Update on progress with a couple questions

[Drakon]

So since my last post I've done a deep clean on my qt tank, moved it from next to a window in my office(sun was causing the tank to get to 80+) to the living room and painted all but the front black. not sure if the clowns like their new digs but I think they are more annoyed by their new tank mates.

The larger one, once in the tank, went straight for the clown. The clown was not... pleased by what followed. I hope they get along in the future. At the moment the clowns stick to the bend in the pipe or inside and the shrimp hang out behind the pipe or on the power head. Both shrimp molted within a day of being in the qt. The acclimation process was a bit new to me for the shrimp. I read that since they cant host ich but can have it on them the best process I could find was to have them in my 1 gal holder tank and add in tank water to bring the water they came in to tank levels. I then washed them in pure tank water in a separate container then placed them in the tank. Anyone else try a similar process?

Since my garage is packed and it will be a bit before I can build the stand for my 75+55 gal display+sump/refugeum I got a 29gal(1$ a gal) stand and filter. The setup for the most part is exactly like my qt tank. I figure eventfully I can use this as a hospital tank or something along those lines. In it I put in 40lb of CaribSea Aragonite Aquarium Sand. It said it didn't need to be rinsed but I loaded it in a pillow case and rinsed it about 5 times in the tub, wow that was some milky water. The last time I used declorinator (chlorine and chloramine) and I finale rinse of ro/di (5gal) poured over it slowly to wash out any tap water. after I had 25gal of saltwater in the tank I added the sand putting me 1/2 inch of the "fill line". Needless to say I should have done the method of sand first then water poured over the bag or something. I went ahead and added 60gal worth or bacteria (had some left from the qt setup) after a couple of days the dust storm has settled and now i'm left with this.

Will all of the eventual settle in with the rest of the sand, anything I can do to help it along? Oh and on the cycle side I dosed the water to 3ppm ammonia using the 10% solution from ace hardware. After a day it was down to 2ppm

And finally, while at the lfs my 4 year old with his bag of coins (10$) picked out some "snail friends and crabby friends" they are now in a separate qt tank with the lone survivor of the chaeto hitchhiker club. And boy am I glad I did that.

Was spotted last night and has ben dispatched. I don't know what he is but I didn't ask for him. He was hiding out in some of the free shells the lfs gave us for all the crabs my son got. I'm thinking I may need to gather up all the shells and boil them. What are your thoughts?

Currently everything is getting frozen brine shrimp for food, I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions on other foods for what I have.

As you can see I had a busy back breaking weekend, I hope I've done nothing horabily wrong and if I have please feel free to point it out. I do as much research as I can but I have found that a lot of stuff I read contradicts each other making it rather confusing at times.

 

[MondoBongo]

your shell hitchhiker looks like a bristle worm.. which are handy dandy guys to have in your tank. they do a lot of good cleaning work.

just don't touch them, and as along as they're no Eunice worms, you're good to go.

 

[markalot]

That was a regular bristle worm, good for the tank, part of any good cleanup crew.

I uses a similar sized grain for my sand and I regret it. It traps detritus like crazy and I have to constantly vac it (shallow sandbed). I am seriously considering slowly switching out my sand to a smaller size. My second tank used a smaller size and has always been easier to take care of.

Maybe get some input on this from other more experienced reefers.