Livestock questions...

[Ike]

Thanks for the suggestions on how to get my overflow drilled.

 

I made a couple calls & found that Hanover Pet & Aquarium in East Hannover NJ, off Rt. 10. will do it for me.

 

So since I'm finished planning the construction I need to start planning what I'm going to raise in the tank.

 

So here's the plan so far. I'm setting up a 15 gallon with a 10 gallon sump/refugium. I'm going to cultivate some macro alge, I'm not sure yet what will be available to me, in the refugium in order to export some excess nutrients & avoid an alge problem in the main tank.

 

For lighting I'm setting up an AH Supply 2x55 watt bright kit with a 10,000K and one of their dark blue actinics.

 

So here's my list of questions...prepare yourselves because you're going to get sick of me asking questions as this project evolves.

 

1) What is the name of the small water-proof power-compact shop light with the spiral cord sold at Lowes/Home Depot? I want to light my refugium with one if it will work.

 

2) What would be a good clean-up crew? Types & quantity? The more I read the more confusing it gets. Every retailer has a different combo that inclueds everything from the typical snails/hermits to bristle stars to cucumbers to...get this....flame scallops?!?!?!?

 

3) What corals would be most happy living under my lighting set-up? Can I mix LPS & softies in the same tank? I plan on reading everything I can get my hands on, but for now what has everyone with a similar set-up found works well?

 

Thanks for the help,

 

Stuart

[tinyreef]

hey! that jagoff jeff wouldn't drill my tank! he referred me to the glass shop around the corner. : and i'm semi-regular! whatEVER!

 

 

i think you're thinking of the book worm lights but i don't know if they're waterproof. :

 

start with snails (astrae) and as you determine what you want fill out (i.e. crabs or no crabs).

 

last one is for you to decide. but i'd call your lighting 'medium-high' in range. high and very-high being reserved for mh's. that should give you some parameters to work with. good luck!

[Fishobob]

I'd probably stay away from cucumbers with your size take, if they die ur in for a lot of troubleX) I'd also be careful of what type of sea star u get because in small tanks they have been known to corner fish and eat them:*( Other than that I'd go for a good number of snails, over here I use trochus, they are good. And a good number of hermit crabs.

 

Cheers Fishobob

[SteveC]

If you have a decent, non-price-gouging LFS then I'd recommend building up your clean-up crew slowly, enough to keep problems under control but not so many that they're getting hungry and eating the good things. If not, then you're probably better off doing an all-at-once package deal with an online vendor.

 

You should decide first if you're doing a biotope. That will be the biggest constraint on your choices. I'm trying to do a Caribbean biotope so things like Mexican red leg hermits and Cortez cerith snails are ruled out for me.

 

If you decide to get hermit crabs, I recommend avoiding the blue legs unless you want to move them to your fuge later (which actually is probably a good idea). When they're small, they're good, but when they get big they get mean and are really more trouble than they're worth (well, not really, they're a lot of fun to watch but they stop being such good workers). It only takes a couple months for them to get big, too. I recently got scarlet reef hermits (and had to move my blue legs, which went right after the scarlets) and I'm very pleased. Not very active in the daytime, but overall I think they eat a lot more algae. I've even seen them munch cyano. If you're doing a Pacific reef (or just don't care) I've heard similar good things about Mexican red legs.

 

You may not want hermit crabs at all. A lot of people don't like them, don't want them, and don't have them and seem to do very well. A variety of snails is a good thing, with or without hermit crabs. Dr. Ron doesn't like hermits, but I think it's something personal he has against them.

 

Also, see what comes in on your live rock. Things like brittle stars usually come free on very fresh rock. From what I've heard, these are usually the good kind (smaller, not so predatory) whereas the LFS ones tend to be big meanies. You might also get free snails, etc. Wait for your tank to cycle and see what crawls out. See what kind of algae you seem to be growing, then pick your crew accordingly.

 

If you have to buy your crew online, I recommend one of the "build it yourself" places like http://www.etropicals.com or http://www.saltwaterfish.com rather than having to get some stuff you don't really want.

 

Steve

[minigeek]

Well, I have an AGA 7 gal. Minibow and up until recently, I had 4 astera snails, 2 turbos, a cleaner shrimp and 2 blue leg hermits.

 

The snails have all done a great job at eating algae. The cleaner shrimp just hangs out (that was, of course, until the incident) and then there are my evil hermits X)

 

These guys were fine over the past several months and then they got hungry I guess. They literately murdered a living turbo snail that was going on about his business. I have a small video clip of this and I will have to fix up my site and post it already for all to enjoy(???).

 

They had this very large snail cleaned out in a matter of hours. The next weekend rolls around and I find that somehow my cleaner shrimp fell prey to the hermits. Hardly anything left of the poor guy when I came in that Monday morning.

 

Several weeks pass and then one of the hermits kicked the bucket. I almost missed him! hehehe. But now there is just the one hermit roaming the tank for things to eat (kill).

 

This punk last weekend found my other turbo on its back and quickly killed it and, get this, immediately moved in to his shell! So that's my little story on hermit crabs. Should you get some? Sure! They are fun to watch that is true and if you manage to score a pair of evil ones like mine, then you might see things get munched.

 

The hermits have done a good job otherwise in cleaning my tank so they are not all bad. That's my 2 cents...