GoToSleep's 700g Build Thread (& complete remodel)

Please help me choose z clean-up crew with my poll thread http://www.3reef.com/forums/inverts/hermits-vs-snails-cuc-showdown-74795.html

My LFS recommends the hermit crab approach. I suppose advanteages are not having a ton of snails trailing all over your glass and maybe knocking over corals. I do want to make sure that my pistol shrimp and cleaner shrimp can live long and prosper.

 

Great video! I responded on the CUC on that thread, but I will also say that snails do a great job of cleaning the glass - in my case, especially the back glass that can be hard to get to (of course, I don't have to have scaffolding to get to my tank like SOME people ). I like the banded trochus snails - I've never had problems with them knocking over corals and they're not quite as big as the turbo snails. Plus, they can flip themselves back over if they fall.

 

IMO ... you need a lot of both
To much surface not to stock up with a super clean up crew

Let them do all the work!;D

 

that was awesome vid..THE jealousy is taking over me!!! lol

 

We need more of those videos in the future.: I have a lot of Astrea Snails and they are strong as hell and can move corals so you may want to get the other kind that was mentioned before. They are good at eating algae off the back glass. Hermits clean the sand and rocks and snails clean the glass and rocks. I have a Diamond goby that cleans the sand but does dig out under rocks. I don't care because my rocks are on an eggcrate and he can't do anything to move them. I also have a Sleeper Goby but he moves all over the tank. I would definitly consider getting lots of hermits and snails. A tank your size would need lots of them maybe 100 of each or so. Your tank is coming along great!

 

Your tank is looking very good, GoToSleep! It's only going to get better and more beautiful!!

And to imagine you haven't even begun to add corals.

 

Thanks Sparky . I hope to have a big load of corals in the nest week or two but I want to make sure that my paramaters are rock solid before putting the corals in. Things were apparently OK for fish as all 13 of my new additions look happy and healthy. The small bump that I saw in my params is already settling down.

One issue that I face is that my pH is lowish at 7.9 I'm fine with this for the fish but realize that this isn't going to be ideal for corals. I should hopefully have my calcium reactor on line soon as well. I got word that my CO2 regulator shipped today.

 

I might wait for the water to be right before going any further. It's not going to be easy to get that PH up to 8.2-8.4 with that much volume of water. My PH has always been 8.2 or 8.3 and that seems to have been a good parameter for my reef. There is no rush as you will be enjoying it for years to come.

 

Our PH actually had a small dip down into the high 7's right after our cycle, and it naturally climbed back up to 8.2ish and has remained rock solid since then.

Maybe what's going on in your tank is a similar scenario?

 

Sad news... it looks like I may have my first casualty. When I added the pistol shrimp he immediately swam to the back of the tank and establishes a burrow in a spot that was darn near impossible to see. At feeding time he would come out just enough for me to see his front half but I didn't see him come out last night. I checked the tank this morning before leaving for work and saw a shrimp shell in front of his burrow. It seems unlikely that he just happened to molt 3 days after hitting the tank so I fear the worst. Everyone else still looks good though including the pair of cleaner shrimp.