(temp) 10 gallon mantis tank

[Pea-brain]

Hello all!
I've been offered a P. ciliata about 1 3/4". I have my dry goods arriving on the 27th. When the tank is cycled the owners are shipping the beautiful yellow spearer, and within 1-2 months I will transfer it to a 20 gallon. The dry goods order contains salt, 30 pounds of aragamax sand, a penguin biowheel, selcon, various test kits, dechlorinator, and a hydrometer. I realize I need a 20 gallon for an adult, and plan on moving soon, at which time I will transfer the mantis to the 20 gallon. The heater, sponge filter, and decorations (skull bubble thing and small ceramic cave structure) will be used from the freshwater tank. Plan on feeding occasional live fish, shrimp, and maybe even a crab (I'd like to see the behavior uriel observed in This thread ) and of course plenty of frozen foods such as shrimp, squid, and other suitable foods I find.

I need a "U" shaped PVC pipe, sticking straight up so both holes are facing up, correct? I was thinking maybe 1 1/2"-2" wide? and at least 1-3/4 inches tall. I plan on using the bacteria from the freshwater tank to seed the SW tank. I will drain the tank, remove the substrate, replace it with sand, put in the PVC, fill it up with distilled water and increase the salinity in the tank slowly to make sure the bacteria survive the FW to SW transfer. I've read a few things claiming that the bacteria won't survive the shock from instant transfer to the tank, a few claiming that SW and FW bacteria are totally different and a few saying that it doesn't matter and to just throw the seed material into the tank, so I will assume that if I take it slow that the bacteria will survive, put in a cheap fish and see if I'm right. If I start reading some nitrates after a week and no noticeable ammonia increase, or nitrite increase I will consider it cycled. Or if there is a small ammonia/trite increase I will assume it went through a mini cycle, and if i have to cycle all over again I will just wait it out I guess. Or maybe someone with more experience could shed light on the whole FW/SW bacteria thing? is there anything else I am missing? I already have a air pump with air stone. After it is transferred to the 20 I have no idea what to do with the 10. Get back into freshwater shrimp keeping? N wennerae or G smithii like I originally planned? Oh the choices the choices!!

 

[Pea-brain]

The drygoods have arrived! Mixing up salt later this evening. Someone who has been in SW for a while recently told me that the sponge filter will become a nitrate factory in SW so I decided to take the sponge filter out. After salt is mixed I will pick up a fish and some frozen shrimp for when the mantis arrives.

 

[Pea-brain]

sry double post

 

[psychodave]

i wouldnt try and seed the tank with fresh water bacteria...just get a piece of krill and drop it in the tank when you first set it up. The piece of krill will cycle your tank just fine. Personally i dont mix any fresh water stuff with salt water. If I were you id play it safe and just use krill or some other type of meaty salt water fish food to cycle the tank...silver side, krill, shrimp, squid...whatever...good luck!

 

[Pea-brain]

Yeah I've given up the idea of uising FW bacteria. I just decided to recycle the tank. Will pick up a bag of shrimp from supermarket to cycle tank. I've finally reached an acceptable SG of 1.021 (was mixing all night before I looked it up and found 1/2 cup for a gallon of water.) I'm waiting for the sand to settle currently. It so cloudy you can barely see a inch into the water. The Biowheel and airstone are running. Will stop by fishstore also to see if I can get some seed material (Sand, established filter cartridge, w/e) Will update if anything interesting happens. Once tank is cycled I'll put in a fish and call the place and tell them I'm ready for4 the mantis. I can hopefully get a video of the kill:fun2:

 

[Pea-brain]

Update! The levels are as follows as of last night: Specific gravity: 1.022. Ammonia: 8 ppm. Nitrite:2 ppm. Nitrate:10 ppm. Doesn't that mean my tank is cycled? The shrimp I added was raw, and I added it either sat or sun, and there are no nitrates/phosphates etc. in my water. However I was warned that a diatom bloom and a algae bloom should occur in the cycling process. The tank currently has no direct light sources. I will wait another week before I order the mantis. When ammonia reaches zero a fish is goin in though! I removed the shrimp this morning. Will test water later tonight. Maybe some of the FW bacteria survived? (I let the biowheel run a few hours, squeezed my sponge filter out into it and added a bit of an overdose of cycle. That was before I tore my tank down and moved it into the new house. I put some water in a baggy and used it to hold the biowheel.)

 

[DanInSD]

The tank will finish its cycle when ammonia and nitrite are both zero. Not "close to zero", but "exactly" zero.

 

[Pea-brain]

sorry about that I was in a bit of a hurry. yes, exactly zero, but the beneficial bacteria are there, where I need them. That means that it is well *on its way* to being cycled, and there is no need to add more ammonia to get the bacteria going, correct?

 

[Thurge]

You need some sourse to keep the culture going, be it a fish or a dead shrimp. Otherwise your colonies will decline.

 

[Pea-brain]

of course. I noticed last nght after testing that ammonia was between 3-4 ppm and nitrite about .25-.5 so I used ammonia/nitrite detoxifier and bought three 3 striped damselfish. The ammonia and nitrite are still about that level.