common or not?

C

cappn

New member
I just put my first half of TBS LR in my 29g and its been in there for a little over 38hrs. I can see 4 med-size snails and a tiny brittle star and since i have put them in the tank they have barely moved. Is this normal or should they be more mobile. I've had snails in freshwater tanks and most have never sat still for more than a few hours. Just wondering.

Water parameters are nomal as far as i can tell.
 
I can only speak from my experience and that is more and more things "come alive" as time goes by. I have had the first portion of the package in my 40 gallon for 21 days now and every day I find new critters moving around! Just yesterday I found 2 more porcelain crabs. Gove them a bit of time, they may be recovering.

During the day many of the snails and other critters on my rock stay in place and begin moving about as night approaches. My hitch hiker serpent star stays put all day, every day, under a rock, but he is very much alive. If I put some krill or blood worms near him he shoots out from under the rock, grabs it and goes back to hiding to consume his meal.
 
I've had my 1st half of a 35 gallon package for 3.5 weeks and 2nd half for a week. It was at least a week or so before I saw anything much happening except for one active snail. After that, I had no idea where everything was coming from. I was trying to catch a mantis shrimp and got inked. Three of my finger tips were somewhere between black and blue. I guess I have an octopus, but haven't seen it or been inked since. I found a couple of hairy crabs that I removed that I hadn't seen before. I have one porcelain crab that I've only seen twice.

You're probably watching it and wondering if everything is dead. I put a couple of yellow tail damsels in the tank before the rock and was glad in the beginning that even though nothing on the rock was doing anything, I knew the water was OK because the damsels were happy. I didn't want anything to happen to them, but if something is going to happen, it's better to find out with $3 fish and not all the rock you just spent a few more than $3 on.

-Brendan
 
ok, that makes me feel better. I just wanted to make sure that i didnt do a stupid rookie mistake and no clue. Actually since that post i have seen 3 small crabs, two that look hairy and one that looks white. I also found a baby serpant star, but like yours it hasnt moved. I havent tried putting any food in cause the instructions i recieved were that i didnt need to feed them yet. Last night i did have an ammonia spike to about .5 so im trying to get that under control. As well as a water change do i need to look for something dead to rid the source? I really cant tell whats dead and whats alive at this point.
 
My ammonia went to just under .6 on my test kit pretty quickly and then barely went above that. My ph is 8.3, so acording to the test kit, 1.2 is fine and above that is bad. I wouldn't worry about your ammonia right now and if it doesn't move much, you're set. Once it started going down, I ordered the 2nd batch. Right at the 2 week mark.

You're in good shape so far. In my second batch, I got two tiger tail cucumbers. The boxes didn't make the flight (different thread) and when I got the boxes, one cuke had puked up it's guts. Gross. I put it in not realizing that it did that, and it moved a bit for a day and then no more. The other cuke was fine for about 5 days and just bit it. The ammonia still didn't go anywhere.

The rock has so much life on it that even if some of that stuff is dead, you probably don't have to worry about it. Of course, if you know it's dead, get it out of there.

Just added two clown fish (Nemo's) and a finger leather on Thursday. Everything is happy.

-Brendan
 
water changes

water changes

cappn said:
ok, that makes me feel better. I just wanted to make sure that i didnt do a stupid rookie mistake and no clue. Actually since that post i have seen 3 small crabs, two that look hairy and one that looks white. I also found a baby serpant star, but like yours it hasnt moved. I havent tried putting any food in cause the instructions i recieved were that i didnt need to feed them yet. Last night i did have an ammonia spike to about .5 so im trying to get that under control. As well as a water change do i need to look for something dead to rid the source? I really cant tell whats dead and whats alive at this point.
Click to expand...


Do not change any water until you get close to 1ppm.....changing water before that slows cycle..

Mary TBS
 
cappn said:
ok, that makes me feel better. I just wanted to make sure that i didnt do a stupid rookie mistake and no clue. Actually since that post i have seen 3 small crabs, two that look hairy and one that looks white. I also found a baby serpant star, but like yours it hasnt moved. I havent tried putting any food in cause the instructions i recieved were that i didnt need to feed them yet. Last night i did have an ammonia spike to about .5 so im trying to get that under control. As well as a water change do i need to look for something dead to rid the source? I really cant tell whats dead and whats alive at this point.
Click to expand...

Just relax and let the tank cycle. All you have to do is make sure your SG is around 1.025 and change water when your ammonia gets above 1.0. I never had an ammonia spike with mine. My ammonia never got above 0.25 and even that number was a bit suspect as it was probably lower, you know how hard those test kits are to read. I have the first half in the tank right now and need to get a call in to TBS to arrange for the second part!

You can see a nearly day by day log of my experiences here
 
Speaking of that, I just discovered that hydrometers aren't very accurate. I bought the clowns and tested the water in their bag at 1.028, so started looking into hydrometers. I have an Instant Ocean hydrometer and thought I was keeping the water at 1.023. I brought the water to a LFS and they tested it at 1.020.

A refractometer is in the mail. $35.
 
I had an IO hydrometer and it was WAY off. I have a Sea Test hydro and bought the IO hydro as a backup. The IO was reading 1.035 while the Sea Test was reading 1.024! The Sea Test was pretty close as I was able to test it with water of a known SG. I bought another Sea Test and reads pretty close to the original. I am getting a refractometer this Friday on Pay Day.
 
ok, it happend. I had an ammonia spike it was atleast 1ppm. I did a water change and its back down for now, but i think i will go back up cause the purple/bluish algea is dying all over the rock. its making a mess too. Trying to get out what i can. I'll keep you udated.
 
ok, the purple algea is still dying off all over the tank(bleaching). As far as i can tell thats the only thing. Everything eslse looks good. I found a large brittle star crawling on top of my rock today too!! That was the highlight of my day:) All of the critters seemed a little more mobile today, so thats good. The ammonia is slowing increasing again today so i will have to do another water change soon.
Cant wait to see what i find tommorow!
 
Ok, I need some help here. Stuff all over the tanks is bleaching. I read somewhere that higher temp does that to them. The water should not be over 80 cause BOTH of my thermometers say 77-78. THat actully seems high too....maybe my powerheads are producing too much axccess heat??????? Any suggestions as to what i should do???

I was going to try and put some icepacks in there.
 
cappn said:
Ok, I need some help here. Stuff all over the tanks is bleaching. I read somewhere that higher temp does that to them. The water should not be over 80 cause BOTH of my thermometers say 77-78. THat actully seems high too....maybe my powerheads are producing too much axccess heat??????? Any suggestions as to what i should do???

I was going to try and put some icepacks in there.
Click to expand...

Hang on, do a whoa, say to yourself "WHOA, hold up". If both thermometers are reading the same you do not have a temperature problem. Just check your ammonia and change the water as it gets to 1.0.

Oh yeah, relax.
 
I've been told to keep my temperature at 75. My tank is happy at 75. I haven't done a water change yet. I actually don't know what to do with all the extra water I made now.

Are you putting any additives or food in the tank? List out everything that you are doing with the tank. How long have you had the rock? 4 or 5 days, right? How many powerheads are you running and what is their gph rating? You should only be around 10x your tank volumn. I'm running a maxi jet 1200 (295 gph) for a 36 gallon tank.
 
lol, I hate when i dont "know it all". I was like this with my freshwater tank, the first time i raced....only after experience can i relax. These ammonia test are cheesy, i can never tell what color to read....there must be a better way.
 
ok, sorry i didnt get a chance to post last night. Molly the tank is now on its 6th day. The only this i added to it were the powdered bacteria that TBS gave me and a capful of Cycle. I have two Aquaclear 4000 powerheads running fulltime each with 396gph. The current tank temp is 79fht. The powerheads are overkill, but they dont seem to be a problem and the water circulation is good; not rediculous or aything.
 
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