<h1 class="pgc-h-center-line" >What is a seaweed tank? </h1>
A mature seaweed tank must first have producers such as algae to support the lives of these consumers of fish, as well as other decomposers. We are constantly providing light, moisture, and nutrients that allow this small, artificial ecosystem to cycle on its own.
The "rock reef coast intertidal zone" to be simulated in the aquarium is a coast composed of rocks, nourished by the tides, very rich in organisms, in addition to algae, there are various fish, shrimp, crabs, snails, sea urchins, starfish and so on. Most of the coasts along the southeast coast of our country belong to this category.
<h1 class="pgc-h-center-line" > what do I need to prepare to make a seaweed tank? </h1>
The materials required for the seaweed tank can be purchased in the aquarium market and online, and even the complete set of equipment is quite mature. In order to let everyone understand the role of various equipment and materials, we say one by one:
1. Cylinder: used to fill water. The "ultra-white glass bare tank" commonly used for freshwater fish farming is enough
2. Luminaires: Light is essential for ecosystems. Try to make the lamps simulate natural light, choose full-spectrum seawater LED lamps, or professional aquatic weed lamps.
3. Seawater: use pure water or RO water (requires RO machine at home), add special sea salt of well-known brands, and measure salinity with an optical salinity meter (salinity pen), and the value is controlled at 1.022~1.025. Note: Do not use tap water, because fresh tap water contains chlorine, which is harmful to fish and shrimp and should not be used directly.
4. Bottom sand: generally use shell sand or yellow sand by the sea. You can collect it yourself in the sandy field with better water quality, and then simply wash it and spread it into the tank.
5. Oxygen and carbon dioxide: The photosynthesis of algae and the circulation of living water can increase the dissolved oxygen in the water, and the daily activities of various animals will produce carbon dioxide, which can be used by algae photosynthesis to form a cycle.
6. Temperature: The temperature of seawater is relatively constant, and it is generally recommended to maintain it between 20 and 27 ° C
7. Producer: all kinds of algae. The algae selected in this tank are flame algae, staghorn algae, red grape algae, feather algae (from left to right in the picture below), which are relatively easy to buy from the aquarium market, and the color is bright, and the feeding difficulty is low.
8. Consumers: fish, shrimp, crab, snail, sea urchin, sea cucumber, etc. Choose according to the size of the tank space, and avoid the types that eat algae
9. Decomposer: The feces, corpses and food residues produced by consumers in the tank will release toxic ammonia, which can poison fish and shrimp over time. Nitrateging bacteria present in nature can convert ammonia into nitrates that are fairly toxic and keep ecosystems healthy.
Nitrifying bacteria are introduced first. You can buy the aquatic nitrifying bacteria (artificial nitrifying bacteria) on the market, but it is best to use fresh "living stones" - the beneficial bacteria including a large number of nitrifying bacteria are naturally attached to the rocks, which is the essence of the entire sea tank system. There are often too many things that need to be decomposed in the cylinder, and the nitrifying bacteria on the living stone are too busy to come, so they need a "protein separator" - it uses the tension of the water surface to let some organic matter be separated before the ammonia is released, thereby keeping the water clean. Since it can create a little water flow, it can increase the dissolved oxygen amount of the water body incidentally.
1. Set up a cylinder
The placement should be stable and not tilted. Placed in the office or living room is appropriate, placed in the bedroom need to consider the noise problem of the filter.
First pour into the bottom sand, pave into the front low and then high look, the front part is 1 to 2 cm thick, the rear part is 3 to 5 cm thick, so that it will be layered later. After that, place a filter and protein separator, don't worry about the scenery, the algae will block them later.
Then put in the living stone. Then pour in the seawater with the salinity. Don't pour it directly into it, it will wash the bottom sand everywhere, and it will not sink in half a day. It is best to spread a plastic bag on the sand surface, slowly pour sea water, and then pull the plastic bag out:
2. Burst algae
Why explode algae? ——Didn't we just set up the tank, why don't we directly plant algae and fish? In fact, the stage of exploding algae is very critical, and it can even determine the success or failure of the opening of the cylinder!
As I have already emphasized, if you want to raise algae and fish well, you first need to raise a good nitrification system. Living stone is brushed by seawater, only removing the impurities (organic matter) visible to the naked eye on the surface, but there are still residues in the internal holes, which require explosive growth of algae to quickly consume it to avoid polluting the water quality, while nitrifying bacteria and other beneficial bacteria can also fully grow, killing two birds with one stone. The whole process usually takes 2 to 4 weeks. During the explosion of algae, maintain more than 20 hours of lighting time every day, 3 days to 1 week or so, the tank wall, living stone began to grow brown algae, within 1 to 2 weeks, the tank wall and the brown algae on the living stone slowly retreated, replaced by green algae and green filament algae, when the living stone on the green filament algae slowly began to turn white, indicating that the organic matter in the pores of the living stone was almost consumed, and the blasting process was nearing the end. Longer filamentous algae can be removed by hand, shorter or difficult to remove manually, you can ask algae-eating organisms to nibble on, such as algae snails, hermit crabs, sea urchins, sea cucumbers and so on.
Novices may encounter a common problem in the explosive algae stage: the outbreak is not green algae, but brown algae or fungal membranes. The main reason is that the water quality is not good, the living stone is not fresh enough, etc., the stocking of some algae-eating organisms, coupled with frequent water changes, can be slowly improved after a week to half a month.
3. Grow algae
In the case of Staghorn Algae, for example, the algae species were initially tied to live stones with cotton or fishing thread:
When the algae has just entered the tank, it is necessary to observe frequently, and if the algae dies or stops growing because it is not adapted, it should be removed in time to avoid rotting in the tank. Staghorn algae is tied for about a week, adapts to the environment in the tank, and will begin to grow in all directions, grow false roots to fix, and then grow new algae leaves on the false stems. In a month or so, the staghorn algae will be covered with a whole piece of living stone, and the old algae leaves will gradually turn yellow and need to be trimmed regularly.
Not all algae are so long, for example, flame algae like water flow, they have to be tied to the outlet of the filter cartridge. Red grape algae do not produce "roots", need to be fixed with cotton thread or fishing line, and the line is not obvious after growing luxuriantly.
4. Add small creatures such as fish, shrimp and crabs
Once the higher algae are fixed, we can get rid of various creatures one after another. Due to the limited space in the small tank, it is best to choose smaller creatures.
Algae-eating organisms can choose rusty concave snails and baby snails, as well as sea urchins the size of fingernails. Fish are smaller docile goby, three-finned fish, heterodonted rays and sea dragons.
I personally like benthic fish very much, so most of these fish live at the bottom of the tank, if you like the middle and upper layers of the tank have fish swimming, you can choose small guinea bream or tongue pond seabream, well raised and can see them swimming in groups. Shrimp and crabs are glass shrimp and petal crabs, docile in temperament, do not disturb other creatures. In this way, a warm and harmonious small tank biota is formed. It is best not to exceed 20 small fish in the tank, otherwise the nitrification system is under great pressure. And it is best not to raise spiny tail fish, they belong to the algae eating fish, will eat a variety of higher algae in the tank, threatening the ecological balance in the tank.
Seawater tank done!
After that, maintenance is also very simple, only 20% of the water needs to be pumped out every week and the newly prepared seawater is added. When adding water in summer and winter, pay attention to the temperature of the newly added water to be similar to the water temperature in the water tank, so as not to make the small animals uncomfortable on the double days of ice and fire.
After a busy day, when you come home, see this colorful little world, observe the interesting behavior of various creatures, people will also become energetic, which can relieve a lot of work pressure.