manatee grass lighting and food

[mogurnda]

Yes, another "do I have enough light" thread. The setup will be a 30X, so it will be 24" tall. I will have about 5" of sand on the bottom, most of having been in another tank for about a year.

What I would like to do is use a 2X65 watt PC fixture I already have, but I am not sure it will be enough. A 175 watt halide would look great, but I'd rather not spend the money right off if I don't have to.

Also, there seems to be a lot of talk about micronutrient supplements, and I was wondering what people's favorites are.

[Samala]

Hmmm. I know that 130watts (the same amount as the PC you're wanting to use) works well over 12" for seagrass. That's what I have over my tank. With 5" of substrate, you still have 24" of water column? Or 19" of water column?

I think you can get away with it. Since you already have the PC setup why not setup the whole tank and grass and such and try it out. Nothing to lose really. If you have to later on you can add more PC or switch over to T5 or MH lighting. My suggestion is to use both daylight flavor type bulbs in the 2x65 fixture. I use two 6700K's. You could mix a 6700K with a higher daylight end like 10,000K to make it a little more blue appearing if you like of course.

Manatee grass is a great choice for such a tall tank. You might also consider shoal grass (Halodule beaudettei) and the Halophilas, if you can get your hands on them, do well in lower light than most seagrass demand. Of course, you can also aquascape the bottom levels of the tank with macroalgae, which should be happy with the light levels there.

For micronutrients, I like and use Seachem's Fluorish Trace mix. It was designed for freshwater, and I dont follow the dosing schedule suggested on the packaging. I usually add about 1ml to my water changes per 5gallons. Synthetic salt mix usually gives the plants enough micronutrients though. That trace mix does not include iron, which is sold separately, and I add that into my water changes at about the same rate. If you're interested in fooling around with adding nitrate and/or phosphate, the Fluorish line also has these, or you can try www.gregwatson.com. He also carries a trace mix.

Have fun! Keep us posted on the tank.. I love manatee grass.
>Sarah

[mogurnda]

Thank you for all the info!

I like the idea of shoal grass, and may try both. I'll have 18-19" of water column, so either might give the effect I want.

For spectrum, I was going to go with two daylight bulbs. I always love how bright and clear the shallow grassbeds are when I'm diving, so 10000 k would probably be the highest I'd be willing to go. The exact combination of color temperatures, at least at the begining will depend on what new bulbs I have in the basement right now.

Ultimately, I'll probably break down and do the halides, because the shimmer would look great with the grasses, but it seems a waste to buy things I don't need to start out.

I have been using Flourish on my FW planted tanks, so will give it a shot on this tank. I had an iron supplement, but never used it, so it just got tossed unfortunately. Perhaps it's my feeding regimen, but I have not had to dose nitrate or phosphate either. I have bags of them if needed, though.

Looks like it's time to start assembling things and making a little grassbed!

[Samala]

Oh awesome! So we wont have to warp your mind into feeling comfortable with adding things to your tank to benefit the plants. Always a nice thing that comes with 'converting' the freshwater planted aquarists (like myself).

Be careful with dosing Fluorish, the full mix. Go very slow at first. Fluorish itself has iron in it, right? You want to find a happy medium where the plants seem to be benefiting from iron dosing but before the iron can start to precipitate and cause a toxicity issue. I'm not sure at what ppm range we start to have toxicity issues.. in fact I think I should be asking the chemistry guys about it. Thanks for the reminder!

Feel free to ask more questions if you've got em, there's a few of us who lurk around here that have seagrass tanks or have dedicated at least parts of our systems to seagrass.

>Sarah

[mogurnda]

Thanks again! It really makes it a lot easier when someone else has worked out the bugs. I'm sure there will be a few left during set up and maturation

[Krypticol]

What dp you use for the substrate on the Manatee Grass beds?
Just sand or do you mic mud in? Does it eben need that? WOuld it help? I've been thinking about doing a similar tall hex tank.
Thanks!!!!

[mogurnda]

The current trend seems to be to go with a layer of mud below a deeper layer of aragonite. Not wanting to deal with the hazards of Maryland marine mud, I used about 2" Seachem Flourite mixed with aragonite under about 4" of aragonite. I figure the roots could use some food.