My 4gal 'reef' Journal

[littleme1969]

I have used Reef Critters many times. The prices are great and the stoch is always healthy. 90% of my clean up crew came from there inc starfish snails hermits crabs shrimps etc.
There are a few others but most only ever have a limited stock.

 

[Splatter]

Thanks very much littleme! I'm going to get a couple of snails from there, unfortunately I can't get astreae as you can only order them in 6's I was only looking to get one or two However I'll probably get two Nassirus(sp?). Thanks very much for the link!

 

[littleme1969]

I got the more exotic astrea snails. The spiny ones , these could be bought one at a time. They do just as good a job

 

[Splatter]

thanks

However when I tried to order the £5 of snails I needed it told me I could order no less than £20! xD...Bugger I've been looking into reefstock.com instead, it has a minium order of £15 rather than £20, it also sells coral so I should be able to make it to the £15 minium

 

[Proud Texan]

whoa 7 gallons i wouldnt even go near that.

 

[Splatter]

It's not as hard as it seems honestly It's all just being patient really.

Although having said that I've just found one of my hermits dead They're lying on the sand, all sad like without a shell. I'm not sure how they died as there's alot of algae in there. Could anyone give me a hint on what might have caused the death? My water stats are stable ie:

Sg - 1.06
Ammonia - 0.25
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 2.5

I think it might have been the activated carbon in the HOB which caused the spike, I left it in there for a bit too long. Yargh, well you learn from your mistakes I guess..

Algae has reeally taken over the tank, I've got hair algae all over the glass and alot of macro algae coming up on the liverock. Also I saw some apitasia (sp?) just now! It's only about a cm wide and it's right behind all my rockwork. I think I'll leave it there for now to see what happens with it.

On the snail front - I'm still looking!

 

[SkiFletch]

Probably just a molt . Hermits, crabs, and shrimp tend to molt in new tanks due to the change in iodine. Neither good nor bad, but know that it happens a lot.

 

[Splatter]

That might explain why I couldn't find the shell anywhere

Thanks for the advise Ski! I'll go search round the tank now to see if you're right ^^...(5 minutes later) HE'S ALIVE! yay for Skifletch

Would it be best to remove the molt?

 

[Splatter]

UPDATE!

Wooo! I went to the LFS today to get a magfloat (as the front of the glass was too full of hair algae for me to ignore anymore ) and they had snails in! They had in Nassarius Vibex and Trochus Maculatus (referencing google images for the Trochus sp.)

They cost alot though £4.50 for the Nassarius and 2.50 for the Trochus (ironicly the Trochus grows 3 times the size eh? xD) Unfortunately I can't think of a name for either of them