.

 

[rayray]

gonna grow some 'Grass

I told my neighbors I wasnt going to grow "grass", but I lied.

I finally got all systems up and running, and decided to try a seagrass refugium. Im tired of coral but wont return to freshwater with real vascular plants...

Fuge/filtration:

macroalgaes: cheato, ogo, ulva

day 10: seagrasses; oar grass and manatee grass. the oar grass has already spread across the tank in 10 days

oar grass lays the foundation for larger grasses like manatee grass like this

I've never done this before, so any tips would be appreciated.

Ive already made the mistake of not using fuge mud, and not waiting 6 months for the sand to mature. but I had a lot of nutrients already from the many upgrades obviously the oar grass took root.

Im aiming for this: with 1 sea horse, a mandarin pair and some micro algea eating tang...

courtesy of RC

 

[danagui]

arent all calurpia species illegal in california?

 

[rayray]

good point

"The Mediterranean strain of Caulerpa was prohibited under the U.S. Federal Noxious Weed Act in 1999. Since then, importation into the United States, as well as interstate transport and sale, including via the Internet, has been a federal offense. In 2001, the California legislature banned the possession, sale, importation, transportation and release of C. taxifolia and eight similar-looking Caluerpa species in California. The city of San Diego recently banned the possession and sale of the entire Caulerpa genus."

I dont have C. taxifolia, mexicana or any of the 8 others. I will freeze, then compost everything else ASAP.

Im actually looking to get to the stage of fast-growing micro algae on the seagrass leaves, that will be trimmed by an herbivour.

 

[danagui]

Guess u learn something everyday