dchisenh Posted August 2, 2003 Share Posted August 2, 2003 I went with snails for the majority of my crew in the little 5.5 I have. I have one cerith snail (about to pick up about two more today) for the sand bed and detritus...he's awesome. Three cool looking nerite snails that my LFS has been getting in lately that are so colorful they look painted! About 5 of 6 nassarius snails for general clean up, they get plenty to eat from all the dead pod molts, worm and snail poo, and general detritus that catches in the rock crevices. And, finally, four astraea snails for the majority of the algae eating duties. I used to use hermits on my tanks, but I got tired of the fact that I couldn't ever add snails with them because they would gang up and kill them. I know most people say that it doesn't happen or only happens rarely, but I have SEEN it many, many times in my tanks. I don't know if there's something in the RO water I use, or what...but every hermit I've tried has been aggressive. Let us know what ya get, Onthefly. -Dan Link to comment
onthefly Posted August 3, 2003 Author Share Posted August 3, 2003 I posted a picture over in jflysmooth's "how to" post, but just in case....here's another. The answer the raging debate over , "are the daylight 6500K 19W light really...White! Well you judge for yourself.... Sorry for the cosmic pic.....it just came out that way! Tank on left is my 5.5 with 6500K bulbs and tank on right is a frog tank with the 2500K bulbs...both are 19W curly Q's and sold at HD Link to comment
jflysmooth Posted August 4, 2003 Share Posted August 4, 2003 I just bought some of that same sand today (from the same store even.) and I must say, its pretty awesome. It's rather fine grade, but its so nice and white! Good find there OTF. Link to comment
Aquatic_Love Posted August 4, 2003 Share Posted August 4, 2003 I just made a capony w/ 2 19w 6500k curly q's for my 10 gal nano. and just to let everyone know, they're not yellow, they're pretty freakin bright. thanks for the great idea OTF. Link to comment
triggerhappy8 Posted August 4, 2003 Share Posted August 4, 2003 Hey OTF, I was the guy who used three curlies and a bookworm over my 10. I went to test my water today and saw coralline on my glass beginning to grow. My levels are evening out so I will probably add my cleanup soon too. Link to comment
onthefly Posted August 4, 2003 Author Share Posted August 4, 2003 Hey Jeff - hope you didn't blow out a disk carrying that bag to the car! That sand is good stuff, just rinse it really good and make sure you don't point your PH at it or you'll have a sand storm. My HOB, even with rubble on the sand, creates these cool ripples in the sand...I stopped fighting! Aquatic - these lights I think are the best budget lighting there is! Post some pics when you get it up and running. Trigger - yeah! The coralline is starting to grow in mine as well. I was worried it would bleach during the cycle, but the greens, marroons, pink, purple....it's all still there! Link to comment
onthefly Posted August 4, 2003 Author Share Posted August 4, 2003 Weekly update! First half of the cleanup crew went in on Sunday. LFS had astreas for $2 and small baja red leg hermits for $1. So for the grand total of $9...I got 3 astreas and 3 small herm's. I put about 10 spare shells behind the LR for the crabs. Astrea and crabs both started to go to work IMMEDIATELY!! I really don't have any algae yet to speak of, just the small tufts that came on the LR, but the LR had some crud that they chowed through in the first night! In a week or so, I'll add 3-4 ceriths or nassarius to clean the sand, and a couple more astreas. The crabs are hillarious!!! They have already swaped shell 3-4 times with the spares I put in. Haven't even looked at the astreas yet...... Parameters all look good......have a slight "dusting" of diatoms on the sand, but the crabs are "on it!" Link to comment
BlackSumbel Posted August 4, 2003 Share Posted August 4, 2003 *ENVY!* You've a: Inspired me to start on a curly-light hood (2x19W + 1x15wNOFLO which will soon be a 50/50 tucked in at the back) B: you've inspired me to get some real LR (currently running , essentially, base rock)... and c: you've inspired me to add a few more snails... well, okay you didn't directly inspire that... The diatoms forming on the glass really inspired that, but... that's no nevermind. -Sumbel So, you think YOUR Nano is scruffy? Think Again... Link to comment
onthefly Posted August 5, 2003 Author Share Posted August 5, 2003 you gotta walk before you can run! Looks like a great starting point! Link to comment
dchisenh Posted August 5, 2003 Share Posted August 5, 2003 Keep an eye on those hermits with your astreas... Glad everything's going so good for you, Onthefly. I'm going to try and see if I can borrow someone's digital camera to get a few pics of my system up soon. -Dan Link to comment
onthefly Posted August 9, 2003 Author Share Posted August 9, 2003 Tomarrow is w/c day.....but tonight I spotted my first "bristle work" Grayish/green in color........I've heard some peeps say their good , and some say their bad........any comments? I read on another post someone say that "red" ones are bad....everything else is part of the clean up crew. We'll mine was chowin' on some detrius.....so it can't all bad. Tomarrow I'll post my weekly update ..... Link to comment
bertz_maru Posted October 27, 2003 Share Posted October 27, 2003 just now seen this.... just wondering.. i noticed that you used quickcrete sand.... did you have any problems with it? i didnt read all this so thats why im asking if you already stated this.. thanks Link to comment
jflysmooth Posted October 27, 2003 Share Posted October 27, 2003 The sand is awesome. You can even go to their website and get a hazardous materials report which'll show ya its good to go. Link to comment
blooper74 Posted October 27, 2003 Share Posted October 27, 2003 Where did you get those screw in lights, and how much are they. Please let me know, I think they look really cool. Do they work good for the corals. Link to comment
jflysmooth Posted October 27, 2003 Share Posted October 27, 2003 Man, you people need to try READING THE THREAD. The last two questions have been previously answered. Link to comment
onthefly Posted October 27, 2003 Author Share Posted October 27, 2003 Holy Cow Jeff! What are you doing up at 4:35am....cramming for a midterm? Link to comment
jflysmooth Posted October 27, 2003 Share Posted October 27, 2003 Haha, no, I just randomly woke up and decided to check my email. Midterms aren;'t till later this week. Link to comment
palaegic Posted October 27, 2003 Share Posted October 27, 2003 Man OTF, I don't know how I missed this thread. Glad it popped back up. Outstanding work on the 5.5 -- awaiting new pics... Love the hood. I am power tool challenged, so consequently, the wood and my 36W retro kit from CSL for my 2.5 are still sitting quietly in the basement. And it was great to see your frog tanks - again, great job. Maybe I'll throw up a pic of my Mountain Horned Dragon enclosure. The leopard gecko tank is pretty ghetto, so not worth the bandwidth. Nice to have a thread where we can cross-reference vices. Really hope the 5.5 progresses smoothly. Link to comment
onthefly Posted October 27, 2003 Author Share Posted October 27, 2003 Hey Palaegic, Haven't seen you in a while? I just got some new frags last night and will get some pics going later today.....stay tuned! Now for the hijack, "Mr and Mrs Fly would like to announce the arrival of these 6 new babies!" Link to comment
jflysmooth Posted October 27, 2003 Share Posted October 27, 2003 OMG, that's so cool. Link to comment
onthefly Posted October 27, 2003 Author Share Posted October 27, 2003 YEAH! 6 down....another 60 or so waiting to "crawl out".... Link to comment
Nina Posted October 28, 2003 Share Posted October 28, 2003 Hey cute darts! I was thinking of getting some, but somehow I keep blowing all my cash on the fish. Link to comment
onthefly Posted October 28, 2003 Author Share Posted October 28, 2003 Thanks Nina, We have Tincs, Leucs and Azuerus right now. The Tincs and Leucs have bred like rabbits. The azureus are still a few months away from being mature. We're looking to get imitator's, reticulatus, pumillos, and fantasmas this year Link to comment
skylsdale Posted October 29, 2003 Share Posted October 29, 2003 Nice looking leucs you got there! Do you subscribe to www.frognet.org? I've hesitated getting into dendros for about a year now--producing fly cultures just doesn't appeal to me with how busy I am, and I don't want to jump into it unless I can really be dedicated to it. Update this with some pumilio pics when you get them (I've got an empty 30 gal tank that would work great for them if I propped it on its side)! Yet another project... Link to comment
onthefly Posted October 29, 2003 Author Share Posted October 29, 2003 Hey Sky, I frequent Frognet, but don't subscribe....love looking at the tanks and set ups! Fly cultures are really easy and much better than feeding "stinky" crickets. I usually start 2-3 new cultures every 4-5 days....takes 5 minutes. If you look to buy, go to a herp show and get them there, better quality and better price. Link to comment
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