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Unread 12/17/2015, 11:05 PM   #26
Michael Hoaster
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What a nice display of macros! Beautiful plants! And on a high rise terrace! Too cool!


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Unread 12/18/2015, 04:10 PM   #27
Subsea
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Impressive.

Do you think that the Serpent Stars reproduced in your tank or do you think that you collected them and they grew out.


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Unread 12/18/2015, 06:54 PM   #28
cksss
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Thanks guys!
Hi Subsea, hmmm I cannot tell, about 80% rocks are from previous tank which I overfed too. So they could have reproduced long ago. I have not witnessed spawning in my tank with these stars though one of the local reefer which i sold the stars to reported spawning (release of red eggy thingy) almost immediately after introducing them into the tank.


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Unread 12/18/2015, 08:49 PM   #29
Subsea
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Spawning serpent stars would be an accomplishment on its on. Raising larvae to adulthood is a major triumph.
Kudos to you on your accomplishment.


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Unread 12/18/2015, 09:44 PM   #30
cksss
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Thanks! I half suspect it was due to natural moon-light that they get exposed to every night. It has positive effect on coral, maybe on fishes and inverts too? I have also witnessed and recorded the pair of mandarin fish dancing ritual in the tank at night

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Spawning serpent stars would be an accomplishment on its on. Raising larvae to adulthood is a major triumph.
Kudos to you on your accomplishment.



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Unread 12/18/2015, 10:15 PM   #31
Subsea
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Interesting about moon light. The most massive coral spawning in the world occurs on the same night on the Great Barrier Reef.

When are the lights on?


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Unread 12/18/2015, 10:49 PM   #32
cksss
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Interesting about moon light. The most massive coral spawning in the world occurs on the same night on the Great Barrier Reef.

When are the lights on?
those outdoor LED are turned on for about 4hours in the evening just so i could enjoy the colours when im back from work. The growth light are provided by the sun


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Unread 12/19/2015, 08:28 PM   #33
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Hold on a second. You've been feeding 3 cubes of frozen food a day to a 40 long with no fish? Woa! Well the plants and the serpent stars seem to like it! Is there anybody else in there, like a grouper or napoleon wrasse?

Feeding so much usually leads to an algae problem. I guess you've proven that, with a healthy detrivore population and an established crop of macro algae, you can feed a ridiculous amount of food!

Do you have any thoughts on how you were able to do this? Impressed!
Michael,

For certain, macro can absorbed tremendous amounts of nutrients from the food. The macro would have gotten it either way in the form of fish poop. I have the chemical analysis of Red Gracilaria from an outside growout system. It shows the ratio of nitrogen to phosphate to be 50:1.

Because I am a commercial facility, economics are first priority. I am trying to maximize macro growth using chemical concentrates. For my application, ammonia is the most economical nitrogen source that I have found.. I also use "Miracle Grow" all purpose, water soluble plant food with major nutrient concentrations of nitrogen at 24%, phosphate at 8% and potash at 16%. While I do not measure trace minerals, they are included in this all purpose plant food.

I also use Seachem substrate "Florite" for additional iron using passive automatic buffering. I think macro is like a sponge and it will absorb whatever is dissolved in the water including heavy metals.


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Unread 12/19/2015, 08:31 PM   #34
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those outdoor LED are turned on for about 4hours in the evening just so i could enjoy the colours when im back from work. The growth light are provided by the sun
What a lovely way to transition from work.

On an average, can you approximate how much macro you remove per month.


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Unread 12/20/2015, 02:16 AM   #35
cksss
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What a lovely way to transition from work.

On an average, can you approximate how much macro you remove per month.
Hi Subsea, I found your Aquaculture Ranch Facility on youtube and watched few of the videos. What you are doing is super awesome and cool! I wish we've something like that in Singapore! but the demand for macroalgae for decorative purpose is almost non-existence

On a very good sunny month, i could harvest about 4 handfuls of macro. But its very seasonal since i'm relaying on the sunlight mostly. Singapore was affected by very serious haze for over 2-months and that kind of stunt the growth and its monsoon season now so we havent been getting really good sun recently.

Anyway this is a photo of the balcony with direct afternoon sun, the tank is on the left side


And what i've been dosing



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Unread 12/20/2015, 08:08 AM   #36
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Thank you for the kind words about my hobby business. It is something to keep me busy, since I retired from offshore drilling. I also intend to grow Red Ogo for personnel consumption as a specialty produce food source.

Why dose with iodine? I have see it advertised as necessary for red macro algae but have never seen documented evidence of results. Calcium and magnesium are the most prominent elements assimilated into macro. How do you keep up with calcium demand? Considering that you have a macro lagoon biotheme, is alkalinity even an issue compared to a reef tank?


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Unread 12/20/2015, 08:52 AM   #37
cksss
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Subsea View Post
Thank you for the kind words about my hobby business. It is something to keep me busy, since I retired from offshore drilling. I also intend to grow Red Ogo for personnel consumption as a specialty produce food source.

Why dose with iodine? I have see it advertised as necessary for red macro algae but have never seen documented evidence of results. Calcium and magnesium are the most prominent elements assimilated into macro. How do you keep up with calcium demand? Considering that you have a macro lagoon biotheme, is alkalinity even an issue compared to a reef tank?
Exactly because of the red/purple macro i dose iodine, the Ochtodes was dying and i was desperate so i just went with the suggestion i read online. I'm not dosing Calcium deliberately yet, thought i do get lots of coralline growth. The "bacteria king" filter media i'm using dissolve Calcium into the water as claimed. You can locate the article by googling for "bacteria king reef system"

I'm also running an ATS which might be helping with the pH swing, but i've not tested the pH at different time of the day thought


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Unread 12/20/2015, 04:05 PM   #38
nawilson89
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Subsea View Post
Michael,

For certain, macro can absorbed tremendous amounts of nutrients from the food. The macro would have gotten it either way in the form of fish poop. I have the chemical analysis of Red Gracilaria from an outside growout system. It shows the ratio of nitrogen to phosphate to be 50:1.

Because I am a commercial facility, economics are first priority. I am trying to maximize macro growth using chemical concentrates. For my application, ammonia is the most economical nitrogen source that I have found.. I also use "Miracle Grow" all purpose, water soluble plant food with major nutrient concentrations of nitrogen at 24%, phosphate at 8% and potash at 16%. While I do not measure trace minerals, they are included in this all purpose plant food.

I also use Seachem substrate "Florite" for additional iron using passive automatic buffering. I think macro is like a sponge and it will absorb whatever is dissolved in the water including heavy metals.
Subsea, I had looked at your youtube channel and really enjoyed looking at your macro grow out, but had forgotten to comment on it because I was at work at the time. I'm really interested in your systems.(I actually have few of your videos playing on my tv as I type this)

I'm even more interested in your dosing of miracle grow. It seems your dosing is invert safe. How often do you dose and how much?

Secondly The Florite use as a substrate for macro algae is an incredible idea also. I think a good mix of refugium mud and florite for iron with a cap of sand would be a perfect mix.

I hope you post more about your systems.


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Unread 12/25/2015, 01:36 AM   #39
karimwassef
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So did the Iodine help the ochtodes recover?

They're beautiful


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Unread 12/25/2015, 05:59 PM   #40
cksss
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So did the Iodine help the ochtodes recover?

They're beautiful
Hi Karimwassef, no idea really, it is only based on one observation in my tank that influences my decision to continue to dose. These 2 photos were taken nearly 1-month apart. First observed the ochtodes to be hanging around the overflow area in Oct and i started dosing Iodine in 12 Nov. And then the growth rate accelerated. No idea if these 2 events are correlated

Nov-22


Dec-17



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Unread 12/25/2015, 06:08 PM   #41
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You said they started struggling. How are they doing now?

When I snorkel, those are my favorite... in the sunlight, they shimmer with translucent multi colored branches. They're usually on the breaker rocks where the surf can be fast and even a little violent.


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Unread 12/25/2015, 06:41 PM   #42
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You said they started struggling. How are they doing now?

When I snorkel, those are my favorite... in the sunlight, they shimmer with translucent multi colored branches. They're usually on the breaker rocks where the surf can be fast and even a little violent.
Whatever left surviving in the maintank is still not doing well, still alive but not thriving. Thanks for the tips! Yea the overflow area kindof simulates inter-tidal water movement, maybe i should give them direct current in the maintank. I think it might also be the good direct sun exposure we get in November..hmm


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Unread 12/25/2015, 07:33 PM   #43
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Ok. If you figure out any special needs, please share.


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Unread 12/29/2015, 08:48 PM   #44
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What species are those brittle stars, and where did you get them? I love their patterns (even though they're brown). I've always wanted to have aquariums, little ponds in bins/buckets, mini aquaponic systems and all kinds of plants outside on my deck (which is HUGE), but the harsh MN winters don't allow that. You're lucky you can do that, and your deck and the stuff on it is absolutely stunning!


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Unread 12/31/2015, 12:19 AM   #45
cksss
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Thank you Genera!
It has always been a dream to integrate aquarium with lush greenery too, i'm still adding more elements from nature to make it natural. Currently i'm growing vertical plants on the trellis which is also the 'doors' of the aquarium rack

I have no idea which species these are, they do get really big so definitely not those "mini-stars". I saw many little arms in one of the liverock in LFS and brought it home, and they multiplied.

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What species are those brittle stars, and where did you get them? I love their patterns (even though they're brown). I've always wanted to have aquariums, little ponds in bins/buckets, mini aquaponic systems and all kinds of plants outside on my deck (which is HUGE), but the harsh MN winters don't allow that. You're lucky you can do that, and your deck and the stuff on it is absolutely stunning!



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Unread 12/31/2015, 08:20 AM   #46
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This is an enjoyable tank to say the least. I admire the fact that you can have one on your balcony.


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Unread 12/31/2015, 09:51 AM   #47
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I'm so inspired that I'm going to set up a small garden greenhouse shelf plumbed to my DT and make it into a combo ATS/macroalgae refugium facing the sun.

I hope Texas weather is more forgiving in the future. My last external tank suffered mightily against the extremes. I still remember looking at my yellow tang under a plastic canopy in 30F weather during a hail storm and wondering... What am I doing??

The water never dipped below 74 but my electricity meter was running backflips...


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Unread 01/08/2016, 07:48 PM   #48
Subsea
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Quote:
Originally Posted by karimwassef View Post
I'm so inspired that I'm going to set up a small garden greenhouse shelf plumbed to my DT and make it into a combo ATS/macroalgae refugium facing the sun.

I hope Texas weather is more forgiving in the future. My last external tank suffered mightily against the extremes. I still remember looking at my yellow tang under a plastic canopy in 30F weather during a hail storm and wondering... What am I doing??

The water never dipped below 74 but my electricity meter was running backflips...
Hey Dallas,
I have found that the extreme heat in Austin is a bigger issue than the brief cold fronts that we get in the Hill Country. I had to include a 40% shade cloth on greenhouse roof to get daytime PAR values below 1200 during 60% of the warm season of up to 6 months. With some months electric bill near $1000, I shut operations down for 18 months.
I have recently restarted a three tiered tank system buried in the ground, consisting of 150G Rubbermade tanks each with different mono macro systems.and uncured live rock. It was my intention to get Gulf Coast critters that were hardy to temperature extremes. I decided on pods and utilitarian macro algae with some red decorative species. With minimum cost for heating and cooling 60-90 degrees as maximum expected range.


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Unread 01/09/2016, 10:46 AM   #49
karimwassef
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Using the right glass is key, I think, to allowing visible light and uv in but reducing IR. I have a thread on glass and surface treatment options
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh...2537919&page=2
My inspiration was the Berlin greenhouse renovation a few years ago.
Geothermal or at least earth-mass cooling (like a concrete in ground pond) would help but I can usually manage with chillers and evaporative cooling, as long as the humidity is low enough.
I did run geothermal tubes but never finished the project... But definitely a good consideration when giving the sun easy access to the system.


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Unread 01/09/2016, 10:48 AM   #50
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Quote:
Originally Posted by cksss View Post
Whatever left surviving in the maintank is still not doing well, still alive but not thriving. Thanks for the tips! Yea the overflow area kindof simulates inter-tidal water movement, maybe i should give them direct current in the maintank. I think it might also be the good direct sun exposure we get in November..hmm
Are they still doing well in the overflow?


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