Sea Grass to combat low pH?

[Highland Reefer]

I have been reading about Sea Grasses and have been contemplating installing a new aquarium into my existing system. From my understanding, sea grasses use quite a bit of CO2 and in some cases need to be supplemented with it. I would assume that sea grass may reduce CO2 levels and result in a higher pH. Does anyone have any experience with this?

Edited December 20, 2008 by Highland Reefer

[zygote2k]

Count me in if you get some grasses. I'd love to have some...

[Highland Reefer]

Count me in if you get some grasses. I'd love to have some...

 

Sounds good. I am researching what is needed to start this type of a bio-system: substrate, lighting, water flow, etc. & which fish will work best.

[Buucca]

Don't know much about sea grass but, I have a 55g refugium loaded with grape caulerpa. Even though it keeps my nitates at "0", I've not noticed a rise in Ph. This and the display tank maintain at 8.1.

 

Here's a link that might help getting your grass.

 

http://reefcleaners.org/index.php?page=sho...t&Itemid=34

Edited December 21, 2008 by Buucca

[zygote2k]

Don't know much about sea grass but, I have a 55g refugium loaded with grape caulerpa. Even though it keeps my nitates at "0", I've not noticed a rise in Ph. This and the display tank maintain at 8.1.

 

Here's a link that might help getting your grass.

 

http://reefcleaners.org/index.php?page=sho...t&Itemid=34

I have most of the algae listed on that site. True seagrasses are kind of hard to find though.

[Highland Reefer]

"Below is a list of all of the marine plant vendors taken from this thread. Where to get macroalgae and marine vascular plants. The links are listed in the order in which they appeared in that thread. Please refer to that thread for discussion and some vendor experiences.

 

Florida Pets

Nova Southeastern University Oceanographic Center

Macro-algae.com

Gulf Coast Ecosystems

Indo-Paific Sea Farms

Bill's Reef

PremiumAquatics

Connecticut Valley Biological Supply Co.

MarinelifeThey ship in Europe and Switzerland in 48 hours with UPS.

InlandAquatics

Etropicals

Marinedepotlive

Marineflora

Florida Aqua Farms Inc

Seacrop

Marinefauna-cebu

LAreefs

seaside-treasure

Sea Life Florida

 

Not sure if the Barrreport sells plants, but they were in there so I put them here.

barrreport"

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthre...hreadid=1049159

Edited December 21, 2008 by Highland Reefer

[zygote2k]

I'd like to purchase some if I can look at it first and see how it is growing. I'm sure someone has some in the area, if not how about a group buy?

[Highland Reefer]

I have not seen any locally. I am good for a group buy.

[Highland Reefer]

Here are a couple of articles on the subject that I found interesting:

 

Main Attraction -Beautiful Seagrasses - Keeping True Flowering Plants in Your Marine Aquarium By: Anthony Calfo

http://www.reefland.com/rho/0305/main3.php

 

Beyond the Regium: Segrass Aquaria: http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-04/sl/index.php

[Highland Reefer]

I think I would like to build this tank with Sea Dragons in it. Anyone know anything about them?

 

[stevearlen]

I think I would like to build this tank with Sea Dragons in it. Anyone know anything about them?

 

 

 

All I know is that they are called "Sea Dragons".

[Highland Reefer]

If you could by the above dragons, they would probably cost about $10,000.

[zygote2k]

I saw a display of Leafy Sea Dragons at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. I heard that they cycle the critters in and out on a monthly basis as they tend to perish in captivity.

[capsfan]

I know they had them at Birch Aquarium @ Scripps in San Diego.

 

[lancer99]

I don't think seagrasses would be a good choice for CO2 reduction. They require at least 4-6" inches of fine substrate (okay if you have a DSB), but are unpredictable. My Thalassia/Turtle grass (supposedly difficult to grow) is doing well, but both my Syringodium/Manatee grass and Halodule/Shoal grass have died off. The Syringodium did flower before disappearing, and I disturbed the roots of the Halodule, so maybe that's my fault.

 

In other words they are finicky....I would guess that something easy like Caulerpa would do just as well at reducing C02, and would be much less of a pain

 

-R

[Highland Reefer]

I don't think seagrasses would be a good choice for CO2 reduction. They require at least 4-6" inches of fine substrate (okay if you have a DSB), but are unpredictable. My Thalassia/Turtle grass (supposedly difficult to grow) is doing well, but both my Syringodium/Manatee grass and Halodule/Shoal grass have died off. The Syringodium did flower before disappearing, and I disturbed the roots of the Halodule, so maybe that's my fault.

 

In other words they are finicky....I would guess that something easy like Caulerpa would do just as well at reducing C02, and would be much less of a pain

 

-R

 

Thanks for the input. I am no longer concerned about reducing CO2. Now that I have bought Tim's (ExtremeToothDecay) 125 gallon tank, I want to do something different with it. I was thinking about a macroalgae and seagrass theme. Maybe rocks with macro on one side, phasing into the seagrass on the other (maybe rocks in the middle). I am aware that I will need at least 6" of fine sand in the bottom. The seagrass will need good lighting. I have a 250 watt metal halide already. Probably will need to dose iron for the seagrass. Ideas & critiques would be greatly appreciated.

 

I will be plumbing this into my exisitng system.

Edited December 26, 2008 by Highland Reefer