Got the true Clean Up Crew today!

Well we got our cleanup crew in today. I'm pretty pumped. Shipping from California was a little rough for some of the more delicates...not sure if one of the pep shrimp made it, and the Harlequin Serpent Star was super sluggish during acclimating and hasn't moved around much. After being in the tank for about 45 minutes he did tuck deeper into the hole he found, he was hanging halfway out earlier.

Here's what we got:

1 Serpent Starfish


3 Peppermint Shrimp


6 Blue Leg Hermit Crab*


5 Dwarf Cerith


5 Florida Cerith


1 Fuzzy Chiton*


2 Limpets*


6 Nassarius Vibex



So far my definate favorites are the Harlequin Serpent Star (awesome looking), the Nassarius snails (these guys were ready to go exploring! The clowns kept poking them when they'd try to climb the glass, thus making them fall off. Stupid clowns.) and the Fuzzy Chiton. Mr. Fuzzy looks like a wad of snot mixed with moss...that moves. Pretty Stinkin awesome.

Right now a majority of cerith snails (we definately got more than 10 ceriths...no complaints though) are tucked away. All three shrimp were looking a bit "bleah" but 2 are at least attached to a rock and moving, we thought they were dead in the bag, but were proved wrong. The serpent star was thought to be dead or dying, but proved us wrong. Still not sure on him though. But as for everyone else, it's go time! ;D I'll give on update on who dies and who doesn't die later this week. We ordered from ReefCleaners.org btw.

Ugh I'm so excited about that Harlequin star! :trampolin

Any advice or comments?

-Justin

 

Awesome!!! any pics?

 

I'll snap some...kinda embarrassed about the algae going nuts. We're still technically cycling so that's probably why it's there. It seems to be everywhere except for on the live rock. Substrate, base rock, glass (not alot on the glass)

It's "beard" algae by the looks of it comparing it to pics online. A type of hair algae.

I'll snap some tonight and put them up ASAP.

 

How long has your tank been cycling?
It is still cycling?
Many invertebrates will have a difficult time surviving a cycle. Delicate in nature they do not handle elevated ammonia and nitrites!
What are your water parameters?
Nice assortment of invertebrates!
Good luck

 

Congrats on the new additions. i myself need to upgrade my crew, only 4 turbos a cleaner shrimp and a tang which keeps algae in check. My cleaner is something else to watch though, he's relatively new but cleans my Foxface and it appears the fish enjoys the wash so much he's always back for more. GOOD LUCK !

 

Last check yesterday our params were:

temp = 78.3
pH = 8.2
alk = "normal" reading
nitrate = 5 ppm
nitrite = 0.05 ppm
ammonia = 0.25

Our nitrite and ammonia levels have stayed the same for six days now, with the nitrite levels reading 0.2 ppm 7 days ago. The nitrates were reading at 10, and then the algae bloom came in and now they read at 5.

We bought pre cured LR selected from our LFS's display tanks, and bought their water pumped from one of the 500+ gallon coral tanks. The "live sand" and the 2 clowns, along with food, have been the only real ammonia producers. So we went through maybe half of a normal cycle. The system has been setup for and running for 2 weeks now. We'll test again tomorrow and Saturday and I'll report those readings in as well to see what the new editions are doing. The star finally "came to" completely and is now deep in a little cave. The only part I can see of him now is part of an arm. He sure is pretty.

 

Something doesn't seem right. If the cycle is over, your ammonia and nitrites will read 0 for both.

 

I was wondering if it was the test kit? I haven't really trusted it...because all yellow means 0 ammonia but it keeps going the shade of green for .25 with a tad bit of yellow in it. I'm actually going to see if my friend Will can test some of the water. LFS water and rock from the display tanks should barely have a cycle.

 

Will came by our house with his testing stuff. "aquarium pharmaceuticals" brand Nitrate Test and Ammonia test. He said those were the only tests he had now since he has long since run out of nitrite test (his aquarium is 1.5-2 years old now, I'm assuming that qualifies as established and no need for nitrite test).

But the Ammonia test read = 0
and Nitrate was between 5 and 10. So all is well with our setup now. He also said he had a hair algae bloom like ours with his system, but when he got his protein skimmer it went away almost instantly. We're hoping for a Christmas skimmer so right now all systems are in the green Serpent star almost came out, but I had to turn the lights on again when Will arrived and he wasn't too happy about that. I plucked up my turbo and put him on an algae covered rock, and after recovering from his ride through the sky, he started bulldozing algae. Looking good!

 

Ok we went out and bought our own API test kit today. Our Ammonia is back down to absolute ZERO. So all is well.

The Florida Ceriths finally got over the move and all but one are cleaning now. Everyone else is rather scattered across the tank now. The fun things are the Nassarius snails that pop out of the sand like zombies at feeding time, and the Harlequin star. He comes out late at night, and is MIA today because he must have found a new hiding spot (we have a TON of hiding spots). The remaining single pep shrimp is doing great, and is finally sober enough to not get sucked down through the overflow into the overflow box. He walks around on the rocks now. The fuzzy chiton is fuzzy, and the Mexican Turbo named Jorge is normal. I tried some strategic parachute dropping with him so he can move to a rock I wanted him to clean...lo and behold he got off of it. Lazy bum.

Should be getting a protein skimmer next weekend. Our LFS owner is selling his old own personal one that he had on a 150gallon reef, for $100 bucks. What a steal. He's buying a new, more powerful skimmer for his home tank and it should be coming in Friday, because his old one he's selling just wasn't "enough skimmer" for his 150. However, it should do great in a 46 (actually around 54 gallons of water...but what the hey)!! Looking forward to that algae and nitrates dropping considerably. The coralline can stay though...it's the hairy stuff that's getting kicked out.