New tank!!

[SugarFox03]

Well, the transfer took most of the day yesterday, but its finally complete. Everything looks great except my hammer hasn't opened all the way yet. All fish are happy and the clowns aren't trying to kill each other! The new little one was doing the sideways spazing thing, I'm guessing thats good? They've been following each other around since last night. Anyway, here are some pics from just this morning, only about 10 mins after the actinics were turned on, so not everything is as open as normal. I will take some more pictures tonight when I get home. If anyone has some constructive ideas on coral placement if anything looks to be in a bad spot, please let me know!

Yes, my bed is THISCLOSE to the tank...the joys of living in a studio apartment.

10 gal Sump/Fuge

The stand my boyfriend built, its still not completely done.

Unhappy hammer...do you think he'll be ok?

The new couple, I think they look pretty happy!

FTS

I'm so happy its over, and I am in love with this new tank. It took a long time pulling off as much algae as I could, but it made a huge difference.

Thanks for looking!

 

[SugarFox03]

More pics:

Side

Momma clown back in her frogspawn

Trumpet coral

The watchman found his new lair

Shrimper is doing just fine too

 

[victor_c3]

I would give you some constructive comments, but it looks like you have more of a clue as to what you are doing than I do

really, you hvae a nice looking tank.

 

[thecichlidpleco]

Your hammer is fine. He is just what you say he is..unhappy. Just give him time and he will adjust.

 

[SugarFox03]

Thanks everyone! The hammer is doing much better today. I got home late, so I missed what it looked like when the MH was on (normally its huge.) But its more puffy than last night.

I can't stop staring at the new tank...I'm in love!

Oh yeah...does anyone think a sun coral would do well in the little cave behind the clam? Its missing color there, and have always loved sun corals. Everytime I see them they are always in a low light area. If those won't do well, can anyone suggest a colorful, low light, non aggressive coral that would do well in that spot?

 

[BCreefmaker]

sun corals dont need any light. iv seen them in the dark in caves and right under huge MH's. they really dont care about the light for them to be happy you have to feed them often, and get each polyp. it would be best to place them somewhere easy to feed. but also remember that all that feeding makes alot of waste, so you might want to keep an eye on your water levels and adjust your water change % accordingly.

 

[White Tiger]

I like the shrimp. It has a vivid red color.

 

[SugarFox03]

BCreef - thanks for the info!! The spot is pretty easy to get to, I have one of those squirters that works pretty well also. Thanks again!

 

[geno606]

thumbs way up on your tank ^_^

 

[SugarFox03]

Thanks! I'm so in love with it. Its so easy to just stare and find something new or interesting to look at. All of my fish are always out, which is not how it was in the 24 AP. The YWG is out, and the purple fire fish is always right up front...these two were my shy ones in the last tank. The one I miss seeing is the shrimp, I used to see him a lot, but he's found a spot in the back where its a bit difficult to see him. Anyway...I'm going to start a new thread that I will hopefully keep updated as things grow and I add to it.

Thanks again for the compliments everyone!!

 

[BCreefmaker]

yeah, i want a fire shrimp too, but im also afraid he will just find a nice cave or somewhere i cant see him and stay there till night. i guess my 3 shrimpys will have to get along without a 4th roommate plus they are 70$ at my LFS i could get 2 cleaners for that, and be shure they are active.

 

[SugarFox03]

Whoa!! $70?! Mine was around $20, but they normally sell for about $30 here.

What do you all recommend for a clean up crew? I have a few spots where hair algae was, so I'm thinking of getting another emerald crab (I have a large one in my fuge - he's evil). I only have two snails, one doesnt do anything (astrea), the other is great (turbo). I want to add 3 or 4 more turbos - or is that too many? I have 3 or 4 nassarius snails, I want about 10 more of those, and I have around 10 blue leg hermits, and was thinking 10 more of those too. What do you all think? I lost a lot of my cleaners in the move, so I need to restock.

 

[BCreefmaker]

i have 6 turbos, and they cleaned my 20G pretty quick and i think they are now starving because they are making more and more trips to the HOB fuge for food. but they only eat certain types of algae. plus some speices are cold water and wont a long life in our tropical tanks. i also have an emerald crab, but in my display tank to help combat my bubble algae that the turbos dont touch. i got 8 nass, and want more they are great little sand bed cleaners. IMO the best would be a mix of cerith, astrea, Nassarius, and Margarita snails. and please dont add more blue legs unless you really love them, i have a few and i stoped putting them in because they are 5 times more agressive then any other hermit in my tank. i like the fact that alot of people point out that a cleaner shrimp can do the job of 10 hermits alot faster, better, have the same bio- load, an be alot more freindly and interesting. so you might want to take them all back and get something better. just something for you to consider.

 

[victor_c3]

I've only had them in my tank for 2 weeks now, but I'm using the following as a cleanup crew in my 30 gallon tank:

1x Tuxedo Blue Sea Urchin http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_Display.cfm?pCatId=595
8x Zebra Hermit Crabs http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_Display.cfm?pCatId=613
1x Cowrie http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_Display.cfm?pCatId=567
7x Other snails

The Sea Urchin does a hell of a job cleaning algea off of my live rock. However, I can't tell if he is also eating the coraline off as well though. You can clearly see the areas he has cleaned as they are bone white when he is done. If you get an urchin, just be carefull not to expose it to the air at all when placing it in your tank. In the two weeks it has been in my tank, he's stayed in the same 12"x12" area of my tank.

As was mentioned above, the guy at my local LFS cautioned me against getting the Blue Legged hermits and said I would be much happier with the zebras instead. The zebras, he said, were much more active and a lot less aggressive. After two weeks of being in my tank I've yet to see any issues.

For the most part, everyone has just stayed on my live rock and and substrate and hasn't touched my glass so I find myself cleaning the glass every other day or so (I don't like seeing even the smallest smudge of algae on the glass). When I first added everything, I experienced a slight algae bloom but I think that was as a result of everything eating all of the old caked on algae and re-releasing those nutrients back into my system. With my current crew, it looks like everything is able to keep up with the algae growth on the rocks. I do get a little bit of an accumulation of dietrius and algae on the substrate, but I plan on adding a goby to my tank and I hope that him stirring around the substrate will solve that problem.

As of now I'm running a phosphate removal media and I'm trying to get myself into the routine of conducting weekly 10 gallon water changes. I expect this to help me keep the nutrient levels extremely low so that I won't run into any issues when I start to add some SPS to my tank in a few weeks. However, I'm kind of worried that I might pull too much out of the water and then starve my cleanup crew as a result.

I guess I kind of strayed off of topic there, but I hope it helps in someway.


Victor

 

[smithcreek]

I've never seen a blue leg be aggressive to anything other than another blue leg. I've had blue leg rumbles in my tank that involved 12 hermits fighting over ??? Sure they steal food from softies and LPS but any hermit will do that. Like any CUC they get a bad rep cause you see it eating your favorite coral, cleaner shrimp, snail, clam or whatever, but it was dead or just about when the hermit found it.

Same thing with the emerald crabs. I've had to learn to trust those guys know what ther are doing.

I reccomend a large CUC. The CUC in my AP 24 is:
-24 blue leg
-3 emerald
-24 nassarius snails
-6 nerite snails (absolutely love these guys, highly reccomended)
-12 cerith snails
-cleaner shrimp (put him under CUC since he scavenges a lot)

The only algea I get is a little on the sides where I don't clean. Not a bit anywhere else.

 

[Tex007]

agreed with victor, tuxedo urchins are the shizz. but before you go and add all these other critters in your system which, in the aggregate, will ADD to the problem (waste). try good old fashioned water changes or maybe reduce your photoperiod.

 

[SugarFox03]

I'm not having any issues, just don't want their to be in the future. I have a small patch of hair algae that I want completely gone, and then most of the cleaners will go to the fuge. I just want enough that will keep it clean. I picked up an emerald crab this evening, they didn't have any turbos, just "atlantic grazers." I'll check to see if anyone local sells the nerita and/or cerith snails.

Also, can I get a skunk cleaner shrimp since I have the blood shrimp?

Thanks for all the info everyone!