My Ten Gallon Adventure

[blabadie]

Hello everyone,

Small algae, etc. has started growing on the side of my glass and my bleached coral is starting to turn brown. Is this time for a clean up crew? Does the water need to be perfect for a clean up crew? What should I get if I am only willing to spend $20 right now (I am driving to minnesota, flying to colorado and arizona all within the same month for music auditions at schools and need to pay of my credit card!!)? Thanks!

- b/lab -

 

[SkiFletch]

If you're getting brown algae especially if the LR has been in there for at least a week, chances are your ammonia and nitrite spikes are past and its safe to add cleanup crew. I'd stick to cerith snails and maybe a couple redleg hermits to start.

 

[afmo]

Hello everyone,

Small algae, etc. has started growing on the side of my glass and my bleached coral is starting to turn brown. Is this time for a clean up crew? Does the water need to be perfect for a clean up crew? What should I get if I am only willing to spend $20 right now (I am driving to minnesota, flying to colorado and arizona all within the same month for music auditions at schools and need to pay of my credit card!!)? Thanks!

- b/lab -

I added part of my cleanup crew at the first sign of algae. my crew for my 10 gal is 3 scarlet reef hermits (lazy buggers) 2 blue legged hermits, 1 dwarf zebra hermit, 1 banded torchus snail, 1 top crown snail, 4 Astraea snails, and a Scarlet Skunk Cleaner. however when i first started, i added them in slowly, and started with 3 crabs and a snail, then built up one or two at a time while the tank continued to cycle, and didnt add in the rest of the snails and the shrimp until the very end.

Reason i started with mostly crabs is ive read that the snails and shrimp are sensitive to high levels of nitrates, and didnt want to kill them off while the cycle completed. My 3 scarlet reef hermits really are lazy, i see them hanging out most of the time, whereas the dwarf zebra and the blue legs are always chewin on algae or sifting sand etc...maybe they are just mine, besides, the blue legs are cooler looking

 

[blabadie]

I went to PetCo and bought three turbo snails...this is my start, because 1) it's the nearest fish store and 2) I had practice tonight and didn't have time to drive the 20 minutes to buy other things. Will these eat some of the damn algae that seems to be taking over my tank slowly?!!

- b/lab -

 

[SkiFletch]

Yup, turbo snails love diatoms

 

[MadCatter]

Update: Their names are Maximus, Hercules, and Seabiscuit.

 

[MadCatter]

We got 3 little hermits yesterday. (well.. I did. Brandon is out of town for music stuff now). Two are an ordinary grayish-blue in color. The other one has bright scarlet red legs, with a a white/red blotched body, and bright yellow antenae - it looks like the inside of a flower with bits of pollen. Very pretty. I assumed it's just a 'red legged hermit', but it was sold from the 'assorted hermit' tank. The other two (from looking at google) look as though they are something called a 'blue spot' hermit? The blue ones are much more adventerous than the red one.


The damsels in the tank sort of half-heartedly came over to dust them off with their tails before realizing that they weren't really a threat.


The turbo snails do an amazing job as well! Pure white streak through the brown on the parts of LR that they've encountered.

 

[n3ont3tra]

Got any pictures?

 

[blabadie]

Ok,

So I now have 6 Turbo Snails and 8 Hermit crabs. Is this a good clean-up crew or should I be looking to buy more? I also, very proudly, bought a grounding probe! After I get some housework done I'll post some pics. My algae growth is really bad, if I don't use R/O water will this always be a problem? Will the clean-up crew get rid of most of the algae?

- b/lab -

 

[SkiFletch]

A grounding probe huh? Why'd you do that?

 

[blabadie]

Shocky Shocky

 

[SkiFletch]

Heh, well make SURE you read up on groudning probes. There are good reasons to use them and good reasons not to, make sure you know what you're doing

 

[blabadie]

oh? I'll have to look. I thought it they were good for preventing extra electricity from going into the tank. Can they actually stop electrical shock?

 

[SkiFletch]

They can and do stop the tank from shocking you the aquarist, but they have drawbacks. The biggest two being plating out of copper into the water column in case of a short, and not preventing current travel through your fish if the system is not protected by a GFCI. And even if it is protected by a GFCI what happens if it trips at 8am 2 seconds after you walk out the door to go to work and you dont notice the problem until you get home 12 hours later? The tank has been without light, heat, and most importantly, flowrate for the whole day... Good luck having it survive that

 

[chrissaysyes]

just thought I'd add that your LR looks great