400g system from scratch pictorial

[pclausen]

Amy, I got a pretty decent size canister filter that seems to be doing a good job running just micropads. I do have carbon pads for it as well, so maybe I'll try adding one of those to one of the vacant shelves once most of the coarse stuff has been taken care of.

Here is a shot from last night before I pulled all the rock out. As you can see, the water was already pretty clear. This was about 24 hours after I initially dumped the sand in there. Notice all the hair algae on the back of the tank. It is really noticeable due to the silt that stuck to it. I scraped it all off last night and it was picked up by the canister as well as the skimmer. This shot also shows how I hadn't quite gotten the bottom of the glass cleaned yet.

Scotty, I do plan to switch to just using a baster after a while, but I wanted to get into all the nooks and crannies at this stage, including the "back" sides of the rock.

 

[scotty1234]

Just a thought here but you might want to get something like a sea hare (rabbit), and let him loose for a couple weeks on the algae in your tank before you start stocking it.

 

[pclausen]

That sounds like a great idea Scotty since it will be a while before I'll get any tangs. I was amazed at the thick carpet of hair algae growing on the rear glass. The live rock seems to be able to repel it to some extent, but it took over the rear glass in a couple of days. I wonder if he can live in the fuge once he's (he/she I guess) done his duties in the main tank?

 

[highlands]

Things didn't go quite as smoothly as I had hoped for last night with the sand bed and aquascaping. The sand had settled and the water was clear, but it clouded back up again quickly as I pulled the rocks out. I then leveled the sand some, which really fueled the sand storm.

Did you rinse the sand before putting it in the tank? I do a triple rinse with fresh water at minimum, sometimes more if I keep getting fines. This greatly reduces the cloudyness when putting the sand in the tank.

 

[scotty1234]

As long as he has something green to eat on constantly he should be fine, they do get big though. One of these guys will rid that tank in a matter of days maybe a week.

 

[keefsama2003]

i seen a purple/orange/yellow sea hare that was grapefruit size it amazed me to all get out as i had never seen one that size.

just keep a nice algae mat for it

 

[pclausen]

Did you rinse the sand before putting it in the tank? I do a triple rinse with fresh water at minimum, sometimes more if I keep getting fines. This greatly reduces the cloudiness when putting the sand in the tank.

In the past (w/ fresh water tanks) I have always rinsed the silica sand until it run cleans. However, I did not rinse this "Southdown" as my understanding is that a lot of the critters that will be living in it appreciate the super fine particles. As I have experienced, not rinsing it definitely caused issues initially. I would like to think that after while, once the critters have established themselves in the sand bed, this will be much less of an issue.

I'll keep an eye out for a sea hare then although I don't know what I'd do with one that reached the size of a grapefruit!

 

[keefsama2003]

me either it just looked cool but man it was large.

 

[xtrstangx]

You could always trade the Sea Hare around your local reef club once you ran out of algae in your tank.

I rinsed my Southdown for about 30-45 minutes. It works out really nice, there is still a little sand storm, but most of it doesn't kick up anymore.

Tank looks good.

 

[mike89t]

100 Blueleg Hermits
2 Emeral Crabs

I don't think that amount of crabs are going to kill my sand bed anytime soon assuming they have other things to feed on.

That's a lot of Crabs. I'm on the side that Crabs and DSB's don't mix very well.

Hermits will eat the bad stuff but they will also snack on your DSB critters. Not to mention they will eventually go after your snails when they decide they want a new home.
:uzi:

Eric Borneman calls crabs Eco-Terrorists. Dr Ron suggest that you should have .1 to .01 hermit crabs in your tank to simulate the amount you would find on an actual reef.:rollface:

 

[mike89t]

Here is what Dr Ron has to say about Astrea snails:

Many of the actual individuals of Astraea offered for sale in the reef aquarium hobby come from the cooler waters of Baja California. These animals are not from areas that have sand substrates or, really, much of anything else in the way of flat surfaces. If they get dislodged from rocks, they tend to fall into crevices or crannies where they can reach a rock with their foot and attach to it. Consequently, they have never developed a "righting response." This means that if they fall from the aquarium walls onto the sand, they will not be able to turn over, and will die there unless somebody or something turns them over. Given that they also are not warm water animals, they tend to die young and leave a good-looking corpse in the aquarium. Purchase them if you wish. I would spend my money on tropical species, however.

Here are some great articles on the grazing snails:


http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-05/rs/index.htm

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-06/rs/index.htm

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-07/rs/index.htm


Also instead of adding a huge prebuilt cleaner crew I'd suggest doing it gradually. That way you can target your specific problems with a specific solution. With this method you won't have to worry about your cleaner crew starving when they get the problem under control.

I plan on starting with the following for my 150 and then adding more to target specific problems:

10 trochus Snails
20 Cerith Snails
10 Nassarius Snails
1 Fighting Conch
1 Tropical Abalone

 

[ikn0xl]

hey can anyone gimme a clue as to where I can get a hold of those rubbermaid sumps and water containers?

thanks I cant find it on RC search is down

 

[asnatlas]

hey can anyone gimme a clue as to where I can get a hold of those rubbermaid sumps and water containers?

thanks I cant find it on RC search is down

RC search was not down, it was probably during a peak time and alot of other people were searching, Since you are not a Premium Member then it can be limited at times...

But here is what you were looking for...

Rubbermaid POLY TANKS

&

Tank Depot

Shawn

 

[ikn0xl]

THank you for the reply its greatly appreciated and as to the procurment of RC being downand my comment, down reef-ering lol to the search option and yes we can admit Im broke and proud until money flow changes I wont be able to become a premium member sorry. But again thank you for your help!!!

 

[ikn0xl]

I could not find that specific product on the second webpage link provided (TANK DEPOT) there is no search either

 

[asnatlas]

I could not find that specific product on the second webpage link provided (TANK DEPOT) there is no search either

Tank Depot mainly carries holding tanks, not the Rubbermaid tubs... You can probably find the Poly tubs locally at a Tractor Store or somewhere that carries farm equipment. I have also head you can get them at a building supply store like Lowes and HD...

Shawn

 

[scotty1234]

Hermits will eat the bad stuff but they will also snack on your DSB critters. Not to mention they will eventually go after your snails when they decide they want a new home.
:uzi:

I've had this happen many times with the same crab. Avoid them if you can. Once the crab gets tired of his old shell he'll kill a snail or another crab and steal theirs. My crab also killed a coral-banded shrimp as well. They knock stuff in your tank over all the time too.

 

[pclausen]

Hermits will eat the bad stuff but they will also snack on your DSB critters. Not to mention they will eventually go after your snails when they decide they want a new home.
:uzi:

I forgot to mention that reeftopia includes transition shells in their package so that the hermits won't have to kill the snails when looking for a new home. The fact that they eat the DSB critters is a concern though. I wonder why so many of these so called clean-up crew packages include hermits if they will devastate a DSB? Looking at the TBS package for example, it calls for 1 hermit per gallon of water, so that would be 180 in my case, almost twice of what I was thinking about!

 

[pclausen]

Snails

Snails

Ok, so it would seem that the consensus on snails is something like this:

Astraea - not so good - temperate climate and unable to right themselves
Margarita - also temperate
Turbo - ok but big and clumsy
Nassarius - fun to watch (all come out of sand at once when you feed them) but not all that useful otherwise
Cerith - excellent and reproduce readily
Trochus - excellent, perhaps the best all-round cleaner but expensive.

So perhaps the best thing would be a clean-up crew consisting mostly of Cerith snail, and a smaller lot of Trochus and then some Nassarius for entertainment? (which is pretty much what you came up with as well Mike) I wonder why nobody is selling a package like that? My guess would be that they don't all come from the same region, so these small shops that sell complete packages aren't able to readily stock them.

What about a small crew of hermits, like a dozen blue legged and a dozen red legged, and a pair of Emeralds and a pair of Porcelains? I just think crabs are cool and would like to at least have some. 28 crabs is a lot less than 104, let alone 180+!

 

[pclausen]

I haven't seen the Rubbermaid stock tanks at Lowes or HD, only at Tractor Supply Co. Lowes and HD do carry the BRUTE trash cans up to 44g though.