a few questions about a 6 week old tank

[dchec2100]

Hello,
I have a 55g FOWLR tank... it's been up for 6 weeks. Tank spiked and then dropped in 4 weeks. Once levels reached good levels (nitrates, -trites at 0, ammonia at 0, ph 8.1, sg 1.023) added two perc clowns. They were looking great for awhile... added small cleanup crew 7 days later (only 6 hermits, 2 camel shrimp). Today, lost one clown that was acting differently last night than he had been. He had never been as lively as the other, and even though there were a similar shade of color when orginally introduced, the now dead one stayed the same while the other one thrived... color deepened, he grew, etc. Levels were still the same, other clown was still looking really good, so per the advice on this site, I quickly replaced the clown with one that was smaller than the one that was still living.
1. Starting to get a build up of algae and want to add add'l cleanup crew. Do I need to wait?
2. For the first cleanup crew introduction I acclimated them the same was as the fish (per advice on this site). Is this necessary for the cleanup crew?
3. Lastly, one of the hermits, a small one the size of my pinky nail, climbed on top of another of that same size. They're both alive, it seems. Almost seems like they're mating... not even sure if that's how they do... Is this normal?
Thanks for all the great info so far, and for the help here!
Dan

 

[drewsta]

What kind of algea? Crabs climb on each other just because I have observed it numerous times I assume they are looking for a different shell. You stated the levels at the time of introduction of the fish but what are your levels now?? As for the acclimation ummmm personaly I don't really care about crabs to much but yea you don't need to acclimate as long maybe 20-30min max the are pretty tough (crabs,snails,etc....) Acclimate shrimp as you would fish 1 1/2-2 hours.

 

[mikeyjer]

Originally Posted by Drewsta
What kind of algea? Crabs climb on each other just because I have observed it numerous times I assume they are looking for a different shell. You stated the levels at the time of introduction of the fish but what are your levels now?? As for the acclimation ummmm personaly I don't really care about crabs to much but yea you don't need to acclimate as long maybe 20-30min max the are pretty tough (crabs,snails,etc....) Acclimate shrimp as you would fish 1 1/2-2 hours.

Your just as bad as I am about crabs and snails......They survive just fine though.....

:happyfish

 

[dchec2100]

Ah, sorry... levels now are the same. Meant to say that.

 

[vanos]

I lost a few fish too during the first few months when I started my tank. I don't normally acclimate cleaning crews and they all have turned out fine. i.e. hermits and snails. Remember new tanks get algae easier than established tanks. If you have brown algae I would suggest buying some turbo snails which will eat it quickly. New tanks are often the most difficult for success and you may want to wait a couple months but I know this will be difficult to do. God Luck!

 

[dchec2100]

I certainly don't mind waiting to add additional livestock ( I know this is a slooooooooow hobby)... I just don't want the algae to get out of control. It's not on the sand, starting to appear on the rocks... not the brown, but the green stuff. One of the powerheads came unstuck and fell, kicking up some waste, etc from the bottom that I knew was there just didn't see as it blended in with the sand. That was the stuff I was concerned about also.

 

[coachklm]

your skimmer should have gone crazy once the sand got kicked up ..... but give it ahwile to get the clean up crew working...... I used a sally lightfoot crab because thats all they did constsantly is clean the rocks.... and my conch cleaned the sandbed.... I used hermits and a conch for my clean up crew but many use nass and turbo snails ... I had 20 hermits and a conch and a sally for my clean up on a 90 and it did just fine......
you may want to run phosguard media or similar to control that algea....