Up and Running

[Mikilios]

I think I see pods....

I think I see pods....

In the refugium, now that there is cheato in it, I am seeing tiny little white shapes floating lazily in the water and then they go back into the green ball of cheato... not sure If they are pods... but maybe. =) Also, the cheato is growing. After it got torn from the main clump at the lfs, there were white ends of it where it had snapped off from the main mass and been temporarily damaged. Now all those whitish looking ends are turnig brownish green. I'm assuming this means they are growing back quickly.

Update on the crabs. They continue to feast off the live rock. Oddly enough they each have almost "claimed" there own third of the tank. The middle third I never see either one present. Must mean the food source is plenty. The middle third of my tank has the most algae growing for obvious reasons.... Some of it looks like a picture of a miniature mountain hillside with the "grass" waving in the breeze. LOL. Algae continuing to grow all over, and the coralline as much as any. The tank is getting so very colorful. Getting more frequent that I am needed to scrub the tank glass of algae film.....

 

[Mikilios]

Two emerald crabs...two distinct personalities

Two emerald crabs...two distinct personalities

So I am amused with the differnece in the introduction of the new emerald crab (who my roomate named Percy). Percy seems not to care about the giant face looking in on him and watching him eat. It is as though I am just another reef inhabitant dropping by.

Poseidon on the other hand, is a shy guy. If I come up to the tank while he is "out in the open" he will be sure to "high tail it" for a crevice. I guess the one nice thing about this is that as they grow, if they continue to show this kind of behavior, I will always be able to tell them apart (and Poseidon is ever so slightly larger then Percy). I just find it amusing that they are virtually night and day. Percy has no problems being out on the substrate in the "middle of day," but not once has Poseidon been out in the open that I have ever witnessed. If he was, I'm sure it was short lived.

Just thought I'd share this comical distinction with anyone reading.

 

[Mikilios]

Todays Pics

Todays Pics

Taken a few minutes ago

 

[Mikilios]

A few more

 

[Mikilios]

Tank Stats

Tank Stats

pH 8.3
kH 8
Phos 0
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 0
Temp 78.8
SG @ 1.026

Looking good. I've also noticed an increase in the worm population. I've even seen a couple of the bigger bristleworms so bold as to hang out in broad daylight on top of a rock a couple of times. The feather dusters are continuing to grow, and I think my button polyp is about to turn into two. It is starting to get this slight crease in the middle? I'm not sure, but purely speculating based on what I've read.

 

[Mikilios]

A few more cleaners

A few more cleaners

Well, now that I have "meadows" of algae growing in my tank, I think its time to up my cleaner crew some. Several chunks of rock look like they are grassy mountain hills on a windy day. The emerald crabs cannot keep up with this, lol. Not to mention the back glass of the tank/the sand/the heater... all are growing hair algae. There is very little diatom bloom anymore... it has pretty much changed over to hair algae and coralline colorations. So I'm thinking 11 days after the live rock, good time to up my cleaners a notch (based on my algae growing so abundant). At this phase... I'm thinking a couple cleaner shrimp, and a couple of snails? That should compliment the emeralds and the fire shrimp. I have also placed an order with one lfs for a couple electric blue hermits. Hope they come in soon. =)

 

[Tylt33]

Well, now that I have "meadows" of algae growing in my tank, I think its time to up my cleaner crew some. Several chunks of rock look like they are grassy mountain hills on a windy day. The emerald crabs cannot keep up with this, lol. Not to mention the back glass of the tank/the sand/the heater... all are growing hair algae. There is very little diatom bloom anymore... it has pretty much changed over to hair algae and coralline colorations. So I'm thinking 11 days after the live rock, good time to up my cleaners a notch (based on my algae growing so abundant). At this phase... I'm thinking a couple cleaner shrimp, and a couple of snails? That should compliment the emeralds and the fire shrimp. I have also placed an order with one lfs for a couple electric blue hermits. Hope they come in soon. =)

Pick your CUC wisely; hermits (and other crabs/shrimp) are notorious for eating freshly-purchased snails. Especially when looking for new homes. I would suggest larger snails, and making sure they can right themselves when they fall (i.e. not astrea snails). Tank is looking food, keep it up :thumbsup:

 

[Mikilios]

Thank you again tylt

Thank you again tylt

Pick your CUC wisely; hermits (and other crabs/shrimp) are notorious for eating freshly-purchased snails. Especially when looking for new homes. I would suggest larger snails, and making sure they can right themselves when they fall (i.e. not astrea snails). Tank is looking food, keep it up :thumbsup:

Yeah, I'm going with minimalistic on the hermit crab side of things. And I dont want to get a lot of snails either. I have all my collonista snails breeding. So at the pet store I picked up 5 nerite snails. I also picked up a yellow watchman goby and pistol shrimp because they happened to have the combo! I hope they do a good job on my sand. I will be acclimating them all for 3 hours (which makes me halway there at the moment). Good day. The roomies love the ywg and tiger pistol shrimp. :fun4:

 

[Tylt33]

Yeah, I'm going with minimalistic on the hermit crab side of things. And I dont want to get a lot of snails either. I have all my collonista snails breeding. So at the pet store I picked up 5 nerite snails. I also picked up a yellow watchman goby and pistol shrimp because they happened to have the combo! I hope they do a good job on my sand. I will be acclimating them all for 3 hours (which makes me halway there at the moment). Good day. The roomies love the ywg and tiger pistol shrimp. :fun4:

YWG isn't a sand sifter, but I'm sure they'll love your tank. I don't know if they told you at the pet store, but nerite snails are an intertidal species- meaning that they are very likely to climb. Mine liked to climb out of the tank, into the overflows, basically everywhere except where I wanted them :sad2: I don't know that I have any left!

 

[Mikilios]

New Pics

New Pics

Hope you guys like them

 

[Palting]

Looking good! BTW, no need to float bags, just drip acclimate.

 

[Mikilios]

YWG isn't a sand sifter, but I'm sure they'll love your tank. I don't know if they told you at the pet store, but nerite snails are an intertidal species- meaning that they are very likely to climb. Mine liked to climb out of the tank, into the overflows, basically everywhere except where I wanted them :sad2: I don't know that I have any left!

Well, they didn't tell me about that... we will see how it goes. And the benefit of the yellow watchman/pistol shrimp is that they will stir up the sand bed (that has the algae growth. Also to eat any debris that the shrimp miss. By the end of the weekend I will have the cleaner shrimp along with the fire shrimp.

I do have some acrylic pieces cut for the display tank lid, I just need to notch them perfectly for the drain and return lines, and they will fit snug into the top. They WILL have to be a pretty good fit though.... because the snails are tiny. =( But I will get it pretty darn close.

 

[Mikilios]

YWG isn't a sand sifter, but I'm sure they'll love your tank. I don't know if they told you at the pet store, but nerite snails are an intertidal species- meaning that they are very likely to climb. Mine liked to climb out of the tank, into the overflows, basically everywhere except where I wanted them :sad2: I don't know that I have any left!

And thank you for the info. If I get a couple more snails this weekend, what would you recommend tylt?

 

[Mikilios]

Looking good! BTW, no need to float bags, just drip acclimate.

Thank you. And I float them because it works ok for me. I manualy drop in water every few minutes with a little pippet Until the bags are full. This way I get to sit on the couch and watch them plus the tv (watching true blood with the roomies, lol).

 

[Mikilios]

Success!

Success!

Within 5 minutes, the pistol shrimp and watchman goby are hanging out together. The shrimp is excavating the structure, and the ywg swam over to "watch." I think they are going to do well together. The roomies named them "Sebastian and Flounder."

 

[DZs]

I think that is awesome! I love to hear success.

 

[Tylt33]

And thank you for the info. If I get a couple more snails this weekend, what would you recommend tylt?

If you want sand sifters, get some Nassarius or Fighting Conchs. For glass, limpets or dwarf ceriths if they have them. Turbos do wonders on rocks, as do regular size ceriths.

 

[Mikilios]

If you want sand sifters, get some Nassarius or Fighting Conchs. For glass, limpets or dwarf ceriths if they have them. Turbos do wonders on rocks, as do regular size ceriths.

I cannot say enough about you giving me all the pointers tylt. Thank you. =) This weekend I will use your shopping list to help flesh out the cleaner crew.

 

[Mikilios]

I think that is awesome! I love to hear success.

It was a thing of beauty. The yellow watchman went down first, then the pistol shrimp. Almost immediately, the shrimp went to start digging a burrow underneath a large chunk of live rock. The yellow watchman swam around on the bottom for two minutes, and then started taking a "direct" interest in the shrimp and what he was doing. So he kind of scoots closer and closer, watching, thinking about it. He does a circle around the rock in short little movements, checking it all out. And then, he scoots up to the burrow. Their first contact ended up with the goby spooking a moment and coming back out into the open water, but then he grew courage and eased in again.

The second interaction stuck... and from then on the two have been within 5 inches of each other, with the pistol shrimp bulldozing sand (and stirring up a little bit of detritus) and the goby "standing guard." It is an amazing sight.

Also, the fire shrimp seems to be losing some of his "shyness." Today at feeding time, he was eating from my hand virtually (I used a syringe with some food in it and he came right up to it to feed). Very cool experience.

 

[Chiya]

Nice tank!!
Good to hear another successful tank in the making..

I have a YWG and pistol shrimp combo in my recently set up 10G and they are awfully shy..
Beware of the pistol shrimp though, it dug so many tunnels that my LR toppled, luckily there was another piece LR behind to catch it so it did not damage the tank.

Cheers and happy reefing