Sea Grass Growth

[arh1]

I am trying to maintain a tank with Gulf Coast eel grass and turtle grass. It also contains a seahorse and several pipefish. The plants are not doing well with a commercial sea salt mixture. Anyone have ideas/experience with trace element enrichment?

[hobogato]

what are you using for light? those are shallow water plants, so they really like lots of light.

[arh1]

The lamp has four bulbs, all white light. I turned off two of them because it looked like unnatural amount of light, and algae was growing faster than the grass. I have seen other lamps with one or more blue lights. Will different wave lengths help the plants?

[hobogato]

that may be the problem - the color temperature of the light. you should be able to get some plant grow bulbs at a hardware store like lowe's. i would try that first. what kind of nuisance algae to you have?

[corruption]

Not to be a thorn in the side... but isn't collecting Gulf Coast seagrasses illegal? I'm fairly certain that turtle grass is in the protected/restricted list -- but uncertain about eelgrass..

-Justin

[Third Coast Tropical]

To my knowledge, they are restricted in certain areas....if not in those protected areas they could be collected, but IMO should be left alone.....they are important in providing shelter and food for newly settled larvae (both fish and shrimp)....there are ways to simulate seagrasses in an aquarium wihout using actual seagrasses

[corruption]

Thanks for the clarification, Lindsay -- I was uncertain if it was an across-the-board ban, or just regionally restricted... I know that the eelgrass is quite prollific on its own as well...

Good luck!

-Justin

[subsailor]

i have a forty five gallon trough and i am growing a lot of native sea grass in. All of it that i have is legal and i collected only small patches to get it going. It is outside in natural sunligt and everything seems to grow great, however i use a constant flow of natural sea water and it overflows back into the bay.

[hobogato]

must be nice drew - i would love to have a constant supply of clean natural salt water...

got any pics?

[subsailor]

i will take some when i get home next week