[BC29] 1st attempt @ saltwater...

[blister]

pbgrep - i never noticed any damage to shrimp, i thought that too but i cannot even find the crab, which is not terrible i suppose. He likes to hide.

[blister]

Can you spy the crab? ;]

 

[blister]

OK, so I changed location of koralia 2 because I believed I had cyano due to lack of flow in backside, so we shall see if that helps. Did a water change today, a day early because of my salinity. I mixed up a strong batch of 1.030 and now salinity is reading 1.024 so I am getting there... if I do normal mixing from now on I should be ok I would think. Moved water from main tank to QT. Every day it's fun to see if you can find the crab, no such luck today... yet.

[blister]

Went to LFS today, picked up:

 

2 x Mexican Turbo Snails

1 x Emerald Crab

1 x Skunk Shrimp

 

Let's hope this shrimp lasts a little longer...

[blister]

Here is a pic of my new skunk shrimp:

 

 

I could swear he is begging for more food, he's been in this position for hours... I know he had a full mysis shrimp all to himself, how many of those can he eat???

[pbgrep]

feeding a shrimp to a shrimp... cannibalism... I love it

[blister]

Shrimp is loving life.. here he is cleaning a snail...

 

Not sure what this is.. trying to ID it..

 

Not entirely sure what this is.. i imagine CUC food, none have found it though...

[blister]

I think my shrimp molted heh. My koralia 2 found it!

 

[blister]

FTS from Jan 28

 

FTS from today (Feb 6)

[Zatoichi]

Well it's obvious that the green algae has cleared up, but the zoa's? still don't look like they are happier... maybe too much flow?

[blister]

I just noticed my 2nd skunk shrimp has died, I am about to give up ;[

[uwwmatt]

Shrimp can be tricky to keep alive. They are very sensitive to changes in your tank. Do you keep up with your water changes, and use RO/DI water (have you checked the TDS if using RO)? Also are you dosing anything or does your temperature swing more then a few degrees each day?

 

I would say that the bottom line is your tank is not mature enough yet. Wait until it is 4-5 months old before trying to add anymore shrimp.

[blister]

uwwmatt - as you can see the note to myself in my signature I am due for a WC tomorrow (weekly thing). Not sure if I will be able to. I need to get to my coffee shop so I can prepare more RO/DI water (better water pressure there) but I am snowed in. Might fight it to keep my tank happy. I have not tested the TDS (put all faith in filter). I have not dosed it with anything but fresh mixed water every week. Normally my temp does not swing much at all +-2 tops. However my power went off 2 nights ago and noticed the temp dropped maybe 4-5 degrees and I noticed he molted. This is probably my culprit. I just don't know though.

 

I would have thought to think of the skunk cleaner as a CUC, this is not the case? Is this a good thing to go by to not add any fish?

[Koop]

Hey Blister, sorry to hear about your shrimp. You and I have BC29's that are almost identical-in age and set-up (except I have kept everything "stock" so far and only added some filter floss to the second chamber). I just added a Fire Shrimp yesterday, so far so good but now I wish I had maye read this thread before proceeding with that purchase?!?! We'll see I guess.

 

I noticed that you are doin water changes. Interestingly enough, and from the advice of my LFS dude who actually appears to know what he's doing (I hope!), I will be doing my first water change 12 weeks in. He claims that it's best to wait until then to stabilize everything in a new tank. Now, I have added one capful of "Stability" (bacterial supp) once a week since the start and have a modest cleanup crew that I have added to the tank gradually. So far, and I cross my fingers, I haven't so much as lost even a snail yet.

 

I have been carefully tracking water chemistry while doing this and always have checked it prior to adding anything new. Basically this is the order I added life to the tank and so far so good:

 

Weeks1-2: 37lbs LR (25 lbs first day, additional 12lbs over next 14 days)

Week 2: Cleanup crew of 3 hermits, 3 Trocuhus, 3 Nassarius, 1 Turbo

Week 3: CUC of 4 hermits, 1 Turbo

Week 4: Banded serpent star

Week 5: Purple Fire Goby/Azure Damsel

Week 6: 7 more hermits, Elongated Dottyback, Fire shrimp

 

I am not, as tempting as it is (damn this hobby is addiciting), going to add any more life to the tank until I hit the 12th week, at which point I will do a water change and continue to so for the life of the tank.

 

If anyone reads this and thinks I'm way off, open to suggestions as I am still a newbie at this and am relying on the combination of advice from the LFS and you guys.

 

Blister, not sure if this will help yo bro, but so far I haven't suffered a loss in my tank yet....?beginners luck?

[Kataro]

maybe not enough food for your shrimp to eat?

 

I've been adding live phyto / rotifer / copepod and feeding with liquid Phytoplankton and other stuff since I set up my tank (4 weeks ago) in order for the pods population to build up, that would definately help your shrimp find some suitable food source

[blister]

Any clue what this is? Looks like the gooey stuff from Creepshow 2 heh.

[Dooderino]

Looks like cyano. Hard to tell. A big temp swing like that is BAAAAAAAAAADD. Snail seem to handle that kinda thing but the shrimp, not so much.

 

Do your self a favor. Take a water sample to a LFS and have them test it for you. Have them test the salinity and pH and Nitrate. Dont worry about the rest.

 

What are your parameters?

[blister]

Dooderino - I have water testing stuff.

 

Ammonia - 0

Nitrite - 0

Nitrate - 0

pH - 8.4

Salinity - 1.024-1.025

[malibumowry]

Yeah that is definitely cyano

 

Just turkey baste it off the rocks and suck it up during a water change as it will come right off the rocks in and stay together in clumps.

[Dooderino]

And as a newbie you are positive your SG is what you think? You are positive your Nitrates are 0? And you have what looks like cyano. HMMM

[blister]

Dooderino - I will recheck SG. I use a refractometer and calibrate it via calibration solution, not sure how to get more accurate reading. Nitrates have been 0 since: Jan 21.

[blister]

just checked SG, 1.023 which i believe is a little low, i imagine its this low because I am a little over my time for a water change, i imagine this would solve the SG problem. Melt snow so I can go fill up on some RO/DI water... ;]

[Dooderino]

The SG is probably NOT what killed the shrimp. When you do you Nitrate test be sure to shack the living hell out of bottle #2 for a good minute.

[blister]

ok so either shaking the bottle like i meant it did something or something crazy happened over night, nitrates are showing 20 now. WTF... heh A WC could correct this I imagine? damn snow..

[Dooderino]

Be sure to shake the crap out of #2 every time. 20 isn't bad though. I would call that middle of the road. 40 is bad but not unlivable. Be patient. Let the tank "cook" for a few more weeks.