Shell Dweller Journal

[caino]

Heya,

you might have noticed a recent post of mine asking for information on shell dwellers. Reviewing all the options i have decided to go for it, as being 17 the lack of room and money to get a large tank stops me from getting anything else . I have decided to go for N. Mulitifacious (excuse my spelling).

So i got a tank, juwel rekord 60 approx 54 gal or 11-12 uk gallons

Being a juwel it came with all the usual stuff, i will keep the internal filter for now but look to replace it in the near future.

the tank itself is going to go on my desk, so i have something interesting to watch doing "revison" and work .

As you can see i havn't filled it with water yet, just checked for leeks and emptied it because my lfs only had huge bags of the 1mm coral sand that i want (will this be fine enough?) so i am going to go back in the morning and they will split a bag for me . And the shells are on order should be here next week some time. In the mean time i have put the large blue sponge into my rekord 120 filter, as it will be 2 weeks or so befor i can get the fish, so i can avoid cycling my tank by maturing the media in there .

Thanks for reading i will keep you posted!

Tom

 

[Castellop123]

Should be good...

 

[caino]

Well, i got the coral sand today, washed it and put it in and finished setting up tank, i have got the power head and heater running, but i havnt got any media in at the moment because its all in my big tank maturing. Here are a couple more photos.

the water was cloudy when i first put water in, but now its just fine

There isnt really anything else i can do to it apart from put the filter media back in and get the fish and shells. I am going to Belgum over half term so i have decided to pick up the esgagart shells from France on the way instead of paying £18 for a pot to be deleiverd, and when i come back i will get the fish, so that will be in two weeks.

The temperature wil be 26 degrees, water is still warming up, just testing everything today and then i will turn it all off and wait.

I am going to get 6 fish to start with, is it best to have them just on their own, or are tank mates acceptable? Just wondering, i will most probably keep them on there own so errm yea, thanks for reading

Tom

 

[clareriley]

Im getting exited, I love tank diarys

 

[Castellop123]

Have the shells come yet... more pics!

 

[jayjay]

Have the shells come yet... more pics!

I am going to Belgum over half term so i have decided to pick up the esgagart shells from France on the way instead of paying £18 for a pot to be deleiverd

 

[caino]

its gona be 2 weeks untill i can get fish as i have got to go to begum over half term and i dont really want to get the fish next week, to be away the week after that , so !.

As multis are harem breeders should i keep 1 male to 5 females or more than 1 male?

 

[jayjay]

I'd go with 1 male, just to keep aggression down.

 

[caino]

alright, sounds like a sensable idea, it is a big tank for something that only grows to 1.5" lol but 1 male to 5 females, he will be in heaven

 

[Nick Sw]

Hi I`ve got a Multi tank, you won`t regret it they are brilliant.
Not sure about the coral sand though as they love to dig and normally fine sand is recommended. Just see how it goes.

 

[caino]

Arg, im havin issues lol, i dont want to put them in with the coral sand if its going to be unsuitable and for them to be unhappy, and i dont want to change all the sand around, i think i mite drop the idea of shell dwellers for now and look at maby brackish, i dont know any suggestions..

Edit:Panic over, had a spaz moment lol, will be fixed because i just looked at some more pics of the fish and there soo cool , problem will be solved by a trip to B&Q on friday for playsand , i will keep the coral sand for another tank in the future! oh yea i can put some of the coral sand into mr betas tank, much better than purple gravel!

 

[fishfishfish]

i mixed my arogonite with my sand and had the fine sand for them with the harder ph.works great.i just mixed it all together.can barely see the arogonite and the cichlids and catfish arent bothered.they dont even notice when they move arogonite or sand.

 

[caino]

Yeh i was going to keep some of the coral sand in to act as a buffer, my water is natrually hard , i may mix it or keep some in my filter. Would it be alright to have about 1/3rd of an inch or coral sand and then 1 and a half inches of play sand and mix that together?

 

[Ferris]

Glad you're going to stick with the shell-dwellers idea Caino - it's a good thread this, keep us posted (pardon the pun )

 

[caino]

keep us posted

, nice one , hopefully i wont wound myself doing this 1