Couple more questions for someone new to the hobby

[jbrim]

I have a 29 gallon Biocube with ~40 lbs of established LR and 2" LS from another persons tank. I have had it up for ~2 weeks with 3 Damsels and a handful of hermit crabs. I just placed two Emerald crabs in this past weekend. I am just starting to get a little brown algae on the side of the tank walls. Here are the questions:

The LR that I obtained had nice purple Coralline algae on it. I see blotches of crimson colored spots appearing. Does this mean that some of the Coralline algae is dying and is this normal. Also, I see a bunch of little white dots on some of the purple Corraline algae rock. What are the dots in anyones opinion?

Also, I do not having much in the way of fish (nor want many), but would like to build the tank with the soft corals that that the stock lighting will support. My question is if I can over do it with crabs and shrimps and crawling things. Since I do not care so much about the fish; can I have 30-40 hermit crabs, a couple shrimp and 4-6 Emerald crabs running around without a problem? This may sound really dumb but I enjoy the crawling life compared to the swimming life. Will ~40 lbs of rock support this many creatures? If not, I have been told that you can suppliment the tank with seaweed feedings but if I do this, will the Chromis Damsels just eat what I put in the tank?

Thanks,


Joe

 

[kaledrina]

Damsels are pretty bland compared to some fish choices, but I doubt they'd eat the algae strips. In my 40g I have 2 large hermit crabs and 2 golf ball sized turbo snails and they do a pretty good job, but I have only about 10lbs of liverock. Also some hermit crabs take a liking to soft corals, mine haven't, I only had my larger hermit crab kill a snail for his shell. Getting too many crabs means they won't get enough to eat and thats probably when they start eating your corals. Go for a starfish and some featherdusters for sure, then maybe a goby if the damsels are peaceful enough. I love gobies though and would get one of every kind if possible lol.

 

[Allen Michelle]

as far as the coraline, we have all those. not a problem, very normal. I don't know if they're different coraline or what.

crabs and shrimp, don't think you can over do them, but you sure can over feed them. oh and if they get over crowded and hungry, they might just decide to each each other.... had that happen before... after they shed

crabs you have to watch out for, some of them eat soft corals/pull up soft corals

you'll have to balance what's a good amount of food for your tank. the brown algae might be diatom algae. that's just part of tank cycle but need to get rid of. bio wheel doesn't really work, in the future, you want to get a decent skimmer for your tank. in my experience, putting carbon helps. Do water changes often helps too. it also depends on the salt you use. I hope you're using RO water...

don't feed flake. go with frozen foods. flake desolves too fast and cause algae problems.

chromis won't eat nori in my experience.. some might when they hungry enough? just feed them frozen foods

 

[jbrim]

Michelle,

Thank you for your input. I do not have a bio wheel setup; my tank is a 29 gallon Biocube. I have replaced the bio-balls with LR rubble and put floss on top of the rock and then the grate that comes with the setup. I also bought some Purigen based on some of the feedback in the other forums.

I have not bought any snails yet but will be doing so in the very near future. I know the crab question is kind of "crazy" (wanting as many as possible), I just do not care a lot for the fish; more into sitting and watching the way crabs, shrimp slowly move around.

You mentioned that I probably can not put too many in the tank (within reason) but can over feed them. How would I know if I am overfeeding them with the seaweed and/or how would I know if I do not have enough rock in the tank to support ~30-40 hermits and 5-6 Emeralds, and a cleaner shrimp or two. With the Chromis, I have been feeding them a pinch of flake food every night, but it is gone in a minute so I do not feel that I am over feeding them. I went with flake because that is what the LFS recommended.

With the question of the Corraline algae, do you have the little white dots on them as well?

Again, thank you very much for all of your help.


Joe

 

[Allen Michelle]

@jbrim wrote:

Just know your crabs would grab every snail you throw into the tank like a kid with chocolate...

algae. films and films of algae would grow in your tank.
Crabs are really meant to clean up left over food from feeding the fish, and even fish poop. Some crabs are there to eat algae from your tank (like some emerald crabs eating bubble algae). That's why we call them clean up crew... they clean up the tank.
unless you want to target feed each crab/shrimp, you're going to have to leave the food on the bottom until one of them finds it. and by that time, it would already begin to pollute your tank...
So I think.. just my opinion, if you want to feed those things, just drop foods that don't decompose too fast (frozen) and keep a good skimmer on it to prevent algae spurts in your tank. so if some foods don't get eaten up, the skimmer would clear the excess nutrients.

don't listen to everything lfs tells you.... trust me, flake is a big cause for algae problems in a tank... go with frozen foods. you can buy raw shrimp very cheap from vietnamese/chinese markets. chop them up, freeze them. break a small chunk every time you feed.

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hm, you'll have to take a picture.
here's one of mine

 

[jbrim]

Michelle,

Are you saying that my Emerald and Hermit crabs will eat all of the snails that I put into this tank, or will they eat all of the snails that I put into this tank if they are not fed enough to sustain themselves?

Thanks,


Joe

 

[Allen Michelle]

@jbrim wrote:

it's iffy. some of them just have a taste for live snails, especially blue leg hermits. red legs don't i think. that's why blue legs are so much cheaper.

some of them will even wrestle you for that snail in your hand.. lol

 

[TriggaFish99]

Another thing that helps your snails survive is to provide enough "dead" snail shells for the crabs to grow into. If they can just move in, they will do that versus killing to get the shell. Of course that assumes that you are feeding them well.

If the crab outgrows their shell, they need a new shell.

 

[bimmerzs]

Hi,
To add to the flake food comments and to help you see why flake can be bad, we can use your comment above as an example of what can go wrong with flake food. Folks feed flake and yes, it appears to be gone in a minute so they start feeding more cause their fish "looks" hungry, then pretty soon you have a soup of flake food dissolved in your water column along with the high phosphates that they contain. Mix that with inadequate skimming and not enough flow throughout the tank and you start getting some of the undesirable algae's growing because of all the food you are providing it. Also when you are doing your research, make sure that you browse around on our dfwmas president's page. http://www.melevsreef.com/

Cheers!

 

[Siberwulf]

@na1paj wrote:

it's iffy. some of them just have a taste for live snails, especially blue leg hermits. red legs don't i think. that's why blue legs are so much cheaper.

some of them will even wrestle you for that snail in your hand.. lol"]

I can verify this. About 6 of my blue legs just pillaged *another* snail. There are TONS of empty shells laying around, so I'm positive it was not for a home. This brings the death-count up to 7