Re: Seagrasses

[Thomas Barr <tcbiii at earthlink_net>]

> I used to keep a native marine tank that had lots of macro algae in it.
> I was never able to keep eel grass, tho.  It always rotted on me and
> really fouled the water.  I have heard that it is very difficult to
> transplant, even in the wild.  Some people think that it may have some
> kind of symbiosis going on at the root level, hence the suggestion to
> bring its substrate with it.  Here in CA it is and endangered and
> protected plant, so you can't dig it up.  The stuff I had was all bits
> that I would find washed up on the beach, so maybe that's why it didn't
> grow for me.

We tried transplanting it to rocks at UCSB. Never worked. A few studies
tried a number of methods. That's a cool water species and too long IMO for
an aquarium unless it's a big tank. The shorter FL species are nicer and
more suited for culture in tanks. Substrate is a key part. They like a sandy
soft mulm like substrate, the CA species likes to be attached to surf rocks.
Epoxy never worked even in the natural environment.
 
> Now I have a nano reef with caulerpa and halimeda, which do quite well.
> The halimeda requires a lot of calcium in the water.
> Lori

Water changes really improves growth. I've talked with old time very
experienced Reef folks, some that deal with large scale aquariums and water
changes really work. One was quite surprised at the low tech but very
effective method. 
Regards, 
Tom Barr