Hello! Last week we got our clean up crew and let me tell you, they don't call them turbo snails for nothing! Those snails had the tank spic and span in two maybe three days time.
We bought our clean up crew from Top of the Reef on our way back from hubby's brother's wedding. Although we were tired and cranky, we wanted those snails because our tank had turned in to the Tank from the Black Lagoon.
We used a drip acclimation set up we built using an airline hose and a drip irrigation nozzle from Ace Hardware.
Drip acclimation set up.
Hermit crab snail mass.
Forty-five minutes later, the crew was ready for the tank!
Tank from the Black Lagoon
In three days with our 10 snail, 3 crab crew our tank went from the above to this:
Like a Boss.
Tell me how awesome that is?
But shortly after this miracle, tragedy struck. Tommy Crab of work group 2 was found dead swirling around the current. His lifeless body brought distress to my heart and immediately I thought of the possible ammonia swing. I had husband pull the body out. But after doing a crab head count, I was shocked! We still had three crabs! Who's body did we have?
Turns out he molted! Two days later, another one molted. I think this says our parameters are good. But I'm not sure.
Everyone was so relieved that no crab murders had happened that the snails threw a wicked party where they showed off their favorite hobby: Snail swinging! I'm only sorry I didn't get a longer clip. I had trouble finding my phone.
So, after sickness, work, school and a wedding this post is a little late in coming. Anyways, this a exciting post with a vendor review, two product reviews and my diatoms from last week!
Last weekend dear husband and I decided to take a lovely jaunt (aka 40+ minute drive) to some local fish stores to get an idea of their prices. We went to a fish store that claimed to have Mandarin Dragonets on prepared food. If I get a Mandarin, I really want it on prepared foods since my tank is not large enough to hold a self sustaining supply of copepods. So, this is important.
We had been to Top of the Reef before but this time we had specific things we were looking for. Top of the Reef is an LFS with flair. The interior is themed in a way that is both interesting and practical. The entire interior of the store is filled with sand. Not only does it give you a more "reefy" feel but it also avoids any potential hazards caused by wet floors. The front half is dedicated to supplies with display tanks showcasing some of their pricier fish and coral. The back half is where the live stock is kept.
One of the really cool things about Top of the Reef's set up is each tank is individually maintained. No tank is connected to the same water source. This greatly reduces the chance of sickness like ich. If one tank gets contaminated, it is limited to that one tank and does not compromise the rest of the stock.
Another cool thing about Top of the Reef is its liverock. Most liverock comes from either living reefs or, like the rock in my tank, from ancient fossilized reefs. The rock from Top of the Reef is completely man made and was created by the store's owner, Tony Saprano (I know, awesome name right?).
Tony is also a real hands on kind of dude. All three times we have been to the store, he was our guide through his products and livestock. He is extremely knowledgeable and is the type of hobbyist I love. He is in it for the animals, education, and ability for man to recreate a semi-natural ecosystem. A lot of people who own home aquariums are in it mainly because the fish are pretty. Tony is in it because he loves the ocean like I do.
While at Reef Culture buying our live rock, a store associate recommended we put in some good bacteria to help the tank along and establish a good biological filter. Unfortunately, they were out of stock at that time. We traveled to three of the closest LFS to Reef Culture looking for this bacteria only to be told multiple times it was a silly thought and doesn't exist. From our impressions, Reef Culture seemed to be the most top notch LFS in that area so we were fairly confident it did exist and the store associates were not aware. Our suspicions were confirmed at Top of the Reef.
PRODUCTS
The almighty MicroBacter7
The product is called Microbacter7. It is amazing! Microbacter7 is produced by Brightwell Aquatics. As the story was told by Tony, the founder of Brightwell Aquatics was a co-founder of the earlier established Kent Marine. However, the founder disagreed with some of Kent Marine's ideas and thought he could do better. So he left the company and started his own.
Before MicroBacter7, our nitrites were off the charts. We added 15 mL the first day to the tank and after 12 hours, the nitrites had dropped to .25 ppm (parts per million) by a full 24 hours, the nitrites had dropped to 0 ppm. I believe that should be enough said about this product. Husband and I are thoroughly impressed. Nitrites have been at zero ever since.
Aqueon Pro 100. Fits nice and snug next to the AC70's in take tube.
The next product review is the Aqueon Pro 100 heater. From a previous post, you know our tank temperature suddenly dropped and we had to buy a heater. This heater is fully submersible and be mounted vertically or horizontally. We decided to stick it out of the way next to the AC70 intake tube. I've said before we want to keep the main display as clutter free as possible.
What I like about this heater is it actually tells you what temperature you've set it to. The Neptune 50 watt we had does not. It only has a more or less heat knob. I have the heater set to maintain 77 degrees and so far it's done a fine job of doing so.
DIATOM UPDATE
As of last week, the diatoms are having a party in the tank. The tank is completely covered in the icky brown stuff and these photos taken last weekend, do not do the tank justice by what it looked like at the beginning of this past weekend. It was definitely time for a clean up crew.
Which shrimp do you think should go into our tank?
Our tank is almost done cycling. So here are the fun posts! Tell us what you think should go into our
tank. Anyone can comment without
registering, so have at it!
The CUC (clean up crew) is the first thing to go into a
freshly cycled tank. These are animals
that clean poo, algae, and uneaten food. Examples of
these critters are shrimp, snails, and crabs. We will have all three.
There are many varieties of shrimp and here are photos and
profiles of a few that we think would be interesting to go into our tank. We can’t have them all, so tell us what your
favorites are!
These little dudes are must.
They are non-negotiable. Not pretty critters, but our tank will have at
least one of them. They eat Aipstasia which is a nasty little pest that’s pretty until it takes over your tank. So, we think one of these little guys would be good to have on hand.
You can view their full profile here at Live Aquaria.
These are some awesome looking shrimp. That's mainly why we're looking at them. Most of the fun of a reef tank is having variety of species and a variety of looks. Some of these shrimp lend themselves very well to that.
These are small shrimp reaching a max length of 1" and we would probably buy them in a pair.
You can view their full profile here at Live Aquaria.
Why is the Sexy Shrimp sexy? Because it dances! It sways it's lower abdomen back and forth when it walks like a sexy women. These shrimp usually host anemones in the wild or home aquarium but will also host coral and rocks when anemones are not available. These too are small shrimp at about 1" to 1 1/2".
You can view their full profile here at Live Aquaria and here's a video of the sexy dance!
Now, this is a type of shrimp we want. The Fire Shrimp is a cleaner shrimp. What is a cleaner shrimp? Think of Jacque from Finding Nemo. The shrimp will perch on a piece of a live rock and fish will come to be cleaned. Large species of fish will even open their mouths for it.
You can view their full profile here at Live Aquaria and here's a video of a Fire Shrimp in cleaning mode.
Sorry for the absence. School has started and the rocks did not come in when they were suppose to. But as of last weekend, our tank was born!
The water was still a little cloudy. but the aqua scape looks good!
We got our order of rocks from Reef Cleaners. We ordered 15 pounds of dry Florida reef rock and put in the description the type of tank we had and the aquascape we were looking at doing. We were thoroughly impressed with the product but not the shipping time. We paid eight dollars for standard shipping which is fine but they did not offer any expedited shipping which would have been nice. Regardless, the customer service is fantastic and the product is fantastic so we will definitely order from them again. :)
Please enjoy a slide show of our many aquascaping ideas. We measured out the tank and craftily marked out the borders with a book, a nickle and a pair of scissors. On my day off from work, I pretended to do homework while I was really playing with rocks and watching Inuyasha. It is actually a really good show. The first dry rock runs ended up being the scape we tried to build.
A quick note when aquascaping: It will be difficult to replicate your structure in the tank... Apparently glass is slippery.
LIVE ROCK
We bought five pounds of live rock from Reef Culturein Tempe, AZ where we also bought a digital thermometer. The rocks are very pretty with some variation in magenta and deep purple Coraline algea. I am very excited for the colors.
A good view of all three rocks from the "back" or kitchen side of the tank.
CYCLING
We ran the tank for a day while debating on how to kick start the cycle. When doing all LR, you typically just sit back and wait for it to start. However, since we only had five pounds of the stuff, we were wondering if it would be enough to effectively start the cycle in what we considered a timely manner.
There are three manners of cycling I found while researching.
One is the fish cycle which I disagree with. You drop in a hardy fish like a clown or damsel and let that fish's waste be the kick starter. However, due to the potential high levels of toxin this is very stressful and potentially deadly to the fish.
The other two methods are fishless cycles. A fishless cycle is exactly what the name describes, a cycle without a fish. There are two (actually three) common methods I found.
The Dead Shrimp Cycle: You take a peice of shrimp harvested for human consumption, put it in your tank, and let it decompose. While this is effective for getting your cycle started, it is also effective for letting deadly bacteria grow in your tank. This is why the method is debated. It is great for some people and deadly for others. Deadly for their future fish, not the owners.
The Pure Ammonia Cycle: This is the method I use. It requires taking regular, non scented, house hold ammonia (like janitorial strength ammonia from Ace Hardware) and adding it to your tank. The drawbacks are the large concentrated amounts of ammonia and the effect it will have on your live rock, you may experience some algae die off. Always research how much will be safe for your tank. I put a teaspoon of ammonia in for 20 gallons.
The third/non practical cycle: I added this as a sort of third because it is not practical for first time hobbyists unless you have friends. This method requires taking filter media from an established tank and putting it into your own tank to kick start cycling.
So How Is Your Tank Doing?
Just great! Thanks for asking :)
We started cycling on October 2nd. It is now October 8th and we have our first diatom bloom! If you don't know what diatoms are, feel free to reference my Proposed Set Up post and the videos from IPSF on setting up a tank. In a nutshell though, diatoms are produced when there are high nitrate levels in a tank. Nitrate is a product of nitrifying bacteria (the production of which is the whole point of cycling) processing the ammonia.
Blurry pic of diatoms. A better view is in the video.
My tests have followed a good path of high ammonia=low nitrates=no diatoms and the moment my ammonia started decreasing, bam! low ammonia=high nitrates=diatoms. So I will continue to monitor my levels.
I've been tracking my nitrogen cycle according to this chart:
As you can see, my tank is accelerated. This because using the pure ammonia method put me at day ten on day one. It took a few days for my nitrates to catch up which is to be expected. Now I am waiting for the nitrate drop. I do not have the test kit for Nitrites yet (in the mail from Amazon) so I do not know what my levels are.
When the cycle is done or close to done, I will post a similar chart with my specific data. I've been recording all of my tests and keeping notes of any changes in a log on Excel.
Final Thoughts:
Here is the break down what the tank specs are: Tank size: 20 gallon long (30x13x13) Lighting: one AI Sol Super Blue Filtration: modified Aqua Clear 70 Power Filter Waterflow: two 600 Maxi Jet Pro Circulation Pumps Heater: Well, interesting story. We live in Arizona and it is, well, hot. So I did not think I would need a heater for another month. Thanks to Murphey's Law, our tank temperature alarm went off at 5:45 am saying the water was 75.4 degrees. Before the unexpected cold front, it was sustaining 77.5 all night. So, I am getting ready to install the heater I got in my free deal. I don't really like it so we were planning on upgrading next month. We borrowed from next month's budget and a Aqueon Pro 100 watt heater is on its way.
