My 18g mini-reef - newb here

[Verruckt]

I have an 18 thats been up for about 7 or 8 weeks now. Added some rock last week, and two reef crabs, and a peppermint shrimp. Will be adding a snail to the mix soon, as algae is starting to set in. I'm still pretty new at this, so fire away any ideas, criticisms, etc.

Tank is an 18, Coralife 96w light fixture, Penguin 350, approx 12lbs of various live rock. There seems to be LOTS of stuff growing on the rocks. Alot of it is smaller, so it needs to agrow a bit more for me to accurately identify it. Too small to take a pic of. I have alot of little things that look like featherdusters, is that what they are? They're kind white in color. Also noticed a few worms??? Two of them i noticed about the second day the rock was in. They hide under the rocks, in the sand. Wierd stuff. I would like to know if i need to control the growth of green "seaweed"?? Or whatever that is. I don't see any mention of it anywhere, and don't see it in anyone else's pics, so it's undesireable? lol

Here's my tank, sorry for the crappy pics.

 

[mr_X]

hi. yes, the "seaweed" is undesirable hair algae. you should manually remove it. also, what water source do you have? do you have a R.O. unit?
the more pure the water you introduce to your tank, the better off you will be. with an 18 gallon tank, you could get away with buying distilled water from the supermarket, or R.O.D.I water from your LFS.

as for the critters, the white feather dusters are just that. they are harmless filter feeders that everyone has. the worms are most likely bristleworms, which are also good for your tank. do the worms have little spines on them?

what kind of "reef crabs" did you buy? hermits? emerald crabs?

 

[Brian5000]

The seaweed is exactly the kind of stuff that clean-up crews (hermit crabs and/or astrea snails) love to eat. Buy just a couple and the green stuff will be gone in a week.

We don't like it because it grows really fast and, for those of us with corals, tends to smother and kill them. Also, since it feeds off of chemicals that are unhealthy for fish, really good growth can be a bad sign (not in your case, algea always grows really fast in new tanks).

I recommend doing large water changes fairly frequently (if you aren't already) to keep the water extra clean as your tank settles in.

Lot's of little critters pop up when the live rock comes alive.
Here are some descriptions:
http://www.reefs.org/hhfaq/photoalbum_view

Good luck with your tank. You seem to be doing pretty good.
_________________
Honda XLV750R

 

[Verruckt]

Awesome! Thanks for the replies. I was afraid to do anythign with the hair algae since i wasnt sure. And I'm a little afraid that I would hurt something hiding underneat maybe. The crabs are hermits, and seem to be eating like mad, since they are pooping like mad. My water source is city water. It's kind of hard here, so I was just dechlorinating it, and mixing my salt and letting it settle overnight before introducing it to the tank. I thought that I had read (god i'm so confused) that distilled water had no mineral benefit, since many of the desierable elements were lacking. Is there some sort of invertebrate that you would reccommend that eats the hair algae? Thanks for the great input.

 

[metalac]

My tank looked like yours up until last week. I did a lot of manual removal, don't scrub just pluck. Also a lawnmover blenny did a great job picking up stuff I couldn't reach

 

[Anonymous]

Awesome! Thanks for the replies. I was afraid to do anythign with the hair algae since i wasnt sure. And I'm a little afraid that I would hurt something hiding underneat maybe. The crabs are hermits, and seem to be eating like mad, since they are pooping like mad. My water source is city water. It's kind of hard here, so I was just dechlorinating it, and mixing my salt and letting it settle overnight before introducing it to the tank. I thought that I had read (god i'm so confused) that distilled water had no mineral benefit, since many of the desierable elements were lacking. Is there some sort of invertebrate that you would reccommend that eats the hair algae? Thanks for the great input.

Like it was mentioned earlier, you can go to the store and get some bottled water. The minerals that benefit the tank are found in the salt. You want good salt like Instant Ocean, Kent, Seachem, etc.

 

[Verruckt]

My tank looked like yours up until last week. I did a lot of manual removal, don't scrub just pluck. Also a lawnmover blenny did a great job picking up stuff I couldn't reach

Is the Lawnmower Blenny a delicate, or difficult to care for fish? I want to go slow, so don't want to start making things too complicated, too quick. Also, I don't have too many LFS with a good selection close to me. Is there an online source that you might recommend?

 

[Verruckt]

My tank looked like yours up until last week. I did a lot of manual removal, don't scrub just pluck. Also a lawnmover blenny did a great job picking up stuff I couldn't reach

Is the Lawnmower Blenny a delicate, or difficult to care for fish? I want to go slow, so don't want to start making things too complicated, too quick. Also, I don't have too many LFS with a good selection close to me. Is there an online source that you might recommend?

Damn, google is sooo underrated..
http://www.marinecenter.com/fish/blenni ... werblenny/

Think I'll be ordering one.

 

[metalac]

Is the Lawnmower Blenny a delicate, or difficult to care for fish? I want to go slow, so don't want to start making things too complicated, too quick. Also, I don't have too many LFS with a good selection close to me. Is there an online source that you might recommend?

It seems pretty hardy so far, you'll just have to supplement it with some herbivore food later on if you notice that there is not enough algae for it to feed on.

 

[mr_X]

i would not put a lawnmower blenny in an 18 gallon tank. my lawnmower blenny is 5 inches long, and eats a tremendous amount of food. not to mention he knocks over alot of stuff in the tank. knocks frags off of rocks..things like that.
and, most importantly, he does not eat hair algae.

i would manually remove the hair algae, and do water changes with from a good quality source.

 

[Verruckt]

Things are settling in nicely now. I'll try and post a pic later. I SUCK at taking pictures of my tank. Not sure what the hell I'm doing, but it's just not coming out.
The hair algae is gone. I have one rock that has some algae on it, but it's not growing at all. Just sort of staying the same amount on there. Maybe even diminishing a little bit. But just on one rock.

Yesterday I got a bug and added a small blue damsel, and two green ricordia polyps. This is added to two red reef hermits, two turbo snails, an elephant snail, a peppermint shrimp, and a sally lightfoot crab. There are also two (that i've found) peanut worms, and an LOT of bristle worms.

I hope I'm not getting too much in there. It still looks sorta desolate in there if you ask me. I'd like to have some more corals and some invertebrates.

I have noticed a bunch of bristle worms in my tank. Lots. I have read mixed ideas on whether or not they should be removed. I'd just like to get rid of them. Can anyone suggest something to get rid of them? I thought I read once about a crab or something that fed off of bristle worms. Anyway, thoughts, suggestions, criticisms are always welcomed.

 

[mr_X]

sometimes my arrow crab eats bristleworms, but just the little ones.
they will shrink in numbers with a lack of food. so, don't feed the damsel very much and you'll see less and less of them. also, be aware that an arrow crab gets pretty big.

i'm on the "they are good for your tank" side of the fence. they are a free cleanup crew, eating uneaten food and fish poop on the sand bottom. they don't bother corals, except to grab a hunk of food off of them.

i believe that sally lightfoot crabs will eat fish if they can catch them. if your damsel turns up missing, you know who to blame :wink:
usually when the fish sleep at night, they stay still...perfect time for a midnight snack.

 

[Verruckt]

Wow, ok. I was under the belief that the lightfoot crabs were pretty docile to all other creatures. Might keep my eye on him them. Is there some other types of crabs that you might suggest for that small of a tank, that will be friendly to all other inhabitants? Eventually, I'd like to get a anemone and a clown fish, and some additional corals. Another part of that question could be, where is my limit as far as ihabitants? Right now I don't have a skimmer, so I don't want to put too much bio load on my aquarium. Though I'm probably skirting with that now. My likes lean more towards the invertabrates, but I'd like to have a fairly balanced system overall.

 

[mr_X]

i haven't had any trouble from porcelain crabs and emerald crabs. but anything with armor and pinching/crushing appendages, is built for battle. it's hit or miss with crabs. some say the blue leg hermits are ok, some say the red are....all i know is, hermits get new shells from my snails, and my snails don't do too well without shells :?
i'm not schooled on anemone. you'll need to have someone chime in who knows about how big each species gets. i imagine you'll need to buy one that stays somewhat smaller.
i personally wouldn't go with more than 2 fish. a clown in the amemone, and perhaps some sort of peaceful goby maybe.
i think you should post a stocking question in the nano forum. you'll get better info there.

lol..my friend has sally lightfoot crabs..and when we watch his tank, we see them lunge out at fish when they swim too close. he loses a fish here and there..all chromis so far.

 

[Anonymous]

Hey Verry, I missed this thread!

For taking pix of your tank, go to my favorite site, wetwebmedia, and check out Bob's FAQs. It looks like you're using a flash, and if you do that then you have to make sure it doesn't bounce off the glass. Better, if you can, to eliminate the flash and use a lower f-stop (if your camera allows that). You need a Chiefs Fathead behind the tank.

Oh my.. yeah, Sally Lightfoot crabs can get large, and are a problem ultimately. Good luck getting that thing out, though. Your tank is too small for anything but Condylactis anemones, which clownfishes don't host in naturally because that is an Atlantic species and all clownfishes are Indo-Pacific. Also, if you do get clowns then, in a tank that size, you're going to have trouble adding anything else.

My own suggestion is to start looking at fishes like the firefishes, gobies, blennies, and dwarf angels. That blue damsel could end up being a problem, especially since it's the first guy in the tank. Gotta go, catch ya later! You can try me on Yahoo later, but I'm getting a motorcycle ride in today.