Greetings from Spain

borjam

Cuttlefish
Registered
Joined
Jul 27, 2012
Messages
16
Hi :smile:

Just registered several days ago. I'll be mostly in read only mode, as I don't keep any cephalopods and I'm not planning to keep them, either. But they are curious creatures and the forum seems to be a very interesting read :smile:

I keep a reef aquarium and a small nano with a goby/alpheus pair, and I like deep sand beds a lot.
 
:welcome: DeepBlueWonders gave my intended greeting :wink:. Please consider editing your profile to add something (at least country) to your location display. This is helpful for US members but especially helpful for international members to locate and help each other with regional information.
 
Considered... And done :wink:

I said I'm not planning to keep cephs because 2 tanks are enough :smile:

Anyway, regarding a couple of posts about the lack of success with hatchlings... Has anyone tried with tanks with a high population of microfauna like, for example, those with deep sand beds? Maybe the diversity present in those tanks would provide that essential first food.
 
Around 300 litres, several fishes, including a tang and a Centropyge? That would be WW3 I'm afraid...

Anyway, who knows? Maybe one day :wink: For now, the forum is an interesting read about some really cool creatures :smile:

I'm curious, how much does a hatchling eat? Maybe a well populated DSB like this would sustain one well.

 
I'm curious, how much does a hatchling eat? Maybe a well populated DSB like this would sustain one well.

For the pelagic animals we don't have enough success to know. The most common partial successes have been in the main tanks (ie they have lived the longest) vs in a separate small tank where people have experimented with flow and kresel style setups. The few actual successes have been with flow through sea water systems and crab zoea. Unfortunately the reported successes have been so few that isolating positive influences has not been finite. I want to experiment with a separate DSB (not in the display and not in the sump) for help with nitrates in older tanks and your thoughts might be enough to re-motivate me into experimentation since the tank I am considering currently has no primary resident.
 
According to Dr. Shimek, and I agree with him, a DSB isn't just a nitrate reduction system, but a whole ecosystem. The critters are an integral part. They process wastes, and also can multiply and become food. I mentioned it because, for instance, my system (the video is a shot of my own tank) has plenty of amphipods (less than 1 cm long), 5 mm mysiids, 4 mm tanaids, ostracods...

Maybe a well populated (and well fed) DSB would provide a lot of useful food. I will make an edited guess: I would try a large main tank DSB together with a large refugium to replenish DSB animals. The DSB should have sugar-sized sand (mine is 0.1 - 0.5 mm) so that small amimals can establish themselves.

I think it would be worth a try. DSBs (yes, I love them) can sustain an amazing biodiversity.

Anyway, remember that a DSB needs a lot of and surface to be effective. Mine is in the main tank, and I left 60 - 70 % of the sand surface exposed.
 
If I experiement, it will be in a separate tank. They get too disrupted (and take up too much room in a shallower tank) in an octo tank. If I were to replumb my 4', 122 cm tank (that is only 16" , 40 cm dia), it would likely benefit hugely (and I would not have to clean the bottom 8" , 20 cm :biggrin2:).

Not something I have plans for at the moment but you have me thinking. A separate refugium and separate DSB are a combination I would like to try on one particular tank. Sitting here thinking, I realized I CAN try one or the other with little cost ... Now which one to try. The tank has a sump but it was designed with a built-in that is empty. I could easily add 8" (20 cm) of sand but the surface area would be minimal. A small fuge would only required lighting ... hummm, I don't know why I have not thought about using this area before :oops:
 
Hmmm. You really need a lot of surface for it to be effective. A small so-called rDSB in a bucket may help with nitrates, but it won't sustain a lot of life apart from bacteria.

You just need 10 - 12 cm of sugar-sized sand (more won't really help). The good thing is, in more than a year I haven't had to clean the bottom of the tank. Whatever falls on it is quickly consumed by worms, crustaceans and several Nassarius snails.
 
DeepBlueWonders;191792 said:
How did you seed the sand bed?

All the critters came with the live rock. Got it from three different sources. Of course you have to be very careful with predators. Usual sand dwelling animals such as Archaster are verboten. Crabs must be removed.

Maybe it was the newbie's luck, but one can expect to find lots of small critters in reasonably good live rock. Provide them with a suitable home, feed them and refrain from adding more animals until they have had the chance to breed and populate the tank (I waited for three months before I added fish.

Once it's done, propagating isn't that hard. I've shared critters with a friend just by putting several pieces of blue filter sponge on the sand and leaving it there for a week. When it's full of critters, you bag it, of course acclimate it carefully to the destination tank, and there you are :smile:
 
Very cool! I think I might look into this. Amphipods are usually a second food (after mysid shrimp) to cuttlefish hatchlings and you seemed to have quite a few in your 'bed, along with many other similarly sized crustaceans. To me, this seems like something that could very well support cuttle hatchlings, with some research. I don't imagine it could be too efficent though. To do this, it is my assumption that a very large, and probably inconvienently sized sand bed would be required in order to replenish itself faster than the hatchlings consume it. Either that, or only a very small amount of cuttles could be raised. I currently have no experience with DSBs (so my ideas of efficiency could be completely incorrect), so I have much research ahead of me. I will definitely be looking into this, as this seems like something I am very interested in experimenting with.

Also, what kind of sand do you use in your sand bed and where did you aquire it?
 

Shop Amazon

Shop Amazon
Shop Amazon; support TONMO!
Shop Amazon
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon and affiliated sites.
Back
Top