Burningbaal Posted July 26, 2011 Share Posted July 26, 2011 I have a new-to-me 55gallon with ~50 lbs of rock, 100 lbs of sand (about 4 inches). sand is brand new. The rock, two clowns, tang, leathers and zoanthids came with the tank (i got it from a friend two weeks ago). everything seems happy, all the fish are eating, zoanthids open nicely. Leathers seam to have kind of molted a very thin white layer after I added the sand...can they secrete a mucous or something? I'm thinking they were trying to expel some sand/gunk from adding the sand. anyways, I'm looking for inverts to fill two jobs in the tank - it came with 0 motile inverts, and I know this because I through away all the old sand (it was silicate). I have added two peppermint shrimp from the lfs (5 days ago) to help me fight the aiptasia that came with the rock. here's the two things: 1. I'd like to find a few inverts (snails/crabs/whatever) to mix around the sand some, at least near the surface to try to minimize detritus build-up (more time suspended = more time accessible to the skimmer), I have probably 1000gph of flow, but figure some surface-sifters would help. BUT, I'd like to avoid the sifters from eating much OTHER than detritus, especially, I'd like them to leave copepods and such alone as I'm hoping to be able to support a mandarin goby (dragonet) in the future. 2. I need to find something to help me fight cyanobactreia - also came with the tank...any thoughts? as general info, here is my tank: http://www.pnwmas.org/forums/showthread.php?28243-inherited-a-softie-55gallon, but I'm thinking about switching to 2x54w T5's in a few months (currently 2x 32w T12s) because I'd like to support more colorful corals. any ideas? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
badxgillen Posted July 26, 2011 Share Posted July 26, 2011 yeah the sarcophytons will tend to let off some mucus when agravated.and try some sand sifting starfish. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mohaynow Posted July 26, 2011 Share Posted July 26, 2011 You might want to hold off on the starfish till the sand is a bit more established. All they eat is the "stuff" in the sand and if its new sand it probably doesn't have much if any "stuff" in it. I would start with a few hermits and some snails, nerites are cool and turbos are excelent algea eaters. If you are mainly looking for something to stir the sand at this point I would recomend a sand sifting goby, they eat the "stuff" in the sand and they will usually eat prepared foods as well, so you don't have to worry about them starving. A real easy way to get a good hold on the cyano would be to do a 3-5 day blackout, just leave the lights off. Also blasting it off the rocks with a turkey baster and scooping it up with a net also works to a certain degree. Hope this helps ya. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trautman Posted July 26, 2011 Share Posted July 26, 2011 i have some horseshoe crabs if interested... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Burningbaal Posted July 26, 2011 Author Share Posted July 26, 2011 I'm thinking I may just go with hermits and snail for a bit... Trautman: how big do the horseshoes get? I thought they get enormous, this is only a std 55g tank... Thinking I'll try a blackout. I assume that won't hurt my corals? might help with the aiptasia problem? should I actually cover the tank? the only windows the tank can see face north, so I'm thinking it'll be ok with it's lights off but still exposed to ambient/room lights? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mohaynow Posted July 26, 2011 Share Posted July 26, 2011 your corals should be fine during a blackout, it wont do anything for the aiptasia tho. the pepermints might be more inclined to come out and eath them tho without the lights on. I wouldn't worry about covering the tank as long as the tank dosen't get any direct sunlight Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ReefSafari Posted July 26, 2011 Share Posted July 26, 2011 My warning...I personally hate inverts (Shrimp actually) I personally like to target feed my corals, like LPS, and I actually started the making process of a minuture harpoon gun to kill the cleaner shrimp and peppermint shrimp I had, as they would go and rip out all the food from all the LPS before they could eat, I tried everything...they ended up being much more of a pain for me than what they contributed, so just be warned, if you get really into LPS and like target feeding your corals, be prepaired to keep your arm in the tank fending those darn boogers off..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matty Posted July 26, 2011 Share Posted July 26, 2011 In my experience peppermint shrimp do work for aptasia but you have to do it right. You need to add them after you cycle the tank but before you add anything else. Don't feed the tank at all. You basically have to leave them with no other option for food but the aptasia because if they have any choice they won't eat them. In you situation if you have a ton of them you might try to find a berghia nudi. If only a few you could try boiling water or Joes juice and a syringe. As far as the sand sifting stars here is a good description of them, especially the last line: This peaceful omnivore will effectively clean even the largest home aquarium of detritus and left over food. Like other starfish, the Sand Sifting Sea Star will also consume small invertebrates, including shrimp, urchins, mollusks, bivalves, or other small sea stars. As such, the Sand Sifting Sea Star should be actively fed a varied diet consisting of natural food sources, especially in well-established marine aquariums. Otherwise, this voracious feeder will quickly clean your aquarium of detritus and then burrow into your substrate, starve, and eventually begin to decay. If it were me I would stick with the standard cuc of snails and a few hermits. If you create a good natural bio system by starting with quality live rock you don't need a lot of inverts. The cyano is caused by either low flow-"dead spots" or excess nutrients. There are no inverts that eat that stuff that I know of. I would try syphoning it out and directing more flow in that area. Keep up on water changes and maintenance and most issues should correct themselves. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Burningbaal Posted July 26, 2011 Author Share Posted July 26, 2011 thanks to everyone...that summary of the SSS is definitely enlightening...probably steer clear of that! Most of my aiptasia-clearing with sith "STOP Aitptasia", I'll be happy for anything the peppermints do for it, berghia's are pretty expensive for a creature that's hard to keep alive...I'll probably order some snails and hermits (some of the hermits eat cyano according to liveaquaria.com and others). it's gotten a lot better since I got the tank out of the window the previous guy had it in. water quality has been near-perfect (saw .25 ammonia once, 5ppm phosphate once), no nitrate yet, but with a 100% H2O change, rinsed rock and new sand, it may take a bit to show up, we'll see. I'm also thinking of adding ~30lbs of dry rock to fill some space (assuming it will get innoculated by the current live rock)...anyone have any they want to off-load? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bigjohnwoody Posted July 26, 2011 Share Posted July 26, 2011 I would get a hold of Garrett at The Premium Aquarium. He is a sponsor on this site and has an amazing assortment of cuc. He is extremely knowledgeable about inverts and will definitely point you in the right direction, and his prices are amazing. He is located in Salem, so it's only a short drive from you. Well, well worth it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
badxgillen Posted July 26, 2011 Share Posted July 26, 2011 i have some rock live and base if you need it.i aslo have a number of inverts as well.i believe we have spoken before. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Burningbaal Posted July 28, 2011 Author Share Posted July 28, 2011 what kind of sizes are you talking about for the rock...I'm thinking a few larger pieces...have a $ you're thinking of? do you mean spoken in person? or do you mean on the forum...I was in animal house about two weeks ago for my peppermint shrimp (one of which kicked the bucket last night, I'll be checking all my parameters tonight, but they've been spot on so far...might have been random) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rubberduck9 Posted July 29, 2011 Share Posted July 29, 2011 In my 55 I had at least 50 red leg or zebra crabs, 5 or more emeralds, 2 porcelain crabs, about 50 nasarius snails, a serpent star, a brittle star, a filter cucumber, a tigertail cucumber, 2 Pom pom crabs, and 2 scarlet cleaners. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.