How do you...?

[chrisstie]

Hi all I have a 12g aquapod thats been up for about 7 months or so. I had 2 general questions that I'd like to hear from folks who have actual experience with this

a)What do you do\use\own\whatnot to keep your sandbed in these smaller tanks looking pretty that I could try in my 12g

b) Has anyone had any success with running anything like phosban? or a phosban reactor and how you would link something like that up to a 12g?



I ask these questions because there I hope to find a natural option of an animal i can add to my tank to stir up the bed. My tank is still borderline newish and I am experiencing diatoms.

However, I also just switched OFF of dry pellet food (blennys.. gotta love em) and am going for higher quality frozen\fresh stuff that wont leave as much nasty stuff in my tank that would allow for diatoms\algae to grow. I am sure it will take some time and water changes down the road to see the better effects (and to adjust my feeding to make sure I'm not over feeding ..!)

But any words of advice or encouragement would be appreciated! I just redid my aquascaping I'll have to post a pic a litlte later too!

 

[dystopian]

Nassarius snails generally do a great job of stirring up the sand bed with the added bonus of not increasing your bioload significantly. For some reason, there are sometimes some darker-colored particles in my sandbed, but since they're larger and usually stirred up to the top, I just siphon them out with water changes.

This doesn't directly answer your question, but I wouldn't think a phosban reactor is really necessary in a nano tank, water changes should be good enough to take out any excess phosphates. Of course, this is all tank-dependent, based on feeding quantities, bioload, etc, although I can see using a phosban reactor if you don't want to do water changes as frequently.

Sometimes when defrosting frozen foods in water, there's a LOT of phosphates left in that water. You might want to strain the food to reduce the amount of phosphates going into your tank.

Hope this helps ^_^

 

[Illuminati]

Agree with the Nassarius Snails. Another option if you can find them is the Stomatella snail (Nocturnal and reproduces like crazy.)

I run phosban in a little mesh baggie in chamber 1.

The main thing with phosban is you want as much water to run through it as possible so it does it's job. Ideally a reactor is best but you can do the mesh baggie with good results as well.

I have Chemi-pure on the bottom of chamber 1, some filter floss above that and finally the phosban on top of the filter floss so the first thing the water hits is the phosban.

It cleared up a cyano outbreak within a week and I haven't had any problems since then.

 

[chrisstie]

Hmm where would one find one of those mesh baggies and are they reusable? I would think I'd only like to use a temporary version like that just to try to clear out the error of my past ways with the dry food.

With the new stuff I defrost it using a drop or two fo garlic guard then add tank water in a little dish.. Then use a pipette to suck up the chunks so at least its dilute frozen stuff. Im using frozen mysis and formula (1 or 2.. the veggie one use it only 2 times or so a week) and it doesn't seem theres too too much of a bonding agent but if I can find something to strain that stuff with... Im thinking like the balls you put tea in to steep when you make real hot tea.. or a mini strainer from the dollar store.

Thanks for the tips- and yeah I have about 4 nassarius snails in my 12g.. and 4 hermits (3 mex, 1 scarlet).. would you recommend boosting my crew? I also just recently added a lettuce nudibranch)

 

[Illuminati]

If you buy the big tub of Phosban from Dr. Foster & Smith it comes with a mesh baggie. I will check the size of my container tonight and let you know what size I have.

Also not sure how much sand you have but I have between 15 & 20 Nassarius in my 24. It might be overkill but it keeps the sandbed clean.

 

[chrisstie]

Hmm if its a direct ratio I would probably throw in a few more snails. They don't really "sift" it per se just erupt out of it when its feeding time >< I have been manually sort of mixing up the very top layer of crushed coral stuff.. mines abuot 2" deep. (i want the clean white look lol)

I was wondering about a cucumber and if they are worth it

 

[All Delight]

I threw 10 nassarius snails in my tank. I think my cleaner shrimp ate them. I seen him picking inside the shell. There are a couple left and they've grown. They're pretty good. I've been meaning to get a few more.

No experience on the cucumber.

 

[Illuminati]

I have a friend who bought a cuke for her 29 gallon AGA. That thing grew to be a monster, when it fully expands it's several inches long and I know they release toxins (maybe just when they die?)
They would harvest your substrate of all the living organisms and probably starve.

Do you have a Crushed coral of a sand substrate? or a combo of both? I thought cucumbers need sandbeds, crushed corals might not work for them.

I'd do some reserch on them before picking one up.

 

[chrisstie]

I was hoping to find out if they actually do more good than harm and then might consider one. And yeah they can do toxins but i think there are some species that aren't so bad.

Maybe I"ll just bulk up on snails a little and see what happens. With the Y flow in the 12 g aquapod its hard to stir up the sandbed without just blowing it all over the place.

When I do water changes I just use my hands and turn over any ugly spots. I also switched to tropic marin salt from IO, so hopefully with "better" salt, less exta nutrients and a bottle of "Kent's Patience " (funny image) Mine will start to look up to par.

I think what I have is crushed coral - its the arag alive carribean stuff.. its not fine like sand but it isnt overly chunky either.