TBS Rock coming Thursday - Two Questions

[Fountainhead]

I'm setting up my first tank (100G), and am expecting the first shipment from TBS on Thursday. A couple of questions:

1 - I'm aware of the mantis shrimp, and I've seen the good crab/bad crab pictures on TBS' web site. Are there other likely hitchikers that I should really try to keep out of my tank? Also, how big are the mantis and the crabs? Am I looking for very tiny things? Are there "good worms" and "bad worms?" Which are which?

2 - During the cycle, how long should I run my lighting? I have a pair of 96Watt 10,000K Coralife Compact Flourescents, and a pair of 96Watt Actinics. The tank is 100 gallons, and is 60x18x20. Will too much light cause a huge algae bloom? Will too little cause me to lose good things on the rock?

I'm looking forward to getting the rock, but a bit apprehensive about the possibility of ruining it, or allowing too many bad creatures in my tank.

 

[kp1917]

Richard will likely get back to you on this but from my memory he says that 5 hours a day is all you need while your tank is cycling or algae blooms. The rock that you get is sitting in 20 feet of water (to my memory) and the stuff will survive with out lots of high tech light.

Always check with TBS for the perfect answer though (my disclaimer).

KP

 

[hdtran]

Any mantis that you get initially probably won't exceed 1" or 1.5" in length, though that may vary.

The bad crabs that I've received did not exceed 1" across; many were 0.5" or so (at first).

 

[Dexter1334]

The mantis tend to get very excited when the rock is removed from the bag. Mine looked like a centipede as it crawled all over the rock. This is your first chance to catch them. I have had several small ones in the tank for several months. The small ones haven't done any damage I am aware of. I got several big ones in my second shipment which are in their own ten gallon tank. I put a big snail in with them and one of them punched a big hole in the side of the snail shell. One is red and the other green. They are very pretty and interesting to watch. I hand feed them bits of fresh shrimp. The bottle trap works pretty well and if you know which hole they are in, a quick squirt with cold fresh water from a turkey baster sometimes brings them out. The mantis will do a job on your barnacles but Richard says they won't survive anyway as their is not enough of their natural food in the aquarium and no good artificial source. Anyway the larger they are the easier to catch, so by the time they are a problem you will probably be able to catch them.

I have found the worst hiitchhiker crabs have shiny black tips on their claws. I don't know what kind they are but the shiny tipped claws are easy to spot and they are very predatory.

 

[Dazz]

I kept only a couple of red emrald crabs (and after only 5 months I have 2 very large ones which grew from small juves).
The rest I put in a seperate nano.
The porcelin crabs I kept, but there were some carnivirous crabs that I took out, and a couple I couldnt catch. They are pretty unmistakable because of their claws. They are sharp and pointy and are not flat like the porcelin crabs. They thankfully arnt growing that fast, but I still want to get them out.