?'s about live rock and requirements reef people please help

[phoenixofthepyre]

I am thinking about adding some live rock into my 72 bow tank and putting in some cleanershrimp and crabs for a cleanup crew what r the requirements for keeping the live rock in good shape?? also would a psychadelic goby be a good addition??? i am trying to make my tank non-aggressive once my eel passes away.

 

[ak_reefer]

Well I would hold off on adding any cleanup crew. Wait until there is some algea development so on and so forth. As far as special requirements make sure you have a good current going in your tank. I would discourage against a Mandrian they are picky eaters and need a good coepod colony for food. If you do plan on getting one make sure your tank has matured and has a good pod population. By mature I mean 8-12 months. HTH

 

[fshhub]

the rock itself has no real requirements, but he life on it does
if you want good coraline and or inverts, you should have something a bit brighter than standard florescent lights, and a good calcium level(not to mention your other water parameters) for a fowlr i like to see at least 350 and for any inverts, i would want 400 to 450(for calcium)
HTH

 

[iswimwithmyfish]

don't add a cleanup crew too soon... wait for algae so the crew doesn't starve to death <img src="graemlins//dead.gif" border="0" alt="[dead]" />

 

[k.lee]

For LR, you don't need to change anything since we're talking LR. Speciualized LR might need somethong. Ie., plant rock need a lot of light. Ass calcium if you just want your lr to look good. Calcium allows the red and purple algae to grow you see on your rock. B-ionics aor a drip orf lalkwasser will/ should male it thrive. I just started trying b-ionics calcium addition.
Lee

 

[karlas]

do you mean mandarin goby?
is this a pic of what u are talking about
<a href="http://students.washington.edu/matthewr/zoo451/fish/goby.html" target="_blank">mandarin</a>
how much lr are u adding? these guys need a lot to support it, because they need a huge population of pods or most starve to death. also if you have a sump or ref that could help you support it also if that has a good supply of pods

 

[jakob4001]

wait on the goby until yourtank has matured more form the LR;most of time you will get hitch hiker pods from the LR;but if you add goby too soon, it will consume all the pods before they have reached a sustainable population; shuld only take 4-8 months depending; you should be able to tell if you havce large enough pod pop when you see them on the LR, the glass, the substrate,possibly free swimming; you CAN add cleaner shrimp NOW; they will benefit your fish, but sometimes will be too agressive toward cleaning them;they will also SCAVENGE for food you put in;same w/ the crabs, most crabs are scavengers or hunters;they do not neccesarrily selectively feed on algae; that is not what their mandibles are designed for

 

[underthesea]

I would wait on the clean up crew until you have some alge for them to feed on. As for what to do to keep the rock healthy I would add Bio-Calcium from Tropic Marin. In my experience it works great. Plus it has I think it is 70 major and minor trace elements. So it is like an all in one system. But if you ever decide to add corals you would need to add extra Stronthiam(sp) Molydium and Iodine. Get and keep you calcium level at 400 to 450 ppm. You will like the results that you get. Plus makew sure you are running enough light. Hope this helps.