Picasso
Seahorse Whisperer
We've talked about this before and we always hit a dead end somewhere. I'll have to pull up my notes about this idea.
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Team Seahorse Contest Deco
- Thread starter Picasso
- Start date
We've talked about this before and we always hit a dead end somewhere. I'll have to pull up my notes about this idea.
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texreefer
Battle Dwarf
does it look like you may be able to use the pump ? I cant find anything on dosing live food
Picasso
Seahorse Whisperer
Tex, I haven't looked at it seriously yet. I know this possibility has come up before so I'll have to go through my notes. I really appreciate your input!
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little_fish
Moderator
If i remember correctly the dead end we had were need an individual pump for each feeding but if we can set this one to go off in thirds then it would work for a one day thing, or just trickle in continuously. Also this one still requires quite a bit of involvement, which is why we ruled it out. But it might still make a good halfway point.
texreefer
Battle Dwarf
the cool thing about this doser is each pump or head has its own timer. its a 7 day 24hr timer that can be set for different doses and different intervals throughout the day. so 2 heads = 2 timers , 3 heads = 3 timers and so on. the speed control is also a huge plus for the dwarf ponies i think. My only concern that I see is will the brine clog the tubing, its pretty small I.D.
Picasso
Seahorse Whisperer
The BBS are added when they are less than 2 days old which means they are super, super tiny, like you can barely see them. I just don't know that this would save all that much work, you know? They need to hatch, add to enrichment for 12 hours, rinse, add to enrichment 2 for 12 hours, rinse, feed. The rinsing is important because the enrichment mucks up the water.
In my talks with Dan (seahorse guru) he says the main reason people fail with dwarfs is that they try to skip or abbreviate the enrichment process. Seems like we just keep circling around and getting close but not able to find something that looks like it will work.
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dcantucson
Reef pro
And enriched BBS is the only thing they will eat, is that right? If so I understand why it would be so hard to keep them. Catherine I wish you lots of luck and success. Can't wait to see them.
Picasso
Seahorse Whisperer
Talked to my seahorse guru about the deco and my plans. He looked my pics. He's loving the overstuffed macro idea but agrees that I'll have a lot of trouble with water quality once I put a bunch of dwarf ponies in there and enriched bbs. Still working on water quality. I moved a bunch of the ulva out because that was impeding my water flow the most. Ordering more macro from TBS right after Thanksgiving along with a bunch of live mysids. I'll pull most of the gracilaria out then. At this rate, I'm thinking I'll that I'll be ready for the dwarfs around the end of january or begining of february. oy.
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Picasso
Seahorse Whisperer
Today I picked up the glass for my stand. I think I'm going to do a mosaic on the wood part and make doors for the front.
I fell in LOVE with this orange and white piece of glass I found so I shot it:
it's being backlit by candles, the splotchy lighting won't be present once I cut this up and attach it to my stand.
tomorrow I'm going to cut it all up!
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I fell in LOVE with this orange and white piece of glass I found so I shot it:
it's being backlit by candles, the splotchy lighting won't be present once I cut this up and attach it to my stand.
tomorrow I'm going to cut it all up!
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dcantucson
Reef pro
That's going to be so cool Catherine. Very artsy!
tankedchemist
Reef enthusiast
oooooo! I can't wait to see how the stand looks when done. COOL choices.
Probably the most well thought out tank I've seen aroud here. I do have one question, why are you adding macro when you know it will die, or you will manually remove it prior to adding the dwarfs? This seems pointless to me, I'm sure you have a reason so it makes me very curious as to what I am missing.
Picasso
Seahorse Whisperer
Rwynn, I added the macro knowing I would pull most of it but I didn't think it would die. The rock and sand had been cycled since June and the water was aged. I didn't think I could keep the graciliaria alive because I've never been able to keep it alive. IPSF sent me some so I put it in the Deco and crossed my fingers. So far, it is growing quite well!
The idea was that I would try to kick start an ecosystem very similar to the dwarfs natural habitat. In my conversation with Dan, from Seahorse Source, he described their habitat as "tangled brown macro filled with pods and blue claw crabs." The pods I put in so far are amphipods. They love the ulva macro and the graciliaria but that is clogging up the little bit of flow I have from the HOB filter. I added the brown macro from TBS and I'm planning on pulling the ulva and the graciliaria as the brown macro grows so I can keep the overstuffed macro, just not the HOB clogging filter type. Next, I'll add live mysid shrimp next. Adult mysids and amphipods are too large for the dwarfs and if I can get them well established in the Deco, hopefully they will breed and their babies will become snacks for the dwarfs in between the BBS feedings.
I'm lacking confidence in my idea so I'm not going to add the dwarfs until I get my mangrove tank well established so I'll have a back-up spot for the dwarfs in case of a Deco crash.
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motorcyclereefer
I am Graffiti Petey
Too artsy for me :) I think it is because I couldn't do it.
Picasso
Seahorse Whisperer
So, I spent the past couple days working on my little glass doors for my stand. The orange glass I really loved was too intense for the stand so I decided to use some caramel colored glass instead. Here it is after I cut the glass and started foiling:
Here it is with all the foiling on:
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Here it is with all the foiling on:
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little_fish
Moderator
That is going to look amazing! I cant wait to see it when its done!
Picasso
Seahorse Whisperer
Got a couple shots of the deco last night.
I'm having a little trouble with 2 of my macros. The brown stuff is being eaten by my nass snails. I'm moving them out whenever I see them. Hopefully, I can get it to recover. The sargassum is spreading like wildfire. I'll pinch it back today. If it is as troublesome as the fern caulerpa, I'm going to try to eliminate it.
FTS:
A close up of my macro, you can see the snail damage on the brown.
I'm having a little trouble with 2 of my macros. The brown stuff is being eaten by my nass snails. I'm moving them out whenever I see them. Hopefully, I can get it to recover. The sargassum is spreading like wildfire. I'll pinch it back today. If it is as troublesome as the fern caulerpa, I'm going to try to eliminate it.
FTS:
A close up of my macro, you can see the snail damage on the brown.
Leslee
Reef enthusiast
Your tank is looking awesome! I can't wait to see the doors all done!
Picasso
Seahorse Whisperer
I got the rough solder done for the doors:
Now I have to decide what color I want the seams to be. Right now, they are shiny silver. Should I make them black or copper? Hmmmmmmmm......
Now I have to decide what color I want the seams to be. Right now, they are shiny silver. Should I make them black or copper? Hmmmmmmmm......
