Calcinus elegans

[TeoB]

Hello everyone. I would like to put a couple of calcinus elegans in my tank. However, I am still cycling and this is the tank at the moment:

http://i59.tinypic.com/rgx9b8.jpg

http://i62.tinypic.com/vi2uf4.jpg

http://i58.tinypic.com/2ibyoht.jpg

http://i61.tinypic.com/9hro1g.jpg

NO3 are 1mg/ml while phosphates 0.05mg/l. I do not do any water change for the moment.

Can I add the calcinus or is it too early? Can you spot dinoflagelates on the rocks? I know they might be toxic if eaten.

Thanks a lot in advance.

 

[Calappidae]

It's fine you can add them. They're very hardy and will help keep some bioload going for the cycle to stay stable.

They won't eat the dinos and that'll eventually go away.. do some water changes, raise magnesium, and you're good to go.

 

[TeoB]

Thank you calappidae. As far as I know water changes during cycling are forbidden because they reintegrate nutrients consumed by algae. They would never go away in this condition...am I wrong?

 

[Calappidae]

Ammonia becomes nitrite, nitrite becomes nitrate, nitrate feeds algea. Water changing gets rid of the nitrates which the algea feeds off of. You can wait a little while if you want but just saying how to take care of the algea down the road. Magnessium stunts the algea's growth a little making it more managable.

 

[TeoB]

Ammonia becomes nitrite, nitrite becomes nitrate, nitrate feeds algea.

Sorry, but I still don't get it. If they feed only on nitrates, the cycling will never end: dead algae realease ammonia that becomes nitrite, nitrite becomes nitrate, nitrate feeds algae and so on. There must be some other nutrients algae like a lot and that become limiting after a while. There are may tanks with 20mg/l of NO3 and without algae.

And also, the nitrates present in the cycling would help that tank to enstablish the population of bacteria that feed on them.

Water changes will remove also part of the bacteria needed for cycling.

As far as I analyse the issue I see no reasons to do water changes untill the cycling has completely finished.

 

[Calappidae]

Just raise your mag and let the tank go through it's stages then. I never said this algea problem had to be taken care of now.

The hermit crab is hardy enough to go in right away.. as long as the ammonia is 0 there's nothing really "toxic" in the system to the animal. Also remember to just float and match salinity.. long period acclimations are dangerous when the bag is opened.

 

[TeoB]

How can I raise the magnesium? MgCl2 would do the job?

Also remember to just float and match salinity.. long period acclimations are dangerous when the bag is opened.

I did not know this, why? I normally acclimatate drop by drop for 45 - 60 minutes, is that ok?

 

[Calappidae]

I did not know this, why? I normally acclimatate drop by drop for 45 - 60 minutes, is that ok?

When an animal is shipped, the ammonia is raised in the bag from being stressed out.

That I'm sure everybody knows..

But when you open the bag after floating it.. the PH swings from the oxygen changing.. and this actually causes the ammonia to turn into a more toxic stage. Long acclimations are actually more deadly then throwing them right in. Just the temperature and salinity needs to match.. but as soon as the bag opens you might want to speed it up a little.

You can still do very slow and longer acclimations for sea stars, corals, anemones, etc because they don't release too much ammonia.

 

[TeoB]

Actually I did not know it, thanks a lot for the hints