Live seaweed in a marine aquarium? Help/advice
Discussion
Morning all. I've been struggling to get seaweed to survive in an aquarium, the water clarity is good as is salinity and PH. The tank is well lit, but it's a low energy LED bulb. Everytime I've introduced some seaweed it eventually seems to rot and die, even though sometimes there is some fresh growth first.
I'm getting the seaweed from rockpools where presumably it's always submerged so I thought continued submersion shouldn't be an issue ( it is with some species )and I'm being careful to keep the holdfast intact etc.
Does anyone have any ideas? Or sucess in keeping marine seaweed? Maybe the lighting is wrong?
I'm getting the seaweed from rockpools where presumably it's always submerged so I thought continued submersion shouldn't be an issue ( it is with some species )and I'm being careful to keep the holdfast intact etc.
Does anyone have any ideas? Or sucess in keeping marine seaweed? Maybe the lighting is wrong?
I've no experience with marine tanks, but presume that the principles are the same as freshwater:
Lighting: do you have any info on the spectrum and PAR/PUR values of your lighting? In my experience, unless an LED unit is high quality (expensive) then they tend to not offer good quality lighting. Cheap solution is to use a high wattage SAD/daylight bulb which offers a better spectrum (at least in shallow tanks).
Fertilisers: what are you providing in the way of nutrients for the seaweed? Not sure if there are special requirements for marine plants, but if lighting isn't the issue then it's likely to be a lack of (or overdose) certain trace elements.
Filtration/Water movement: seaweed may need a reasonably high flow rate to allow it to get enough nutrients - ice based this purely on the fact that it gets it in the wild. Slow flow rate could be at least part of the problem.
As I've said, outside my experience though - may be worth asking on a marine fishkeeping forum.
Lighting: do you have any info on the spectrum and PAR/PUR values of your lighting? In my experience, unless an LED unit is high quality (expensive) then they tend to not offer good quality lighting. Cheap solution is to use a high wattage SAD/daylight bulb which offers a better spectrum (at least in shallow tanks).
Fertilisers: what are you providing in the way of nutrients for the seaweed? Not sure if there are special requirements for marine plants, but if lighting isn't the issue then it's likely to be a lack of (or overdose) certain trace elements.
Filtration/Water movement: seaweed may need a reasonably high flow rate to allow it to get enough nutrients - ice based this purely on the fact that it gets it in the wild. Slow flow rate could be at least part of the problem.
As I've said, outside my experience though - may be worth asking on a marine fishkeeping forum.
I think the lighting should be ok, it's daylight LED, pretty bright, and the tank is in the window too ( doesn't get direct sun though ). The critters in there shrimps, anemone, snails, zoo-plankton are all thriving.
I think I'm going to keep trying but use a seperate tank until I crack it, as obviously I just keep adding rotting matter if I keep putting seaweed in that dies.
I can't seem to find any internet references to it, most marine aquarists seem to stick to live rocks and corals.
I think I'm going to keep trying but use a seperate tank until I crack it, as obviously I just keep adding rotting matter if I keep putting seaweed in that dies.
I can't seem to find any internet references to it, most marine aquarists seem to stick to live rocks and corals.
Slink said:
Timmy35 said:
I can't seem to find any internet references to it, most marine aquarists seem to stick to live rocks and corals.
Live rocks? as as apposed to dead rocks?what are live rocks? i understand corals but live rocks?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Live_rock
Gassing Station | All Creatures Great & Small | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff