care of LR/LS

timrandlerv10

New member
I have 70 pounds of (mostly) live rock and 120 pounds of live sand. we have water circulating and the temp is steady at 78 degrees. I wont be able to use the rock and sand until the stand is built so that...well, you get the idea.

what do i need to do in order to keep the rock and sand healthy? should i add light? (algae, i'm thinking no...)
crabs?
snails?
anything else?

i would love to have these rocks and sand breeding pods and aging well for the next 2-3 months.

plus we're ordering our floridapets stuff, so i need to put in my extra invert order!

thanks,

tim
 
Water circulating and the temp staying in a decent range is really all you need. If its going to be a few months you might want to add just a lil bit of flake food every couple of weeks. It wouldn't hurt to put a light on it and try to get some coraline algae growing.

Will
 
Since some pods such as amphipods are herbivores, it helps to add some macroalgae like Ulva (sea lettuce.) I recall John Newby had some Ulva in his tanks yesterday. If you add some phytoplankton from time to time, pods will multiply faster.

Tomoko
 
so some NO flourescent and Ulva?

Would adding snails or crabs help or hurt or neither?

ironically, i'll have to go buy flake food...

So, what will you be feeding?
Oh...just some rocks and sand...
 
Copepods and beneficial tiny isopods may eat some flake food. You don't need much at all, though. If you don't have one on hand, I woud not worry about it.

You can throw in some snails if you see algae and diatom are beginning to grow. Personally, I won't add any crabs there. Make sure your ammonia and nitrite are gone before you add snails and crabs.

Tomoko
 
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