New tank

[beaver]

Im new here, I just started a 29gal tank (use to keep oscars in it) Now its salt. Its been up and running about a week and a half. Live sand, like 20ish pounds of live rock in there, everyting seems to be going well. A few days ago I put two small hermit crabs, an emerald crab and a blue berrie crab in there, also sand sifting (I think thats what it is) star and a small turbo snail. Well after about 30mins the star ate the snail... I was thinking that star fish just sat around doing nothing, this one moved like extreamly fast, right to the snail.. it was painfull to watch, at fist I thought they where just messing about. Oh well. So I got a great big snail that seems to be doing fine now. (they didnt have any snails that could battle a star fish acrdoing the guy at the pet shop.. he will have to go un-avenged) Any sugestions about what I should do now? if anything? I plan to wait a few weeks and then drop some of the damsile fish in there one or two I think and see what happens. Oh also I have a "life Glow" light bulb and a "pinguin 125" 'filter.. temp is 78deg at all times, got a heater not shure what kind it is. Salt lvls are right where there are supose to be acrdoing to my salt meeter thingy. Sugestions to make this a non catastrophy? :jumping:

 

[malounsbury]

First of all, have you been testing your water parameters? Your tank seems sort of new to be dropping those type of inverts into your tank. You'll need to test your ammonia, nitrite and nitrate levels if you haven't been already.
As far as the starfish eating one of the snails, how did you acclimate him? If you dropped him in there, that might have set off a survival instinct in him and that's why he ate the snail. Have you been feeding him regularly since then? You should probably be spot feeding him directly so he doesn't bother your other inverts/fish.

 

[beaver]

I havent tested the water out side of salt content.. the guy at the pet store (have found from reading the forums that these guys are not to be trusted lol) said it was high time I had some inverts in my tank to help with the cycleing . The crabs seem to be extreamly happy though and have been chowing down on the rocks. I plan to get a test kit for the water now, if you think its a good idea. They said nothing about feeding the star.. I asked "are you shure that I dont need to feed any of these guys?" They ashured me that they would have plenty of food form the live rocks and sand.. Also there is some red build up on the sand and rocks. I think I have been leaveing the light on most of the time. Should I turn it off at night? The blue berrie crab and the star seem to be takeing out the red stuff on the sand, or just mixing it up since all they do is dig holes all day.. What do you think? and thanks for the replie.

Edit.. forgot about the aclimation queston.. I put all the criters in small fish bowls and added some water from my tank about a little at a time for about 45 mins till I had doubled the water they had in there origan plasic bags. Then neted them and droped them in.

 

[malounsbury]

You should get a test kit for ammonia, nitrate, nitrite and probably pH. You can get them from this site, and the recommended brand is salifert.
As far as the buildup you have, they're called diatoms and when a tank is cycling those things will start to bloom in your tank. As the cycle goes on, it usually goes away. The lights being on will assist them in blooming, so you should keep your lights on for 10-12hrs a day. I would suggest getting a light timer to turn them on and off for you so you don't have to do it all the time in case you forget. The star may be removing it, but is probably just redistributing it since it sifts the sand.
As far as the starfish goes for feeding, since it does feed on some of the things in the sand and on the rock, I would still consider spot feeding it. When you actually put fish into the tank, it will harass them at feeding time and try to steal the food. If you spot feed it before you feed everything else, you have less of a chance of it eating something else and having your other fish starve. You can usually feed it krill.

 

[beaver]

Wow I had no idea a star would eat like that, I always thought they just filtered water for food. Thanks for your help, everything seems to be going well at this point. I have some strange hitch hikers on the live rock I saw today. This one hole in the rock some times I can see a tentical of sorts coming out of it and fealing around. That sort of worries me, also there is a small plant of sorts that came with the star I think. It looks like a flower, and it can suck its top part back into itself, is it a coral of some kind? Ill try to find a pic of something like it I supose.

 

[who dey]

hope the star makes it. You haven't even finished your cycle yet. alot of bioload for such a new tank. do things slowly, and it will work out well for you. do your research before you buy animals about compatability. good luck

 

[beaver]

Thank you, yes Im not going to take the advice of the pet shop guys any more. Thats the one thing I have learned from these bords. Ill just read on my own and ask questions here from now on. All the creatures I purchased where only becuse they said it would be best to have them to help with the cycle. Now I think thats proly BS, outside of the snails perhaps. Im going out to pick up a test set in the morning, salifert you said malounsbury? What all comes with that, is it a kit? Criters still doing well at this point btw, been in there since friday afternoon. Its sunday night here now.

 

[who dey]

BTW, don't get damsels. IMO they are only good for cycling. they are very aggressive and tend to pick on other fish, stressing them out until they die away. Your cycle will be finished soon so please don't waste your $ on damsels.

 

[malounsbury]

The salifert kits are all seperate, so you have to buy a kit for each thing you're going to test for. The things you need to test for during a cycle is ammonia, nitrate and nitrite. Try to stay away from the litmus paper tests, as they tend to be hard to read. You want something that has you take some water and add a chemical of some sort to it to test.

 

[beaver]

Ok, sounds cool, what kind of fish do you recomend? For starter I mean. Also the live rock is becomeing more upseting to me, there is this tentical thing that comes out of some of the holes... very tiny but its like a clear worm of some kind, it sticks out of the hole and grabs about. also today I see there are some things that look like sea monkeys swiming around in there, what could these be? What will eat, kill them, do I need to get rid of them? The sea monkeys happend in the last hour, as far as I know. I was thinking of buying an all in one salt water kit for testing the water but, if you think its better to by them one by one ill do that.

 

[beaver]

Ok its tuesday, all criters still alive. Lots of sea monkys in there now. I havent tested the water yet, havent had a chance to get to the store, working such long hours. Iv been turning off the light at night now, it drops the temp down to 75ish, is that too low? I would have thought that my heater would keep it the same all the time. My house is about 72 most of the time.

 

[beaver]

Ok so, its been a while and I need some more advice, there for im bumping myself
every thing is fine so far, the blueberrie crab died though. im getting the start of green stuff on the sand (replaceing the redish brown) I checked the water and I had ammonia lvl of .25 I think, it was the lowest one next to nothing on the test card. thought this was right after the crab died and it was at least 6 hours before my G/F scooped him out while I was at work. Could that make the amonia spike? Everything elts is fine, One strange thing though that I just say today.. there is a tiny star fish in there now that I didnt put in. How do stars reproduce? Its about the size of my pinky nail. What should I do if anything? Also there are all sorts of strange things on the live rock, like tenticals with like fan type things that come out of holes and pop back in.. what are they?

 

[getit]

Originally Posted by Beaver
Wow I had no idea a star would eat like that, I always thought they just filtered water for food. Thanks for your help, everything seems to be going well at this point. I have some strange hitch hikers on the live rock I saw today. This one hole in the rock some times I can see a tentical of sorts coming out of it and fealing around. That sort of worries me, also there is a small plant of sorts that came with the star I think. It looks like a flower, and it can suck its top part back into itself, is it a coral of some kind? Ill try to find a pic of something like it I supose.
Hey Beaver, I am a newbie also. The things that resembles a flower is probably a feather duster...it has a long tube-like body and a flower-like feather top the sifts particles out of the water to feed and will go back down inside...IMO. Go to the fish/invert section and look up feather duster and see if that is what it is. From what I have read the levels will go up and down in the intial stages, but will level out. the crab dying could possibly cause the ammonia to go up slightly. hope this helps...I haven't even got my tank running yet; so you are further ahead than I am. Good luck

 

[beaver]

Thanks for the responce. Iv had the tank up and running for about 3 weeks now, fether duster.. hmm thats what it looks like yeah. I was thinking it was some kind of coral or something. Thats a kind of plant? Any thoughts about the star fish? I would like to know where it came from lol.