seaweed question

[elan]

got a weird question.. I remember when i was a kid, i would take some seaweed (that was in the ocean and not on the beach) and shake it above a bucket of water.... alot of creatures used to fall out.. i wasnt ever sure what was in there, but i do remember alot of stuff falling out...
does anyone know if this stuff would be beneficial in an aquarium??

 

[flydan]

Hey,
Hmmmm..... That's a poser. I wouldn't collect this material near shore due to pollution and I don't advocate going out and tearing it off the ocean floor and shaking it around for pods and stuff to fall out. So I guess my answer is: I don't know and I don't care because I would never collect the stuff to dump in my tank. A little harsh? Sorry... It's just the best I can come up with besides perhaps just: No.
HTH,
Dan'l

 

[elan]

a poser? please explain that one...
and the seaweed i was refering to is usually out in 300-600 ft of water.. about 2-30 miles offshore... long weedlines that span for miles that are on the surface which dolphin fisherman usually look for... and birds come to feast on as well...
and before anyone gets upset, the dolphin i am refering too is Mahi Mahi, the fish, and not the mammal .
Many people thought the dolphin served for dinner was flipper.. so we had to change the name....so we use the hawain name..
and man.. that is one tastey fish!!

 

[flydan]

Hey,
"Poser" is a baffling question. It's in the dictionary. Honest!
Anyway, I still think there are too many variables to be safe. You never know what you'll get. Could be good, could be bad. Could destroy your tank and you wouldn't even know what did it. Is it worth it? It's up to each person to decide what they want to do to their tanks. It would be pretty boring if everyone set up the same tanks with the same stuff inside.
Good luck with it though,
Dan'l

 

[elan]

interesting.. ....
poser Pos"er
n 1: a person who habitually pretends to be something he is not [syn: poseur] 2: a person who poses for a photographer or painter or sculptor; "the president didn't have time to be a model so the artist worked from photos" [syn: model] 3: a particularly difficult or baffling question or problem [syn: stumper, toughie]
you learn something new every day...
I just figured that we take such a great risk getting live rock with all the diversity, and seaweed contains such great diversity of life, there should be little difference.. but i was wondering if anyone knew of something specific like a certain type of pod that will eat coral or something......
But, i figure, so many bait fish feed off the little criters in the seaweed beds, it could be a great addition... but the best part is all the fish that feed off the baitfish

 

[plum70rt]

I wonder too
Hey Elan do you make your own saltwater?
Just Curious because reef life and other places carry seawater from the ocean just want to see if anyone uses it,
I have in my nano, no ill effects, im afraid to in my big tank

 

[elan]

Hey Plum....
I was at the LFS the other day talking with a shopper that swears by their saltwater... Barrier Reef gets their saltwater from the ocean as well, she has had her tank running for over 3 years with everything going great, doing 10% water changes in her 75 gallon weekly.
I make my own saltwater, using reef crystals and RODI, but the last time i did a water change, my tank didnt look so good for a few days and it freaked me out..... this is after i decided to do water changes from no water changes at all.. I have a whole 5 gallon bucket with reef crystals so i want to use that up first, and since i got an RODI unit, i want to take advantage of that even after i run out of my salt.
The thing that bothers me, is that one of the managers at my LFS says that the saltwater that all the local LFS get is usually from the miami bay, during an incoming tide... nobody will go out and get water from the nice blue, unpolluted, water since it would eat away at the profit due to gas costs. So that is making me wonder a bit about it...
But, on the other hand, all three sets of reefs down here are always in the greenish water (within a 1/4 mile) , and all are doing relatively fine. so the water may not be as polluted as i imagine... and by the time you get to the drop-off (depth goes from 100 to 300ft) there are no more reefs until you get to the bahamas...
And, all my LFS does to filter out the saltwater is run it though a large UV filter, and some particle filters....
Next time i am out in the ocean though (i hear the dolphin bite is coming on strong, but most are just schoolies with a few bulls every now and then), i will take a bucket full of seaweed and see what i get... take a few pictures and post them for all to see.... then add them to my tank and hopefully create a new trend in saltwater diversity... hey.. i may even bottle it and sell it under the "miniature invert package" just dont give away my secretes...lol
On another note, i got the Nassarius package off the guy on ----... i ended up with 100 of those snails and that is just way too many for my tank... want some? I am actually thinking about going back down to Salties house and grabbing some more xenia that he wants to get rid of... i may give him some of these snails as well.

 

[plum70rt]

yes, I need some snails, come to the FMAS meeting on Tues,
wait till you talk to some of the members,VERY knowledgeable bunch

 

[elan]

i will definitely try... what time does it start?

 

[plum70rt]

6pm at the fishing hall of fame

 

[elan]

till what time.. i dont think there is any way i can make it that early.

 

[plum70rt]

hey elan ,I was at the FMAS pinic today, at john loyd park in Ft Lauderdale, we did excactly what you described with the seaweed you should see the stuff we came up with,
Jacks, Sergeant Majors, filefish, sargassom fish,crabs , shrimps,pipefish,spanish dancers, some we kept for fish food ,
most were let go, the sargassom fish is now in my nano,
you could really get some great stuff out there

 

[harley387]

Hi. I actually just did this also. However, I live in Massachusetts, so the water is very cold here. I wasn't too sure about it, but so far no problems. I shook out some seaweed into my sump, and noticed some HUGE pods! A couple of these I just added right to the main tank, where they were immediately snapped up by my Tang and a mithrax crab. I did notice a couple of very small "evil" crabs in there, so be careful about what you put in there!