New 24G Fiji biotope Tank

[Duncan]

Hello all, first off, thanks. I've been reading your site for months gathering info, and plenty of useful advice on my first tank. Well, I've taken the plunge so to speak, and two weeks ago started the tank. I have listed below my "hardware" My plan is to attempt to put only Fijian, rock, corals and livestock in the tank, so any recommendations on stock would be useful, I have also added an "intended" stock list.

 

Since stocking the tank with live rock, I have been testing the water every few days for amonia, and once a week, nitrate and nitrite. All of the readings have read zero. I have read everything I can about cycling the tank, but am beginning to wonder if I am one of the few to not see much of a cycle. That said, perhaps I'm just being impatient! The live rock I bought from a very helpful (and small) LFS. It came straight from their tank, which has fish and corals in it, and looked pretty mature. There is very good colour, purples and greens, and within a few days I had some feather dusters appear. The rock was transported "dry" and was out of water for maybe 20 mins. Within 2 or 3 days, I had what I am guessing was Diatom Bloom over my base rock and sand, and by the end of the first week green hair algae, which is now 1" long in some places. Last night I saw a bristle worm that was about an inch long.

 

So, am I being impatient, should I wait a few more weeks before starting to add a CUC, or has my tank possibly cycled, and I can start (slowly) stocking? I won't even consider any fish for at least another couple of weeks just to be on the safe side.

 

Thanks in advance, for any help/advice/criticism!

 

 

MY STUFF!

24g tank (based on the dimensions, I would call it a breeder)

32" Corallife lunar aqualight (10,000k Daylight & 96watt Actinic Compact Flurescent and 2 lunar LED's).

20 lb's Carib Sea sand, topped off with 15lbs Live Sand.

15lbs Base Rock

20lbs Live Rock

Rio 50 (60 GPH)

Hydor 2 (600 GPH)

Elite 300w heater

 

My intended stock.

2 Oceallaris, or Black and White Clowns (inevitable, I know, but I have a young son!)

1 Spotted/Pajama Cardinalfish

1 Randalls Shrimp Goby and/or

1 Midas Blennie

 

 

Oh, and i forgot to mention, for the past week, I have had a shrimp in the tank, in the hopes of kick starting the cycle, but still all readings are 0!

[EtOH_is_good]

welcome and good luck.

[Todesengel]

I have a 10gallon nano. And I bought live rock that my LFS said was already cycled. During the first week my stats never got higher than,

 

PH = 8.1

ammonia = .025

nitrite = 0.05

nitrate = 10

 

By the middle of the 2nd week, everything was at zero and stayed at zero all the way to the end of the week. I went ahead and put my cleanup crew in there, including a cleaner shrimp and hermits. They have been doing great and its been about 4 days. They are all feeding well, are running around doing what they are suppost to doing. Nothing dead yet lol!!

[hecsrt-4]

to NR.

 

Just take it slow, patience is a virtue trust me if you wait you will enjoy the hobby a lot more. The longer you let your tank cycle the better you will be of in the long run.

 

 

Take the shrimp out of the tank.

[Duncan]

Thanks for the welcomes!

The Shrimp I referred to is a (previously) frozen shrimp, there's no livestock in the tank yet, apart from a couple of bristle worms, and at least one small snail, which I presume must have come with the live rock.

Would you suggest that if I continue monitoring the water stats for the next couple of weeks, and they remain zero, that would be long enough?

[hecsrt-4]

Thanks for the welcomes!

The Shrimp I referred to is a (previously) frozen shrimp, there's no livestock in the tank yet, apart from a couple of bristle worms, and at least one small snail, which I presume must have come with the live rock.

Would you suggest that if I continue monitoring the water stats for the next couple of weeks, and they remain zero, that would be long enough?

 

 

I know you meant frozen shrimp, that is an old way of starting a cycle just like undergravel filter was used back then. But there is other new methods of starting a reef, you could use live rock rubble from an established tank or LS. You will still get a cycle but no crazy algae blooms. Just keep pushing forward with the research, and remember patience is a virtue especially in this hobby.

[Duncan]

I didn't realize the shrimp method was antiquated, I guess it is overkill to use that and the shrimp! I shall take it out asap, thanks for the advice.

[Lalani]

Using a frozen shrimp is fine. I put uncured LR into my 10gal. and still used a shrimp to kickstart the cycle. It cycled in a week. Several people still use this method.

[Duncan]

I guess you might have another cycle coming up due to the shrimp method. Imo, I'd suggest you wait at least 2 weeks before getting any livestock.

 

But anyway, I think you are off to a great start!

 

Keep us posted.

 

 

And.. we got the same name!!!

[this1fish]

wait, you can use the same username as other people?

[ValidusX]

I went through a very short cycle myself, but I still waited 1 month before adding a CUC. My parameters never to this day(knock on wood) got above 0. Although I did not test the first 8 days. I also used live sand and cured LR from my LFS. I went through a minor diatom bloom, 3 small dime size areas of hair algae,( still dealing with 1 of those, although I test 0 for PO4) I have to say Patience,stability, and Water Changes are the key. So reward yourself with something above normal cost for waiting an extra week or 2. Just an Idea.

 

BTW I wouldn't trade my tank-raised false perc for anything, he is by far the most enjoyable entertainment in the tank.

[hecsrt-4]

I guess you might have another cycle coming up due to the shrimp method. Imo, I'd suggest you wait at least 2 weeks before getting any livestock.

 

But anyway, I think you are off to a great start!

 

Keep us posted.

And.. we got the same name!!!

 

 

Thank you Duncan for helping Duncan out, steering him in the right direction. Because you know from experience right.

 

Cough cough how much experience do you have Lalani.

[Duncan]

Thanks Everyone,

 

Duncan - I'll have to use a different Avatar or something so that no one mistakes my amateur postings for your experience!!

 

The shrimp has been in there for just over a week, so I'm thinking I can take it out now, I have alot of hair algae growing all over the tank, which I assume is due to overkill, (lr, ls and a shrimp!) I shall have to trust my CUC will sort that out when they finally arrive.

 

On that topic, as I mentioned in my thread title, I am hoping to create somewhat of a biotope environment in my tank, with all additions from fiji. I'm still looking into being more specific with an area of fiji, Baqa Lagoon possibly. I digress, Does anyone know if there are particular CUC I should be looking for from fiji? I can find lots of info on fish (fishbase.org is great) and coral, however there appears to be little info on snails and crabs. Any input would be appreciated!

 

Duncan (#2!)

[spanko]

Just wondering are you running the lights at this time? You realize there is no need to without any livestock in there yet. You also realize that the light feeds the algae (photosynthesis) and leaving them off with help to get rid of the hair algae even before you get a CUC.

 

JMO FWIW

[Duncan]

Hmmm, well yes, I have been leaving the lights on, if only to look at the tank! I shall keep them off and hope that helps with the algae.

I'll post some pictures soon.

[spanko]

Yeah, I would leave them off and start to do some manual removal of the hair algae.

[Duncan]

Here are some pictures to give you some idea of the algae!!

[Duncan]

Duncan - I'll have to use a different Avatar or something so that no one mistakes my amateur postings for your experience!!

 

Don't ever worry about that! Everyone is new to the hobby at one point or another. We are all learning and people here are a nice bunch.

 

I kinda dig the algae look.

[epicfish]

Er. What?? Two people can have the same name on here? =p Weird!

 

Good looking start so far. I like the aquascaping...like someone already suggested, manual removal of the algae would be your best bet.

[Duncan]

Thanks for the aquascaping comments, it only took me a week or so of constantly changing it around to come up with that!

As far as the manual removal of the algae, should I just rip it off, or use some sort of scraper? My FW tank had lots of hair algae, and pulling it off the driftwood just "trimmed" it, it didn't actually get id of it.

[spanko]

Yeah just start ot rip it out. It will leave some small trimmed looking stuff but lights out will take care of that. Then when you do get to the point that you can add the CUC they will get after it.

Good luck and keep us posted.

[jadefox]

Hi! Looks like you have a good start. I'm very inexperienced in saltwater, so take what I say...well...with a grain of salt...lol. This is actually my first post where I am not asking the question. You asked about biotope CUCs in an earlier post. My wife and I did a lot of research for our Indo-Pacific-specific (say that three times fast!) tank (30-gallon), and we chose the following:

 

1 Randall's Pistol Shrimp - Cany Stripe Shrimp

3 Marshall Island Electric Blue Hermit

2 Tonga Fighting Conch - Nassarius species

12 Tonga Nassarius Snails - Nassarius species

5 Trochus Snail (Banded) - Trochus species

 

We've been really happy with the Trochus snails (herbivores)--similar to the Turbo but from the right geographical region. They can be bruisers, so make sure your aquascaping is solid. The two Tongo fighting conchs (we thought they were only carnivores, but it appears they eat nori too) are awesome to watch, and they've been working hard keeping the sandbed clean. Our favorites by far are the Nassarius snails! They are soooooo cool. They burrow in our sand bed (great for the health of the sand bed) until food enters the system. Then they all emerge and literally stampede toward the food. They are both effective and fun to watch, but you may have to supplement their feeding in the beginning. We DID NOT get the hermits (they were out), and the Pistol shrimp was WAY COOL to watch during the drip acclimitization--of course we have not seen the little guy since. I hope this helps. Good luck, and keep us posted.

[Duncan]

Thanks Jadefox, that is just the sort of info I was looking for! I would be interested in any links you may have that you found useful in your research.

 

Thanks also Spanko, the lights are off as we speak and the shrimp is out of there, so hopefully things will start to clean up over the next few weeks. I shall tackle that algae and hope the bristle worms keep out of my way!

[hecsrt-4]

Since when is a pistol shrimp part of a clean up crew?

 

Everything else is fine, just add half of the livestock listed above first. So they don't all starve, and your ecosystem gets used to the increasing bioload little by little.

 

You might also want to add some cerith snails. tiny little guys but also eat some of the algae the rest of the clean up crew listed above wont eat they are also hard workers always see them moving.

[jadefox]

Sorry. I didn't mean to suggest the pistol shrimp was part of our CUC--we just added him at the same time. I think the cerith snails are from Mexico, so that migh not be what you are after. We had planned on the Marshall Island Electric Blue Hermit for primary hair algae control. Also the Tonga Fighting Conch will go after any hair algae on the sand and the Trochus will eat some hair algae too.