Otter's 5 gallon Diary

otter

otter

Member
Howdy all,
I am new this forum and salt water aquariums. I have some experience with fresh water, but have always wanted to have a saltwater tank. Lurking around this site for a couple of days you all seem like a good bunch of people and I would like to join your club. Taking a cue from others I thought I would start my own diary. I took a galaxy 5 gallon acrylic tank, stock filter, stock light, live sand, and 7 or 8 pounds of live rock. I started on Monday. When I came home today, my filter had stopped working. It turns out the rubber on the impreller dried out over the years. Got it working long enough until I can replace it later this week.
Question: Should I go ahead and start the cycling process? Any other tips or suggestions are very much appreciated.
Here are a couple pics (I hope I do this right)

 
katiev

katiev

Member
Looks good! I like the substrate, too -- I wish I'd gone with a darker sand for my 10 gallon. BTW, great avatar.
 
otter

otter

Member
Thanks! A raw shrimp it is today. If I was to replace the current filter with a hang on the back type what would people suggest? Doing that would I keep the carbon filter insert or subsitute it with LR or something?
 
otter

otter

Member
Well, the raw shrimp has been in the tank for three days now. No significant change in the Ammonia or Nitrite levels. Do people ever remove the shrimp or do you let it totally decompose?
Readings as of 2/25
Ammonia .5-1 ppm
Nitrite 1 ppm
 
otter

otter

Member
My friend and I went to a couple fish stores he liked to frequent. We were just killing time before lunch. I was good at the first fish store. I looked at all the fish, coral, and anemomes without asking how much "it" was. The second store got me. They had just recieved a shipment of fish and everyone was excited! I got excited too! Then they said those fateful words, "These are cheap! We will give you a deal!" I caved. I bought a Green Chromis, a snail, two tiny hermit crabs, and a Mini Jet 10 power head. Went home,tossed the shrimp out installed the Mini Jet, and started a drip accilimation process for the fish. After a little over an hour, I gave the little greeny a freshwater dip and put him in the tank with the light off. The snail and crabs just got dropped in. I will keep an eye on him and hope for the best.
 
otter

otter

Member
Originally Posted by cjason3041
yup i like the substrate...i am in the mood for oreo ice cream all of a sudden :thinking: :thinking:

hehe. ty.
 
otter

otter

Member
Last night before bed I checked on the little greeny. We found him at the top of the tank gasping. I turned off the power head, did a 20% water change, turned the light back off, and hoped for the best.
Checked in on him this morning at 7am. He was swimming around checking out the tank! :cheer: He is still pretty scared so I am leaving the light off for today. The hermit crabs are busy at work and the snail is munching away.
When I turned on the power head yesterday, I noticed it kicked up a lot of junk off the bottom. With the slow flow of the stock filter I am not surprised.
Should I vacum the substrate before I turn it back on?
 
otter

otter

Member
Are those different than Turbo snails and the like? I have one snail now who is happpy to eat stuff off the LR.
 
bs21

bs21

Member
there are different snails i'm not exactly sure which ones do what but i think turbos eat algea
 
otter

otter

Member
Thanks. I did some research and discovered I have a Mexican Turbo Snail. He is all cool and purple. :jumping:
 
otter

otter

Member
Well, I have a learned a lot. I learned that my 10 yr old water test kit is probably bad. No wonder my water readings are never changing.

My LR had too much growth from the LFS, so I scrubbed it off. After I put it back in the tank, my mexican turbo snail died. UGGGHH!. So I let it go with just the crabs in there for another week.
Last Sunday, I stopped at the LFS and picked up two blue damsels, a peppermint shripm, a turbo snail, and a astrei snail. I accilimated the shrimp and Damsels together. Those murdering

[hr]
stressed out the shrimp and killed him! I dropped the fish in and the snails. The snails were on top of each other, so I pulled them apart and put them on the sand. They didn't move for two days. The larger Turbo made his way to the glass wall and is doing fine. I moved the Astrei to the LR and he died the next day.

I did a water change and everyone is doing fine now. The fish are eating and looking healthy (the murdering

[hr]
!), The snail is enjoying the tank, and the hermit crabs are hermitting right along. I am off to buy a new test kit. I have been trying to buy a refractometer to measure salinity, but their expensive! Watching the web swapmeet site for one atm.
 
otter

otter

Member
The tank is cycling right along. I now have brown and some green algae growing. The Damsels are doing fine, but one is getting picked on pretty good. I think I found a good LFS. The place is clean and the people very helpful. It is owned by an older retired couple and very kind. I brought my water down to be tested. The tester said I had very little nitrite. I have not seen a spike in my ammonia or my Nitrite yet to indicate getting to the end of the cycle in the last month. She gave me something called, "Bacti boost". Just a couple of drops really. She says it will help cycle the tank faster. We'll see. :happyfish
 
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