New and ready to add creatures

[indooreefs]

We are new to salt tanks but I'm learning alot from reading the boards. We are now just waiting on the last additions to our tank. Its not much to look at right now with just some (about 50 pounds) LR and 3 damsels. Its 150 gallon, bio filter with skimmer, fluval filter, and 3 power heads. Right now we have 2 whisper 3's on as well but will be taking them out and replacing them with more power heads the current is good but we just have to much filters on there ,I think (from reading the boards). We are waiting on the new lights and 50 pounds of more rock 25 of it LR and hope to add some new tenants very soon after. The tank has been going now for about 6 weeks and it will be atleast 1 more week before we can have the lights and new rock in and new hood built. How long should we wait after that to order our invertabrates? I'm dieing to get some crabs to watch them clean up. We have kept our water quality right so far and havent had any major changes, even the 2 times we got some crud from the LFS (we seen in an earlier post to add some crude to help speed things up) the water has stayed pretty much the same. Any suggestions on what to and not to get as far as fish and invertebrates. I know I want one of the reef packages from this site though we are not sure if we will get the 100 gallon + package
Scarlet Hermit Crab: 50
Blueleg Hermit Crab: 50
Turbo/Astrea Snail: 50
Nasssarius Snail: 10
Coral Banded Shrimp: 1
Emerald Crab: 10
Brittle Star: 2
Sally Lightfoot Crab: 2
Peppermint Shrimp: 5
OR In the Mix Reef Package
Scarlet Hermit Crab: 20
Blueleg Hermit Crab: 25
Nasssarius Snail: 20
Turbo/Astrea Snail: 25
Emerald Crab: 5
Coral Banded Shrimp: 1
and just build from that. I'm a big fan of saving money and the bigger package I will save $90 but the smaller package we will only save $30 so the larger package may probally win. But I don't want to get anything that doesn't "play well with others" or is to hard to care for. Also does any of these need some speical tank mates and will I need messy tank mates to give them all something to "clean up"? I have some pix of the tank but they are to big

to upload so I will add them later. We have some weird stuff on our LR one looks like black drops of paint and the other is shaped like a trumpet with what looks like a feather duster coming out of it, its very small and light sensitive. Some have white flesh and some red flesh but all are coming out from white trumpet shaped skeletons. Is this feather dusters? Thanks for any help we sure do need it. :happyfish
Kim and TJ

 

[promisetbg]

I am not a fan of large clean-up crews...certainly not for a new tank.Buy them slowly and add as needed.
You say you have'nt seen any significant changes..you did see your cycle correct?
I would recommend that you consider the addition of an overflow to sump with a skimmer and a return pump instead of setting this up as a freshwater system..as many do.You will have far greater success if it is set up properly from the start.
As you are still in the stages of adding LR I caution the addition of anything delicate including inverts at this point.The addition of LR could still cause an ammonia spike.

 

[rockies]

I prefer fewer Blue Legged Hermit Crabs. It is a somewhat contraversial topic. I've witness BLHCs kill snails and inhabit their shells. I asked one LFS about this and they were shocked that BLHCs could be aggressive. They claimed that the snails were probably at their demise anyway and the Blue Legged Hermit Crabs only accelerated an inevitable end. I'm not sure of this view after reading more literature on BLHCs. According to some authors they *can* be aggressive and should be kept less densely than snails, etc in order to ensure good health of the crabs and snails.
In the future I'm going to keep very few Blue Legged Hermit Crabs and more snails & other crabs.
That's my $0.02.

 

[indooreefs]

Originally Posted by promisetbg
I would recommend that you consider the addition of an overflow to sump with a skimmer and a return pump instead of setting this up as a freshwater system..as many do.You will have far greater success if it is set up properly from the start.
As you are still in the stages of adding LR I caution the addition of anything delicate including inverts at this point.The addition of LR could still cause an ammonia spike.
Sorry I'm new, so maybe I didn't say it right before... The bio filter is a sump with protien skimmer(for a 200 gallon and ours is only 150).... That has been on for 3 weeks or so.... and no way would I ever turn this into a fresh water tank..... We already have almost 3,000 dollars into this system so there is no turning back now.... I guess I will take it slower, because the clean up crew is what we are looking forward to, they are the most interesting.... As I said before I am new so I could be wrong but I thought we seen our cycle.... nitrates and nitrites are both zero when that happens right? we was at zero when we put in the damsels a month ago and are now 0.5 nitrite(or less, they strips are hard to read) and still zero nitrates.....
We hadn't yet painted the back so when we drained it to pull it out and we was able to save 75% of the water. It was due for a water change and the fish seemed unharmed by the shake up, swimming around happy right after and since then. We are still adding rock, we got 50 pounds of base rock and I bonded most of the pieces together and the 50 pounds of LR will be here today or tomorrow so I will add the whole 100 pounds at once... That will be a total of 100 pounds of LR and 100 base rork (we already have about a hundred pounds or more in there now)I do think I need some sort of cleanup crew now though..... As I said I am new but with just 3 fish in a 150 gallon tank they do miss some of the food, flacks gather in 2 places in the tank from the current. Wouldn't they help with this and couldn't this be the reason for the nitrites going up? Thank you for your help I will take all the advise I can get.

 

[indooreefs]

Originally Posted by Rockies
I prefer fewer Blue Legged Hermit Crabs.

From what I have been reading I think I have to agree with you....
What type of crabs do you suggest..... crabs are my favorite....for my tank size it looks like 50 scarlets, 50 blues and 15 emeralds is what SWF.com suggests so if I was to only have 10 blues in the end would I replace the numbers with another type of crab..... I am gonna go slow and add just a few at a time. What would you say is a "full load" as far as a clean up crew for this tank (once its fully established with livestock). Thanks for your imput... :happyfish