Cycling the tank questions - 2 weeks later

R

RickHarris

[Hi

everything is going well- I think...

Here are yesterdays #'s

ph 8.2
am .50
ni .10
na 10

sg 1.023

The tank looks good. I can't get over how clear it is- finally. We did bury base rock in the sand to build the live rock on. We did take off "extra" stuff from the live rock before putting it in the tank. We didn't get too rough w/ it and it looks pretty messy. Will a cleaner crew clean it up for us?

We have a cpr bak II going. And it's filling the cup almost 1/2 full everyday is that normal in the beginning?

The brown stuff? Everyone said it would happen and that it would eventually go way. My question today, is how? Would it be okay to add any snails ect? if so how many?

thanks
Nancy]
 
[Hi Nancy,

The answer to your question is "no." As long as you are seeing results above zero for Ammonia or Nitrites, you can't add anything to the tank yet.

Your skimmer is pulling out stuff because of the die-off on your LR. You can raise your cup up a little, to attain drier foam, but if you just empty your cup daily, you can leave it as is. I had my cup adjusted to where it needed to be emptied every 5 days or so. I switched over to the Remora skimmer not too long ago, and it was pretty slow in pulling out any fluid to note of. Now it's working overtime for some reason that I can't figure out. So I'm just keeping the cup emptied often. (Again, I can raise it up to collect less liquid and more foam, but I've not done so yet).

The brown stuff will die off on its own. It is called an algae bloom. The tiny live stuff in your DSB will eat it. If you haven't seeded your DSB yet, you should get some LS. If you come to the meeting, I'll give you a cup to take home. Hopefully others can bring you some as well. (hint hint)

Once your ammonia and nitrite are 0, you can add snails. They say 1 per gal, but I buy one snail per 2 gals myself.]
 
[Thanks Marc

Today the tank test 0 ammonia 0 nitrite & 0 nitrate, the ph is still the same

Rick will be at the meeting Wed. He's looking forward to it. And, we'd appreciate the sand very much.

1 snail per gallon sounds like a lot, but we really wouldn't know. I think we're afraid they'd run out of stuff to eat...

What about crabs? I see them in all the cleaner crew packages, but I haven't seen too many in actual tanks or read of them in tanks on line...

Nancy

Nancy]
 
[You need to come here on Wednesday to see the crabs at work. :)

You can buy less snails. I put 3 in my son's 10g, and they did a great job cleaning it up. After 3 months, one died/was devoured over the weekend. There are 3 crabs in there with them.

There are at least 12 in my 29g, and I just added 12 to my 55g to the existing amount already in there. If you don't have enough, your algae will tell you pretty quickly. But you don't have to get a bunch at first.

Some people don't like red-legged or blue-legged crabs. I do. However, they can eat your snails so they can steal the shell, and I think that is why people give them a bad rap.

Congrats on your cycle, it sounds complete! 0 nitrates? Enjoy that while it lasts. LOL]
 
[I've read all the mess 'bout red and blue leg crabs too. Do you think it's true that if there are extra shells in the tank for them, they won't eat the snails? I haven't gathered in enough info to decide if it's the shell or the food they want...

Nancy]
 
[I don't know. I do know that I seem to have extra shells laying on the bottom of the tank, and a snail vanishes regardless. I just pick up some new snails occasionally.

I rarely pick up new crabs. Hmmmm. ???]
 
[I lots of extra shells in my tank and I still watch crabs pull the darn snails out of their shell :( Though my snails have started to reproduce! So I am hoping that I wont have to worry about it much.]
 
[I've found the red-legs to be much less violent than the blue-legs for what it's worth.

I've found the scarlet hermits to be darn near useless.
But peaceful.

And the other day I think a zebra hermit killed my queen conch. It was in the conch shell. Perhaps the queen died naturally, but I smell foul play.


:)]
 
[Sorry 'bout your conch...

is there such thing as vegetarian only tanks? :D

circle of life, I know I know...

I'd like to see crabs in our tank. The lfs has both the blue and red legged crabs in together, I can't see an obvious difference in their legs???]
 
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