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Another stocking thread!


DamperFire

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Well, I know how much you guys love these stocking threads, so here's another one for you.

 

In order, here's what I have planned for my 20g.

 

Day 1- 20lbs fiji live rock

- 15lbs live sand

 

Day 40- 8 astrea snails

- 4 scarlet reef hermits

 

Day 60- 1 ocellaris clownfish

 

Day 100- 1 six-line wrasse

 

That plus a bunch of corals here and there. Oh ya, and 10% water changes weekly.

 

So, what do you think? Should I put in more hermits? Different kinds of snails?

 

And I really want to add another fish if I can. I want something sort of calm and peaceful, doesn't move around too much, that is relatively easy to care for. Any ideas?

 

Thanks!

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I wouldn't necessarily put a schedule on it. There's a lot of variability in LR that could affect how long the cycle takes. Get a test kit and monitor parameters. Watch for milestones like diatom bloom and algae growth.

 

If you've got hair algae starting to grow at day 20 (and all water params are in line) you probably don't want to wait another 20 days to start adding CUC.

 

I'd mix up the snails. Include some trochus and maybe a Mexican turbo or two. Ceriths are good also. When you start to add things you'll feed, nassarius will help to clean up uneaten food.

 

Some folks get hermits and others don't. We have 2 red legged and 3 blue legged. We started with 4 blues, but they''re always squabbling over shells and now I can only find 3. Yesterday one had moved up to a shell he could hardly move. :lol: Later in the day I saw him back in his old shell. ;)

 

You might want more LR depending on how dense yours is.

 

good luck!

 

-hank

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I agree with hank! Also as for another fish, I dont think that another small fish (maybe a small goby or such) would do much harm as long as you keep up with your water changes.

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Of course, this is just a very rough outline. I'm not going to have a stopwatch or anything. Just a general thing.

 

I may put in an emerald crab too.

 

So, what your saying is add the CUC when I see hair algae?

 

What kinds of smaller fish can you recommend? So far all I've decided against is neon gobies, but other than that I'm pretty open to any suggestions if you have them.

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HecticDialectics

If you see hair algae, you need water changes much more than cuc imo :P

 

After the cycle, I'd personally recommend a few large water changes with some high quality rodi/salt mix to get the nutrient levels down.

 

And you should be blowing off the LR with powerheads throughout the cycle, to get all the crap and debris off and into the water. Hold off on sand until that's over, so you can suck it out.

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Best thing for Hair Algae is your hand :P

Don't rely too heavily on your CUC they will do their job, as long as you keep up with your end of the bargain! :)

 

Good Luck!

 

-DCG

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If you see hair algae, you need water changes much more than cuc imo :P

 

After the cycle, I'd personally recommend a few large water changes with some high quality rodi/salt mix to get the nutrient levels down.

 

And you should be blowing off the LR with powerheads throughout the cycle, to get all the crap and debris off and into the water. Hold off on sand until that's over, so you can suck it out.

 

Hold on a minute.....let me try to understand this LR curing process. So, based I what I've heard I plan to-

 

Wash the LR off in a bucket of RO water+salt mix

Set the LR in tank with a hydor koralia 1

50% water changes weekly taking all the debris off the bottom

Scrub off the LR with a toothbrush now and then

When the tank is cycled add the sand? Or add the sand now? What Hectic said does make sense.....

 

I'm assuming that cycling a SW is like cycling FW in terms of ammonia and stuff. I wait for no ammonia and then a nitrite spike and then nitrates right? Just checking.

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HecticDialectics
Hold on a minute.....let me try to understand this LR curing process. So, based I what I've heard I plan to-

 

Wash the LR off in a bucket of RO water+salt mix

Set the LR in tank with a hydor koralia 1

50% water changes weekly taking all the debris off the bottom

Scrub off the LR with a toothbrush now and then

When the tank is cycled add the sand? Or add the sand now? What Hectic said does make sense.....

 

I'm assuming that cycling a SW is like cycling FW in terms of ammonia and stuff. I wait for no ammonia and then a nitrite spike and then nitrates right? Just checking.

 

 

Yup, you got it. I'd add the sand later, since you wanna be blowing crap off the rocks during the cycle, no reason to just let that crap get into the sand. You basically want ammonia and nitrites to be zero, that's when it's all over. So they'll start to rise, then level off and go down (some people don't have very big spikes at all, just gotta watch it and wait) And then I'd do a final swishing in the tank and debris-blow off, then last water change and good to go!

 

I think a lot of people put too much emphasis on the "cycle" and not enough on cleaning the rock. So by the time the cycle is over, well yeah, it cycled, but your tank is still full of nutrients and crap-covered LR :P Then they have algae problems the first three+ months and can't figure out why

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lakshwadeep

I totally agree with hectic that water changes/quality are more effective in dealing with or avoiding hair algae.

 

Also, I would also suggest adding a few cupfuls of live sand from an established tank(s) to help get sand-specific creatures that are missing in live rock into your sand bed (this is if you're adding dry/non-live sand).

 

For third fish, I suggest getting a goby:

Gobiodon-clown gobies that naturally perch on SPS coral branches (or other things); make sure to see if the fish will feed on prepared foods at the LFS, some can be picky since their natural diet is mainly SPS polyps

Trimma/Eviota-pygmy gobies that are very small (max 1") and most will stay out in the open. They can be hard to feed because of their small mouth size; try using cyclopeeze or baby brine shrimp first

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Thanks!

 

I plan to put in about a pound of live sand from a aquarium at my lfs.

 

Clown gobies sound cool. Is the care about the same for a watchman goby?

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Thanks!

 

I plan to put in about a pound of live sand from a aquarium at my lfs.

 

Clown gobies sound cool. Is the care about the same for a watchman goby?

well with watchmans, you kind of would want to watch were they dig, because if you have loose rock they may knock rocks down on themselves. Clowngobys to not burrow as far as I know. Also, watchman gobys are (IME) more timid than clowns...

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When I feed the clown goby cyclop-eeze.....I'm assuming I need to sue a turkey baster or feeding syringe to get it down to him right? Or will he come up when it's feeding time?

 

Is freeze-dried cyclop-eeze ok? I can't get frozen anywhere around me. I can get frozen brine though easy.

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