12gal Nanocube DX(nanotuners) Journal

[disaster999]

i am not really sure about if the coralline aglae will die or not. i have not tried that method myself. ive only read or got suggestions in killing off bryopsis.

 

i wouldnt really worry about it tho since you basically have nothing in your tank. the coralline algae will grow back if it does get no light. i would rather rid the algae now than having to worry about it later down the road. anyone would chime in to help deal with algae problem at this stage?

[ddk997]

Kept my lights off today, hopefully the algae dies off. When I add the inverts do you think I should keep the lights off? Is it ok with LED nite lights on?

[disaster999]

i wouldnt really worry about your inverts, they dont really need light to grow. does room you have your tank in get natural light during the day? would room lights in that room be turned on at night? of yes to both, i wouldnt even worry about it. you can turn on the moonlight at night if you want

[ddk997]

Yes there is light during the day and night, until bedtime. I found more of those jellyfish things on the side of my glass and I believe I found a featherduster on the right side of my tank on a liverock. Ive also noticed on the glass, there used to be millions of copepods, now they seem to be going away ever since I saw these pop out. Is this normal? I will be getting some phosban on thursday to put in along with my chemi-pure elite. I heard these two combinations are perfect for these type of systems. I should be recieving my inverts Friday and im pretty excited for them.

 

I did a few tests today and here are the results;

Salt. - 1.024

PH - 7.8

Ammonia - 0

Nitrite - 0

Nitrites - 0

Phophate - 0

Alk.(kh) - 11 d/KH

Cal -

 

few questions;

How many more days should it be left in the dark?

Why did they ONLY devolpe on the top rocks?

Should I do 20-40% water change tomorrow?(thursday,a day before my inverts arrive)

Should I take the rocks out and try removing some by hand or Should I leave them in and see how the inverts do?

Thanks

[ddk997]

any opinions/help?

[masterbuilder]

Yeah...do a rather large water change. Then.............

Leave everything alone. Let your tank mature, your CUC do their job. Over time the algae will SLOWLY disappear.

 

Try your best to just do 20% weekly water changes and not fiddle with it too much. Dont give in to the dosing, additives, snake oils, etc. The whole trick to nanos is water changes, water changes, water changes...nothing else. Its that easy... I promise

 

GIVE IT TIME.

[ddk997]

Yeah...do a rather large water change. Then.............

Leave everything alone. Let your tank mature, your CUC do their job. Over time the algae will SLOWLY disappear.

 

Try your best to just do 20% weekly water changes and not fiddle with it too much. Dont give in to the dosing, additives, snake oils, etc. The whole trick to nanos is water changes, water changes, water changes...nothing else. Its that easy... I promise

 

GIVE IT TIME.

 

Thanks masterbuilder for the help. When do you think I should turn the lights back on?

[ddk997]

well it seems like my order is delayed till tomorrow so I do not have a filter to change the water. I am also recieving my Inverts tomorrow.

 

Is it ok to change 40-50% of the water(matched; salt.,ph,temp) right before adding inverts?

[ddk997]

Recieved my Inverts today!!! Everything looks to be alive except the bag that is filled with white leg and blue-leg...one shell is empty and a body is floating in the bag, being eaten. I thought this was amazing but bad at the same time.lol

 

Well their acclimating right now, I'll be back with the update, just wanted to inform everyone about those hermits!!

[ddk997]

Ok CUC all sucessfully added. The total came out to be:

 

5 - White leg hermit crab

1 - Blue leg hermit crab

10 - Nass Snail

5 - Cerith

6 - Astrea

6 - Nerite

Empty shells

 

I have a very entertaining white hermit crab, that seems to love the sandbed more than the liverocks. It really around alot.

 

I changed the rocks around a little bit because I thought there wasn't much space on the front for anything. So I took the big rock that made a tiny cave out, basically just stored it away, it will probaly die. I tried to get some photos, but you know I have my lights off, I will get pictures once I turn on the light. I plan to keep them off for another 2-3 days, and increase the lighting slowly. I will be doing the Antinics sunrise/sunset mimic(1 hr before,after)How many hours per day should I have the lights on?(I know between 7-12, but what do you think is "best") Thanks for everyones opinions!!

 

low quality, no light...but this is right after I dropped the hermits in...(goodbye)

 

low quality, led only

[disaster999]

i would start out slow...have like..6 hours or light or so, then increase it to 8 then 10. and if you find too much algae then throttle it back to 8 or less.

 

hows the bryopsis doing?

[ddk997]

i would start out slow...have like..6 hours or light or so, then increase it to 8 then 10. and if you find too much algae then throttle it back to 8 or less.

 

hows the bryopsis doing?

 

Thanks I will start with 6 hours then continue up from there. About the bryopsis, It looks like their dying off, slowly fading and turning yellow. EDIT: I just witness a white-leg hermit chopping down a bryopsis with his claws. He is currently holding it and eating it!!!

 

I looked into my tank today, and I happened to find another blue-leg hermit! I thought I only had one because I though the other one died, after seeing a blue-leg "leg" hermit floating in the bag.

 

I turned the lights on quickly to take a snapshot of the tank. You can see three astrea's on the top, 5 seconds before I had found my camera, They were all stacked on eachother hanging off the edge, and the one of the bottom was swinging them to try to get attached to the rock. As you can see they sucessfully made it, even though they're still by eachother, every once in little they would all attach to eachother again...it sort of looks like their clearning eachothers shell...is that normal?

 

 

 

EDIT: There are a bunch of eggs on the glass now, I believe their Nass eggs.

[Qwank]

your dead hermit was probbaly just a molt

[ddk997]

I have three questions for anyone that could kindly answer them;

 

- In a week or two I plan on adding a ricordia, are those good for beginners?

 

- I am also going to get a shrimp when I make the ricordia purchase, possible peppermint shrimp first than later when I get fish, a skunk cleaner shrimp. Will the pep. and skunk be ok together in the same tank? Whats the best Iodine brand?

 

- In your opinion, what has been the most entertaining crab but less of a hassle to take care of/look out for(ex;emerald crab with corals?)

 

Thanks

[Qwank]

its probbaly too early for a shrimp

 

i like emerald crabs

[disaster999]

snails like to climb on to one another to eat the algae off their shell. perfectly normal behavior.

 

rics are pretty easy to keep. lay them on the sand, or attach it to a rock and just let it chill. feed mysis shrimp to each of the mouths every now and then if you want them to grow bigger. they will do just fine without food, but grow slower. depending on the ric you get, some likes low light low flow, some dont mind the flow and light, some like light but low flow...just place it around the tank and see where it likes to be.

 

im not sure about pep shrimp and cleaners

 

i think the most entertaining crab would be pom poms. emerald hide at night and really skittish, if your lucky some will eat bubble algae, some will eat corals if it has nothing else to eat.

[ddk997]

Update:

Looks like my CUC is doing a nice job. I havent seen the white-leg crab stop eating once.

Currently all of my Nerites are at the top of the glass...why?

 

Here is a before and 3 days after shot.

 

Before

 

3 Days later

[Qwank]

my nerites always stay on top of my glass too. the LFS told me they would. itsnormal. they do a good job too. the tank looks good i love the rock work.

[ddk997]

Thanks Qwank! I am going to go check out that LFS in hudson and try to get a peppermint shrimp because I believe I have one small see-through Aiptasia that looks similar to this

 

If anyone may help me with these questions

 

1). I will be doing a water change tomorrow, should I be removing 1 gal of water?

 

2). Do you think I should get a peppermint shrimp? Is that the best way

 

3). There are eggs on the glass tank, on each side. When will these eggs hatch, if they happen to survive?

 

Thanks.

[disaster999]

you could get a peppermint to help aiptasia, they eat it like candy.

 

i guess doing a 1 gal change wouldnt hurt, why are you doing it again? you dont have corals to absorb the minerals in the water, nor you have a large bio load in your tank. did you test your water? are the params bad?

 

how are the bryposis doing? i dosed my tank with tech m and left it for around 2 weeks, all of the bryopsis are almost dead. all their leaves are gone, but left with dark stalky stems. ill let it soak in elevated mg water for a few more weeks just to make sure they die.

[ddk997]

you could get a peppermint to help aiptasia, they eat it like candy.

 

i guess doing a 1 gal change wouldnt hurt, why are you doing it again? you dont have corals to absorb the minerals in the water, nor you have a large bio load in your tank. did you test your water? are the params bad?

 

how are the bryposis doing? i dosed my tank with tech m and left it for around 2 weeks, all of the bryopsis are almost dead. all their leaves are gone, but left with dark stalky stems. ill let it soak in elevated mg water for a few more weeks just to make sure they die.

 

Thanks for the reply disaster, I was told to do a water change every week...Should I not?

 

As for the bryposis, they are all gone!! Thanks for lights off suggestion. I hope you do well with yours, hopefully it will go away!

[ddk997]

One Month In....

 

Today I did some testing and they seem to be still the same, I have yet to see any perimeters go up except the very first day.

 

Temp: 78F

Salt.: 1.024

PH: 7.8

Ammonia: 0

Nitrite: 0

Nitrates: 0

Phosphate: 0

 

Chemi-pure elite and Phosban seems to be doing what they advertise. Although I do still see some tiny particles floating in the water, Might need some filter floss or something better, opinions are open, hard to tell because they could also be copepods moving around!

 

 

Disaster999, I decided to go with your suggestion. The Pom Pom Crab also known as the Boxing crab.

 

I ordered (1) PomPom Crab, (1) Peppermint Shrimp, (2) Red-legs as replacement from before.

 

I am wondering how you would handle the PomPom Crab? I dont wanna get pinched!!

 

I dont have a drip method, which I know is perferred for both shrimp and crab im buying. May anyone please help me on a different method that works just as well as the drip.

 

Thanks !!

[ddk997]

Come on guys....ANYONE??? I feel like im just on here posting to myself

[disaster999]

as stevieT recommends, acclimation is not recommended on shipped item as they are already swimming in their on filth for 24h+ already, you want to get them in the tank as soon as possible. temp match the water, drain as much water as you can from the bag and drop the crabs in.

 

some would argue that dripping acclimation method is best. im not sure myself either. i always just temp match my corals or fish or cuc and drop them in my tank.

 

if you feel you still want to do something similar to the drip, you could put the bags in the water and every 10-15 mins, add some of your tank water into the bag to have them get use to the water then release them into the tank.

 

if the levels in your tank are stable, im save to say you could start draining your bank account on corals and fish

[ddk997]

Thanks! I used your method during the acclimation.

 

UPDATE:

Today I recieved two red-leg hermit, pom-pom crab, and peppermint shrimp. One of my red-leg crab is pretty big. The peppermint and Pom-Pom are out and not hiding, which is strange because I 've heard many of them like to hide during the light hours.

 

Should I be feeding frozen food?

 

 

 

The peppermint also molted during the shipping!

 

 

Can you spot him?