Shane's suggestion is a great place to start for the basics... My view of
this is to turn the whole system into a plant refugia and let the critters
go where they may.
What's outside my experience is the species of macroalgae and plants that
live in waters of this lower salinity... I'm only familiar with stuff in the
ocean proper and mangrove plants (which I haven't had a chance to explore
their ecosystem yet other than on boardwalks). I think though, that our
friends along the southern coasts would be able to make suggestions,
possibly make collections of cultures or seed for you. Mangrove seeds are
really easy to find if you're in the right location, and I've found them to
grow _very_ well under 175w Metal Halide. You just stuff 'em in the sand
with the cap point up and voila, they'll sprout roots and start sending up
leaves.
With the prospect of getting into this type of habitat at the Convention and
now knowing that GE Daylight Ultras can run at VHO intensity on IceCap
ballasts... I've been considering doing a similar setup in the new rack I'll
be putting together later this winter, as I also find the gobies and coastal
killies interesting, additionally, all the critters that come with it...
In any case you can expect me to be mucking around in the habitat :)
----- Original Message -----
From: "Shane Graber" <SGraber_at_sauder.com>
To: <nanfa_at_aquaria.net>
Sent: Wednesday, January 07, 2004 11:05 AM
Subject: RE: NANFA-- brackish water sand bed etc.
> Google "refugium" and that should give you a good start on what you're
> trying to accomplish. :)
>
>
http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=mozclient&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&q=refugium
>
> Shane
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Jim Graham
> > Sent: Wednesday, January 07, 2004 11:02 AM
> > To: nanfa_at_aquaria.net
> > Subject: NANFA-- brackish water sand bed etc.
> >
> >
> > Dear Dr. Sandbed ( aka Todd Crail),
> > I've got a small brackish system that has 4 20longs ( will
> > have 11 when I
> > get around to drilling 7 more) and 12 5 1/2 gallon tanks. I am using a
> > protein skimmer and one of my homemade kitty litter bucket
> > trickle filters
> > for filtration. I run it at about 1.010-12 salinity and have
> > a couple of
> > different pupfish, bumblebee gobies and blue eyes in the
> > system. Would like
> > to find a plant filter/sandbed setup to harvest nutrients out
> > of the system
> > to cut down on the water changes which are far too easy to
> > get behind on.
> >
> > Jim Graham
> > Hastings MI
> > ----------------
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-- > /"Unless stated otherwise, comments made on this list do not necessarily > / reflect the beliefs or goals of the North American Native Fishes > / Association" > / This is the discussion list of the North American Native Fishes Association > / nanfa_at_aquaria.net. To subscribe, unsubscribe, or get help, send the word > / subscribe, unsubscribe, or help in the body (not subject) of an email to > / nanfa-request_at_aquaria.net. For a digest version, send the command to > / nanfa-digest-request_at_aquaria.net instead. > / For more information about NANFA, visit our web page, http://www.nanfa.org /----------------------------------------------------------------------------- /"Unless stated otherwise, comments made on this list do not necessarily / reflect the beliefs or goals of the North American Native Fishes / Association" / This is the discussion list of the North American Native Fishes Association / nanfa_at_aquaria.net. To subscribe, unsubscribe, or get help, send the word / subscribe, unsubscribe, or help in the body (not subject) of an email to / nanfa-request_at_aquaria.net. For a digest version, send the command to / nanfa-digest-request_at_aquaria.net instead. / For more information about NANFA, visit our web page, http://www.nanfa.org