30 Gallon Stocking

[Tired]

The saltwater should be fine. The main concern with Petco (aside from the chain's blatant disregard for proper animal care, even in their own stores- it's not just the fish department!) is the possibility for disease in the tanks. I would really hope they haven't managed to introduce disease to bottled saltwater.

 

Sometimes you can buy fish still in the bag. If you want everything that's in the bag, and it's still being floated to acclimate, a LFS might sell it to you. That can reduce disease chance, but they should really still be quarantined, because they could have caught something in the holding tanks.

 

Many LFS can order things in for you, when they aren't chain stores. It's worth asking. 

[jt8791]

Yeah I'm sure my lfs could order in 4 captive bred pajama cardinals, I imagine they must be getting stocked up soon. Planning to make a trip down there next weekend for rodi, hoping they get some equipment in. They always did carry just about anything you could need to maintain a saltwater tank.

[ajmckay]

Here was my display sump (front half of a 30br) when I kept macros...  My fav was caulerpa prolifica because it looked like seagrass.  It all grew super quick - as long as I kept up on the water changes.

 

[jt8791]

Well lesson learned there, don’t leave 40# of live sand in a bucket of saltwater. Wow did that stink when I dumped the water out, sand went right into the dumpster.

 

picked up a small live rock for rubble out of petcos tank and the ac50. Had to add some rubble to the fuges and added copepods to all 3 filters before turning them back on. Changed 10gal of water at the same time. After seeing the hitchhikers that were in the rock I won’t buy another from there again.

 

current livestock

5-6 nassarius snails

5 cerith snails

5 trochus snails

2 random snails that snuck in the bag somehow, think they might be turbos so I’ll remove them before macros

5 red leg dwarf hermit crabs

5 blue leg hermits, 4 added today were tiny 

a handful of extra shells but i will order a mixed bag from amazon again.

 

future cuc additions I’m thinking of

5 bumblebee snails

2 emerald crabs

5 scarlet hermit crabs

2 peppermint shrimp if needed, have yet to see any aptasia nems 

Possible skunk cleaner or 2

not sure if I will go for any other snails, think that should be enough and trying to stick to what’s available locally. Always hated shipping livestock when I can just work with what’s available locally.

 

stocked up on food for fish and cuc, can’t imagine there is much algae yet. Might grab a few other things for fish food later but got quite a few options so no one will go hungry. Have yet to find a hikari product that livestock doesn’t like, cuc went nuts for the algae wafer. Never tried those in sw before but I’ll keep them on hand now.

[Tired]

Yeah, sand needs aeration and surface critters don't like when you pile the sand on top of itself like that. 

 

Avoid the bumblebee snails. They'll eat your helpful worms and other scavengers. 

 

Scarlet hermits are wimps. They'll be bullied by other hermit species. 

 

Emerald crabs will likely eat your macros and may threaten your livestock once they get big. 

[jt8791]

Okay, I will skip on those. Maybe I will keep it simple, add 2-3 more of each on nassarius, cerith and trochus snails then 5 yellow tip dwarf hermits and 5 zebra/orange&black dwarf hermits.

 

would give it a month or so, maybe springtime if I can’t get the hermits ordered at the lfs. I do love my hermit crabs, a nice variety of them sounds cool, even without scarlets. I feed them Hikari crab pellets every few days anyways to supplement their diet. 

 

And of course tons of extra shells, it’s more surface area and makes the sand bed look natural. Not like they cost much

 

Edit: will do the hermits then see if the extra snails are needed, hard to say how many snails I need with 20 dwarf hermit crabs.

[jt8791]

Yeah that was the sand I pulled out of the tank, probably should have tossed it right away. Was trying to come up with a use for it but waited too long. Just glad I pulled all that sand out of the tank though.

[Tired]

I wouldn't add more nassarius. They mostly eat discarded food, and they don't stir your sandbed much because they burrow under it and don't move. Try ceriths and manual stirring instead, and just don't have extra food floating around. 

 

I don't know that you need 20 hermits, either. They're omnivores, so snails are better for algae, and feeding 20 hermits every few days is a decent bit of food. You could have them if you really want them, of course, but IMO you should stick with a relatively small number of the lil guys. 

[jt8791]

Okay, I might have plenty as is so I will hold off for now and just stick with what I have. Can add stuff if needed later on. Need to get my lights so algae will start growing anyways. Just a cheap led desk light sitting on top of the ac50 at the moment. 

[jt8791]

You are probably right on the hermit crabs, now that I think of it. I will still drop a few pellets for them every so often, mostly to keep the blue legs from going snail hunting. Or at least try anyways, twice the crabs will be twice the likelihood of losing snails.

[jt8791]

Okay made a big Amazon order since the lfs wasn’t sure on availability. Ordered a 36” and 24” flvual plant 3.0, aqua advantage 15w uv, 300gph hydor pico pump, .3”-1” hermit crab shells and sungrow hermit crab calcium supplement mineral balls.

 

Used the freshwater version on my planted tanks with cherry shrimp so curious to see how the hermits do with them.

 

Forgot I had signed up for prime when I ordered the leveling pad and wave pumps. I definitely hit my $1500 budget but I’ve got everything I need short of macroalgae and 4 pjs.

 

Even sprang for the fluval electric gravel vacuum, figure it will be easier than the cheap gravel vacs and not very expensive depending on how long it lasts. Worst comes to worst I may consider a hydor protein skimmer but I’m not sure I would need it.

[Tired]

I don't know that calcium supplements are needed for saltwater hermits. There should be plenty of calcium in your salt, after all. Guess it's worth giving them one to see what they think of it. 

[jt8791]

I didn't think so either but came across it and it was cheap enough to try. Not sure what minerals are in these ones, hard to say if either hermit crabs or the macroalgae will benefit from them.

 

Maybe throw 5 in and see how the macros do without dosing chaetogro or fertilizer. Or throw all 10, 10 hermit crabs. Not sure it would hurt anything either way.

 

Edit: want to say the packaging on the freshwater ones listed the mineral contents. Will have to look it up on the computer later.

[ajmckay]

4 hours ago, jt8791 said:

Okay made a big Amazon order since the lfs wasn’t sure on availability. Ordered a 36” and 24” flvual plant 3.0, aqua advantage 15w uv, 300gph hydor pico pump, .3”-1” hermit crab shells and sungrow hermit crab calcium supplement mineral balls.

 

Used the freshwater version on my planted tanks with cherry shrimp so curious to see how the hermits do with them.

 

Forgot I had signed up for prime when I ordered the leveling pad and wave pumps. I definitely hit my $1500 budget but I’ve got everything I need short of macroalgae and 4 pjs.

 

Even sprang for the fluval electric gravel vacuum, figure it will be easier than the cheap gravel vacs and not very expensive depending on how long it lasts. Worst comes to worst I may consider a hydor protein skimmer but I’m not sure I would need it.

The Fluval plant looks nice.  The T5 I have on my display fuge died so I just ordered a 36" 36W Hygger Advanced 24/7.  Hopefully it works good.  I was between that and a NICREW Skyled plus. 

 

The little Hydor pumps are pretty good - I used the 100gph version in a Fluval Spec III.  

[jt8791]

So put together a makeshift canopy with some stuff the girlfriend had lying around. Will add another section for the back once lights come in. Doesn't look terrible either.

[jt8791]

Decided to add a bit more shells and variety so I also ordered a package of 20 1/4"-1.5". Also ended up rearranging the living room, right after I ordered a 65" TV for the room, as soon as I figured out it should fit on my desk without modifying it. Wanted to readjust the weight on the floor joists as well. This tv was always my bedroom tv anyways, a 43" 4k tv doesn't make the greatest computer monitor from across this living room, not for my eyes anyways.

 

Will update once I get everything in, still a few odds and ends I could get for the tank but I will push it off for now. At the moment I am trying to do research on waterproof cameras to use underwater in the tank. Didn't get too far on that tonight, next equipment purchase I'm thinking will be an ato, just trying to decide which brand to go with. Surface skimmers for the filters will get ordered later on as well, still on the list just decided they could wait.

[jt8791]

May need to order new impellers for the ac110s, think I may have sanded them down too much. Water in fuges has a film across the top so guessing the flow is too slow.

[ajmckay]

32 minutes ago, jt8791 said:

May need to order new impellers for the ac110s, think I may have sanded them down too much. Water in fuges has a film across the top so guessing the flow is too slow.

Bummer !  Don't they have flow adjusters built in?  I have some AC30's that have a feature where you can slightly shift the inside part of the intake tube which partially blocks the flow. 

[jt8791]

1 minute ago, ajmckay said:

Bummer !  Don't they have flow adjusters built in?  I have some AC30's that have a feature where you can slightly shift the inside part of the intake tube which partially blocks the flow. 

Yeah they do, had read on a forum somewhere where someone sanded the impellers down but can't find it now. Think I will leave them stock and just slide the intake tube to the right to slow it down. Also debate if the flow would be better if I added the bottom part of the media basket under the rubble. Impellers I can get in a few days, media baskets are 1-2 months. Or waste case I buy 2 filters for backup parts and use those.

[jt8791]

Added a few more hermit crabs over the weekend. Two small blue knuckle hermit crabs and 4 that I'm not quite sure what they are, store didn't know either. Had wanted to say orange knuckle but I'm not sure.

 

Will have to get pictures of the biggest one later with the gf's phone, this is one of the few that has yet to change shells. Two packages worth in the tank so far and some more sizes on the way.

[jt8791]

Nevermind on the hermit crab id, just noticed a few red legs ripped out of the shells. Evicting all the hermit crabs, they aren’t worth the shell clutter, nevermind the snail predation

[Tired]

Are you sure those are actual dead hermits, and not just molts? Hermit molts have a lot of color and look like a dead hermit, but won't have the 'tail' that's normally hidden in the shell, and will be very limp if poked. 

[jt8791]

Hard to say, think it was part territory disputes and part lack of food. Noticed the nassarius snails cleaning the glass so figured there wasn’t much food in the sand.

 

Think it would have been alright had I not picked up the 6 additional crabs but I decided to simplify it and remove the crabs. Snails and clowns seem to be out and about more, cerith were hiding in the sand and clowns were hiding in a corner.

 

lights, uv/pump and new impellers for the ac110s are in place. Display light is setup on a schedule but haven’t set the fuge light schedule yet. Left a bit extra hose on the uv, might be enough to hang it on a bucket for water changes.

 

 

[ajmckay]

Here's some really cool SW macro tanks 

 

[jt8791]

Hose wasn't quite long enough to hang it on the bucket but still did the job, not bad for a 10 gallon water change in 5-10 minutes. Picked up a pair each on peppermint and camel shrimp as well as some graciliara. Pretty sure I bought too much but I tried to spread it around the rocks and threw the small pieces in the fuges until I find chaeto locally. Thinking I will take a ride to find some tisbe copepods. Not sure if this was the greatest batch of gracilaria, soon as I got it home it looked like fuzz was taking it over.

 

Edit: had the local petco test my water, everything looked good besides calcium being low. Picked up seachem reef complete to bring calcium back up. Also lowered the light intensity on display and fuge, debating if I will need to tweak it some more. Still playing around with the fluval app, might take a few tries to get it dialed in right.