24 gallon Aquapod setup by a total newbie

[DonCisco]

ohhhh, I put it in an eye dropper and if it burns my eyes... I figure it is over 1.025

 

[plakatos]

Thanks for all your advice, I'll have to try the eye-test . Besides that I'll also get Calcium, and Phosphate tests.
I retested everything again today and the only changes are basically that my Total Ammonia went down to 0, and my nitrate increased a little (maybe 1 mg/ml).
I also discovered my first creature on one of the rocks, which looks like a feather-duster (it's tiny, about 3-4 mm). Now I start to think about what to add next (in about 1-2 weeks I guess)...

 

[masterswimmer]

Hey Peter, that's the beauty of going with cured LR. You're cycle was just about non existent. I'm sure you'll start to see plenty of worms in addition to your feather duster. Keep up the testing, stay on top of your husbandry and you'll have livestock before you know it.

swimmer

 

[plakatos]

brown spots

Happy Thanksgiving everyone:chefico:! My aquarium turnes 1 week old today and all the water parameters look good, but I atarted to notice brown penny sized spots on the surface of the sand. Also the side of one of my live rocks turned brown during the last couple of says (see pictures below). Should I be worried? Should I do anything about it?

 

[masterswimmer]

Happy turkey day to you as well. Congrats on your first anniversary :lol2:

Those brown spots appear to be diatoms. An expected part of the new tank syndrome. Keep up on your husbandry, water changes, water parameters and the diatoms will pass. There are other algae blooms to follow

Enjoy todays feast

swimmer

 

[tosiek]

Diatoms, its normal and your clean up crew and time is going to get rid of it. Just the phosphate doing its magic in your tank. Diatoms are algae classified as phytoplankton, your clean up crew will love this stuff as it has small amounts of sugars (pending type) and nutrients/minerals. I seen a big increase in the growth of my snails/hermits when i had alot of this stuff in my tank, now with it gone they seem to be keeping a slow steady growth.

 

[plakatos]

Thank you, I am relieved that the spots are not some sign of a bad thing. I am also amazed with how fast everything is changing in the aquarium, the rocks have more and more colors, there are also more things growing on them and floating around. Its amazing.

 

[masterswimmer]

Aaaaah Peter, extolling the virtues of a tank maturing . Imagine what it'll look like in a year. Continue exhibiting patience and you'll be rewarded with success. Sounds like you're ready for a cleanup crew.

swimmer

 

[scarf_ace1981]

i was about to say you should or could add a clean up crew @ this time.

 

[tosiek]

Yeah, wait till you start finding hitchhiking coral that survived, the cool wierd algae growing on the rocks, and the various worms/ect starting to come out.

I remember spending the first 2 months of my tank (still doing it now but not as much) looking at my tank for an hour or more looking for cool new things popping out on the rockwork.

You don't get that out of a fish only, fresh or salt.

 

[plakatos]

Ok, thank you all, I started to look up clenup creatures in books and on the internet, and I'll be back with a cleanup crew list to see what you think.

 

[plakatos]

cleanup crew

After reading books and forums for 2 days I am still a little confused as to what my cleanup crew should look like at this early stage of my 24 gallon aquarium, but I am thinking of getting the following little team:

3 Nassarius snail (Nassarius Vibex)
3 Astraea tectum
3 Astraea phoebia
3 Cerith Snails (Cerithium echinatum)
3 Scarlet hermit crab (Paguristes cadenati)
3 Blue legged hermit crab (Clibanarius tricolor)

Do you think this is too much? Also, should I get anything else?
My aquarium has only been running (with live rock and live sand) since 9 days, all the water parameters looked pretty good from the start. The last test test results (on thanksgiving):

Temp: 80.4 F
Ph: 8.2
Alkalinity: 5.5 meq/L
Free Ammonia: 0 mg/L
Total Ammonia: 0 mg/L
Nitrite: 0 mg/L
Nitrate:1.5 mg/L
Specific Gravity: 1.026

 

[tosiek]

Try to get more nassarious, cerith or conches than hermits. You only need 1-2 hermits in your tank, and some people don't keep any hermits. They are great for cleaning a cycled tanks rockwork but once its clean they tend to do damage to your tank and become more of a pain than anything. conches and ceriths will help with diatom growth (brown spots) on your sand bed. if your sand bed is from 1-2 inches get more of the sand sifters. Helps keep the sand nice and clean.

If i was to recycle my tank and re-add a cleaning crew it would be

10 nassarious
2-4 conches
2-4 cerith
5 turbo's
2 scarlet hermits

 

[plakatos]

Thank you for your advice, I am adding 2 fighting conches to the snail mix to work on the sand bed (on average 3 inches deep), increase the number of nassarius to 9, and decresase the total number of hermit crabs to 4 (2 red-2 blue). So the new list is:

9 Nassarius snail (Nassarius Vibex)
3 Astraea tectum
3 Astraea phoebia
3 Cerith snails (Cerithium echinatum)
2 Fighting conches (Strombus alatus)
2 Scarlet hermit crab (Paguristes cadenati)
2 Blue legged hermit crab (Clibanarius tricolor)

 

[plakatos]

Hi, I've been seeing this little thing since the beginning and although I was looking at hitchikers ID pages, I couldn't identify him. He's about twice as big as in the beginning (probably 5-6 mm), lives in a little hole and puts out 2-5 little 'legs', of which 2 are not hairy, the others seem hairy. All legs have black bands (which you can' really see in the picture below), and they retract when I turn the light on or off. Here is a (not so good) photo of him:

 

[Deanos]

Hi, I've been seeing this little thing since the beginning and although I was looking at hitchikers ID pages, I couldn't identify him.

Probably a brittle starfish. Check the hitchhiker's guide again, as there are several references to these starfish.

 

[plakatos]

I looked at the guide again and I think you're right, the creature might be a 'Striped Baby Brittle Starfish'. Tonight I also saw what I think was a peanut worm extending about 1 inch from his hole and feeding on the rock around him. He was too skinny to take a picture of, but then I saw a fireworm which posed nicely, see pictures below. I think it might be Eurythoe complanata (found him here: http://home2.pacific.net.ph/~sweetyummy42/hitchworms.html) which supposed to be harmless.

 

[masterswimmer]

I believe your worm is a bristle worm. Good hitchhiker.

R

 

[plakatos]

Yes, that's exactly the worm I saw last night. I also saw a tiny version of the same worm, I guess it'll grow.
Since I'll get my cleanup crew tomorrow, should I do a water change? If yes, how much?
My nitrate went down compared to last time:

Temp: 80.5 F
Ph: 8.2
Alkalinity: 5 meq/L
Free Ammonia: 0 mg/L
Total Ammonia: 0 mg/L
Nitrite: 0 mg/L
Nitrate: 0.5 mg/L
Specific Gravity: 1.025

Thank you for all the advice you've given and thank you in advance for all the advice you'll give me!

 

[Deanos]

should I do a water change? If yes, how much?

Anytime you ask yourself, should I do a water change?....do one :wink1: