Yet Another New SW Tank

[NeonFish]

Picked up the first shipment last Friday. Awesome rocks. 3 very large rocks covered with sponges, tube worms, spaghetti worms, barnacles,... After 3 days, have discovered the following:

• 3 mantis shrimps
  2 porcelain crabs
  1 slipper lobster
  1 decorator crab
  numerous snails
  blue and orange sponges
  cup corals

 

[NeonFish]

Ammonia level is still 1.5 mg/l. Thinking about adding some fresh ater in the morning as well as the night.

 

[shadowbearwv]

I'm not sure but isn't 1.5 mg/l equal to 1.5 ppm? If it is you should do a water change to get it down below 1ppm. Just did a quick search and for the most part 1.5 mg/l is equal to 1.5 ppm.

So definitely want to do a water change to get the ammonia lvl down.

It may take a few water changes. When divemonster or Richard log in they can give you better advice. I'm still a newb.

SB

 

[NeonFish]

tested the water this morning. still at 1.5 mg/l so I did another refresh on the water. Good thing I had extra water and my RO filter can keep up with the water changes.

Discovered a small sea urchin. Haven't seen he porcelain crabs. Hopefully, the mantis shrimps didn't eat them. Slipper lobster shows up each night. Saw a lancelet the other day as well.

 

[kilroy217]

shadowbearwv: mg/L = ppm only in aqueous solutions. In the aquarium world, that's pretty much always considering we're all staring at tanks full of water.

However, from a truly technical chemistry perspective, it's not always the case.

 

[NeonFish]

Yesterdays' reading 0.25mg/l. Gotta remember to turn off the proteing skimmer to avoid having it overflow, when changing water. protein skimmer is sure pulling a lot out of the water.

 

[shadowbearwv]

Looks like you are on the down swing of the Ammonia, now comes the upswing in Nitrites. It's taken me almost 2 months to get the Nitrates down to 0. Now I'm fighting phosphates.

Soon you will be getting the second part!


SB

 

[NeonFish]

Last night's ammonia reading still 0.25 mg/l. looks like a few crabs have died. Discovered a 2nd decorator crab.

 

[noahm]

Looks like you got the ammonia under control. Mine spiked at about .3-.4 and is on its way down it appears; after 6 days it is around .1-.15.

Some of the crabs you see may just be molts left during the shedding process. I have found 3 or four that look like a whole crab, but are in fact empty 'skins'. Anyway, sounds fun. Where are the pics?

 

[NeonFish]

Here's picture of when everything was initially placed in the tank. I'll get more pictures later.

 

[NeonFish]

Live rocks after a few weeks. Ammonia has been zero for a while, but Nitrates went up, causing a cyanbacteria bloom.
Rediscovered one of the porcelain crabs. I thought for sure the mantis shrimps ate them.
Having difficulty catching the mantis shrimp, tried mysis shrimp and squid as bate. So far no takers.

copepods are everywhere. Love these rocks so much lif on them!

 

[shadowbearwv]

I think I've started to figure the mantis shrimp out. Some can be out going while others tend to hide. Give it a few weeks, I've got mine feeding from my feeding stick and I think I've kind of won their trust, will try to trap them now hehe.

SB

 

[NeonFish]

Moved the rocks, so they are no longer leaning. It is teaming with life. Copepods all over the place. This is good since I want to get a mandarin goby. Would like increase the depth of the tank's sandbed so that pistol shrimp/goby pair. Here is another picture. Will probably have to delay the 2nd shipment until nitrates are under control. I think I'll test for phospates as well.

 

[NeonFish]

Fan worms & Star Corals

 

[noahm]

looking good

 

[NeonFish]

Looks like attack of cyano will delay part 2. It appears that the Amonia and Nitrates are 0, but Nitrites are a little high. Didn't check phosphate yet.

Still finding more and more crabs, everything from porcelains to gorrilla's.

Slipper Lobster, named Al by my wife, keeps getting stuck in the overflow. Will have engineer something to prevent his entry.

 

[noahm]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14453231#post14453231 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by NeonFish


Slipper Lobster, named Al by my wife, keeps getting stuck in the overflow. Will have engineer something to prevent his entry.

Lol. Ours has been mountaineering the sheer walls of part 2 the last 2 nights. Its like watching a garbage can with legs rock climb.

Try plastic gutter guard over the overflow. You can use a few blobs of silicone (no mildew resistant kinds) to hold it in place if you cant figure out anything else like zip ties etc.

 

[NeonFish]

Finally caught 2 of the 3 mantis shrimps. They found themselves inside the sump. They went the same way as Al, but were small enough t go through the pipes. The trap didn't work, I guess it was just dumb luck that they made it into the sump.