Getting Started

[pfitz44]

I was thinking of snails.. but i have the CC on the bottom..... I know.... i know... i should get rid of it... i know..... im gonna take some out each time i vacum the CC, then put sand in... it just sweems easier to do that way.... Plus whwen i do my 30-40% water change after the cycle, i think i might be able to get a good portion... then 10% everyweek... so imthinkin maybe two months or something....
would it be bad to have more shrimp to act as the cleaner crew, or the hermit crabs are better at that??

 

[jdragunas]

they all do different things... The hermit crabs keep your rocks well groomed, while the shrimp tend to eat leftovers on the floor. Snails (such as turbos) tend to stay on the glass and rock, and keep that pretty clean. Turbos don't go in the sand, so having them in the CC is ok.
The one thing i wanna say about snails and hermies is that the hermits will eat the snails and take over their shells sometimes. Normally because the hermit doesn't have a larger shell to move into as it grows. This is why you should provide a few shells in the tank with a variety of sizes, so they can move into a bigger house as they grow. This is not optional, even if you have snails, as the hermtis will grow out of their current shells...

 

[pfitz44]

right.. i was planning on having extra shells... i rmember reading somewere like 10 shells for every hermit or something.. does that sound right???
So the CC wont cut up the turbos at all??

 

[jdragunas]

nah, they'll hang out on the rocks and glass.
i'm not sure about having that many shells... i have about 5 or 6 extra shells for my 3 hermits... Although there has been some mutiny among the ranks...

 

[pfitz44]

lol... mutiny is never a good thing.... exp in a Navy sub..... sorry.. just watched Crimson Tide last night....
should i provide some sort of path fromthe lr to the glass forthe snails??

 

[jdragunas]

no, they'll be fine. I had CC, and didn't lose a single snail (except for one that landed upside down behind LR, i didn't even know he had done that... the next day, my hermie took over that shell...

 

[pfitz44]

Ok cool.... so proteen skimmer... should i wait till the cycle is completly done till i install that in??? also, cycle is complete when amm and nitrite are 0 for a week... when should i do the water change??

 

[jdragunas]

after that week, do a water change. And yes, wait to put in the protein skimmer until your ammonia and nitrites are 0. put it in as soon as your amm and ites are 0, that way you'll have your "break-in period".
Also, i've heard that you should run it on freshwater for 24-48 hours before puting it on your tank, to remove the oils and whatnot beforehand.

 

[pfitz44]

ok cool....
So anotherthing.... thismorning when i woke up, i noticed the feather duster that was onthe LR was no longer there... just a stem... do they retract at night or something?? or is it dead??

 

[jdragunas]

The feather duster is actually a worm that lives in the tube... They retract when they're scared or feel threatened at all. A fish can brush one bristle, and mine retracts immediately.
Another thing you should be aware of is that feather dusters are known to "throw their crown", meaning they actually detach the crown of "feathers". This is quite normal, so don't be alarmed if one day you come home, and the crown is laying on the bottom of the tank. They grow back quite quickly.
I looked at those pics again, and they just don't look like feather dusters to me, but that may be because it's sort of blurry. Does it look like this??? Notice each "feather" has small hairs all the way down...

 

[jdragunas]

oh yes, and is it just the way that picture is, or is the large piece of LR on top of the two smaller pieces? I would move it if i were you, just to make sure you don't get any rock falls later on... that's a big cause of death in the saltwater world...

 

[pfitz44]

That "big rock" is actually two pieces.... i just put it there for now... still gotta get more rock for teh actual scape that i get....
The feather duster looks alot like that... ill see if i can get a better picture tonight when i get home...
Ok another thing.... back to proteen skimmers... Ive been trying to find the remora aqua c.. and cant find it... all i find is the red sea "prism" (two kinds) and "Visi jet" and the aquirium systems "seaclone filter" Shoul di really look around till i can find the aqua c??

 

[jdragunas]

i wouldn't go with the prizm... it's a piece of crap, i've heard soooo many stories about it. not familiar with the visi jet, as i have never heard of this one. I have heard of the seaclone, but i can't remember if i heard good things or bad things. You may want to start another thread asking about skimmers, so you can get firsthand accounts of why these skimmers are so bad.
have you tried looking on that famous auction site?

 

[pfitz44]

I'm glad u mentioned that.... found one on there... not outrageously priced either....

Now just to test the chems again tonight to see how its progressing!

 

[pfitz44]

So my ca2+ is up, my ammonia is up (About 1.0) and my nitrities aer still at 0.25... does that sound normal??

 

[jdragunas]

yeppers... what is your calcium at?
IMO, don't worry about your calcium, alkalinity or PH until your cycle is over...

 

[pfitz44]

Ca2+is at about 400...
Shrimp molted lastnight... thought he was dead when i woke up!!!

 

[jdragunas]

lmao, that happens to the best of us... when my shrimp first molted, i saw the antennae from the molt, and then i saw him in a completely different spot... i was like... wtf???
BTW, i normally tell people to do water changes during the cycle to keep the ammonia below 1.0, but because you have a shrimp, i suggest doing water changes to keep your ammonia at or below 0.5. That will help the shrimp out a lot. Keep an eye on him too, if he molts a lot, that's a sign of stress. Doing water changes during a cycle won't affect the cycle, as long as you don't do too much (meaning, don't remove all of the ammonia from the water). And actually, allowing your ammonia to get too high will inhibit the growth of the dentrifying bacteria that converts nitrites to nitrates (this is why you won't see a big spike in nitrates until your ammonia is at 0)... so it's actually better all around to keep your ammonia down.

 

[pfitz44]

ok cool... now the big question... what type of water should i use??? is bottled water that i buy at the store going to be ok??? i used tap to fill the tank and put in a declorinator, but i dont want to do that for water changes....

 

[jdragunas]

ohhhh, that's a big no no... Chlorine is not the only bad thing in tap water. You also have a lot of dissolved minerals in that water, which will most likely cause bad algae growth in the future. You should purchase a phosphate test kit...
As for water, the best to use is RO water (reverse osmosis). You can either buy a RO unit (they're anywhere from $100 - $700), or you can purchase RO water from the store. Most people get it from walmart. They have a corrugated (sp) water system, where you just fill up your containers, and it's like $0.33 a gallon. I don't have one of those at my Walmart, so i buy their bottled water for 0.64 per gallon (really pricey if you ask me...) It's in their drink section. it comes in 1 gallon jugs, has a green label and green cap. It's labeled "drinking water". It's been processed by RO, and also has a calcium additive "for flavor" it says, but this is a really good thing. The RO process is so good that it actually filters out a lot of the calcium from water, so that can cause your calcium in your tank to go down, but with this water with the calcium additive, i've never had that problem.