12g Bio Cube/Cheato in tank?/Phophate?

[Pigpen17]

My temporary 12g Nano Coral/Crab home:

So I have moved my one coral and my porcelain crab (They love each other!) out of my display tank and into a 12g Bio Cube. I am going lights out for a month or so in the big tank. I have a long term plan, but I have some short term questions.

1: My porcelain crab loves to eat pods. I am going to add some to the 12g just so he has something to do during the day. I hand feed they guy frozen clam about once a month, so it shouldn't starve. I wanted to add some algae for the pods to hide/live in. Cheato would be the best choice for them, but I hear mixed things about adding it to your tank. Should I look elsewhere in the macro world?

2: Also, I may want to run some kind of Phosphate remover in one of the back chambers depending on how the tank grows. Any suggestions?

 

[Pigpen17]

Also. The pump is noisy as heck! What can you do about that?

 

[Pigpen17]

So I ended up buying a small bundle of stuff from Gulf Coast Ecosystems. I skipped the Cheato and went with C Prolifera, Gracilaria Hayi, a pack of pods and about 20 Dwarf Ceriths. I am not running a skimmer, so the Marcos will double as pod homes and Nitrate filters.

 

[Pigpen17]

Well, everything arrived today. The C. Prolifera looked really bad. I picked out the best looking bits, and when I put it in the tank I think it went sexual. It looked like they were smoking! I pulled all of it out.

The snails, Garcilaria and pods all went in without any drama. Looks good.

All this to keep a crab happy.

 

[Pigpen17]

 

[Pigpen17]

Also, I still had some questions that I would love some input on. The Cheato, phosphate removing media, and the noisy pump thing. You guys never steer me wrong.