Gracilaria sp. Culturing

[reedman]

Anthony,

I wanted your input on this since you are a firm believer in refugiums. This isn't a refugium, but rather a culturing tank for a food source. Let me know what you think.

I want to culture Red Gracilaria sp. feeding to my fish. I am currently planning to setup a separate tank (20-30 gal) strictly for this purpose. I will put in a maxijet 1200 to create the tumbling effect, use the spiral PC flood light(s), and a heater. Not much else. I plan to use my water change water from my 75 gallon to introduce nutrients into the tank via water changes.

Thanks in advance.
-Reed

 

[CarlaW]

Can't help ya much here Reed, but mind if I tag along while the game is on.

 

[reedman]

shameless bump to see if anyone knows anything about this.

 

[IAP Brian]

I have not had very good luck with the red or brown Gracilaria sp., I have ordered a lot of it from Ocean Riders in Hawaii and it goes knuts for them. You might want to contact them and see if they have any pointers. The green Gracilaria I get from ORA grows fine in my fuge but the red and brown allways bleaches out and dies off. (Mario @ Ocean Reef has the same problem with the red from ORA)

here's the URL: http://www.seahorse.com/

 

[reedman]

Brian,
Thanks very much for the info. I will follow up with them per your recommendation. If I receive any info I will relay it here.

 

[Anthony Calfo]

Gracilaria is one of the best genera for aquarium use (weakly noxious, fast growing, good vehicle for banking or exporting nutrients, etc).

Its really easy to grow too... but strict. They need high light (10 watts per gallon of high PAR/high CRI (90+)), high water flow (40X bare minimum) and high quality water (high RedOx, oxygenation, etc like the dynamic shallows they are fast cultured in on wild reefs)

I plan to use my water change water from my 75 gallon to introduce nutrients into the tank via water changes.

This will fail (dismally) to culture the algae well. Aside form the good nutrients, there are numerous noxious elements in the tired/exhaused (poor alk/low pH) used water.

Like any target species, new/best seawater is simply best.

Do some google image searches and general google searches for "Gracilaria fishery" and "Gracilaria line culture" as well as basket culture, Taiwan, Hawai'i and Japan (all principal export countries/words/hits)

 

[reedman]

Thanks Anthony! That's exactly why I asked before I went forward.

I am gathering from your post that I should just treat this as a separate species tank with the same high quality water as with a reef tank. Will I need to add any nutrients to the tank or just do water changes with fresh saltwater?

Again, thanks for the insight.
-Reed

 

[Anthony Calfo]

yes... new water, high redox, strong mineral content, etc... and for nutrients you will need a source of nitrogen, some phosphorous... CO2 is helpful, etc