"Sea weed" in the refugium?

[SeanT]

I live in Wilmington, NC near the beach, and there is always sea weed out there when we go fishing,

Would there be any benefits/detriments to trying some of this out in my fuge that anyone can forsee?

Always looking for some diversity.

[technoshaman]

Sean, I would think it might work just two things. 1) I would consider wilmington a temperate coastal area - in a tank with reef temperatures it may not do so hot. 2) I know from living near the ocean those huge rifts of seaweed house all kinds of critters some good and some bad - might introduce something ugly into tank, just give it a good rinse first. Also on that note if it's near a coastal area and civilization give it a good rinse in new sea water to get any chemicals or petrol type compounds that may still be on the plant.

[piercho]

Sean, if it is in full saltwater, and has a thin ribbon-shaped blade, IMO it's likely Zostera marina. We call it eel grass over here. I saw a distribution chart for it that showed it growing as far south as southern Florida, but it isn't listed in my Caribbean marine plant handbook.

[SeanT]

Thanks guys.
I will give it a shot but wait until the summer.
Some days we head out pretty far and make it into the gulfstream. At least thats what my drunken friends dad says :rolleyes:.
I will try to harvest some from there as the temps are even warmer.

[greenman]

Even in NC that stuff does travel you know its in warmer water at some piont in time..... I would give the stuff a try if it grows well then use it.....


I used alot of rock off of north topsail beach.... stuff is good shapes and has alot of differnt sizes covers up with life in no time flat .....

[bmcelhinn]

I recently tried that, it didn't work, I tried several kinds at once. The all died within a few days and now I have nitrite in my water and it hasn't gone down in 4 days, I don't know what to do.

[SeanT]

You be usin' that skanky california weed. :smokin:
Do a water change to help control your nitrites?
Sure it wasn't nitrates?

[bmcelhinn]

Nope, Nitrite.

[SeanT]

That's weird.
I was under the impression you only have nitrites during a cycle.

[bmcelhinn]

Yeah, I was surprized too.

[billsreef]

Probably the decay caused the nitrite spike. A good water change should help get things back in order.