A plethera of critter/algae/thing questions

Discussion in 'New To The Hobby' started by =Jwin=, Nov 30, 2008.

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  1. =Jwin=

    =Jwin= Tassled File Fish

    Joined:
    Nov 26, 2008
    Messages:
    1,968
    Location:
    Chattanooga, Tennessee
    Ok so here's the deal. Our tank (46 bowfront) is going through just a mini cycle because we started with Live Rock/Live Sand (it was only 4 dollars more than regular sand...so we went with it anyways)/and LFS water (they pumped it straight from their 500+ gallon frag tank with $80 clams and such in it, so we know it was good water) so we didn't go through a full cycle.

    As of today, our readings are:
    nitrates: 5
    nitrite: 0.05 (was 0.2 three days ago)
    ammonia: 0.25
    temp: 78.2 degrees

    So that's some background info, and here are my questions.
    -We have some algae going on the sand bed, LR, BR, and glass. At first it was just green stuff, but now it's green fuzzy/hairy stuff. Will this go away on it's own?
    -We have a few little brown barnacle looking things with long blue "arms" that come out and retract back into them. What are these and are they good or bad?
    -We have at least 2 bristle worms that are bugging the snot out of me because they won't come out of the rock long enough for me to grab them with our jacked up tweezers. Is there a better way to get them out? Just leave them in there?

    When should we do our first water change? Our tank has been "live" for 2 weeks, and we have had our 2 clowns for 5 days now.

    We also have a decent sized CUC in the mail from reefcleaners.org so maybe those buggers will help out any problems we have. We're getting:

    1 Serpent Starfish (is this the same as brittle star?)
    3 Pep Shrimp
    6 Blue Leg Hermits
    5 "dwarf ceriths" I have no clue what this are.
    5 "Florida ceriths" also no clue what these are.
    1 Fuzzy Chiton (what the heck?)
    2 Limpets (another what the heck?)
    6 Nassarius snails

    As you can see from me not knowing what half of these things are, my mom ordered them. Based on the recommendation from Reefcleaners, just a smaller amount of critters. Any comments, suggestions, questions, etc with any of these? Anything we should avoid?

    Any Help is greatly appreciated :)
    -Justin
     
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  3. silverwolf72

    silverwolf72 Skunk Shrimp

    Joined:
    Sep 17, 2006
    Messages:
    264
    Location:
    Lake Forest CA
    The algae should go away on it's own, the CUC will help
    I would start doing 10% water changes twice a month.
    Leave all the critters in the tank
    I would wait till the tank is at least 3 months old before adding other things besides the CUC.