12 Gallon cuc questions

[proeddie]

I just finished off my cycle in my nano 12dx. I picked up the following as my cuc

2-red legged hermit crabs
2-reef hermits (thats what the lfs guy called them)
2-nassarius snails
2-mexican turbos
1-Queen conch

Its been 2 days now and they are really doing a good job on my Diatom bloom. So I guess here are my questions.

1) I didnt do good enough research on the queen conch. She is 1.5" long now, how long until she's too big for my tank? She is really cool looking and she cleaning like crazy, so can i keep her for a while or should I just bring her back now.

2) nassarius snails. As soon as I placed them into my tank they buried themselves into the sand. Everyonce in awhile Ill see an antenna sticking up out of the sand but they never come out. Will this change when they feel more comfortable or will they only come out when they are hungry.

3) Is 2 Turbo snails too big for a 12 gallon?

4) How does my cuc look overall. I would like to get a cleaner shrimp but I wanted to be sure my tank was stable enough first.

TIA

 

[KidNano]

2) my nassarius only comes out for feeding time. I rarely see him any more, actually. Usually he'll come up fly accross the length of the tank find a little food and go right back under before I'm even done feeding.

 

[reefman23]

I would suggest removing the conch. You should be able to find at least one thread here that shows why. They dont do well in nanos.

I personally like trochus snails over turbos... turbos will knock stuff over like crazy and can get rather large... especially in a nano.

The nassarius are great and that is their natural behavior... how many do you have?

:welcome to nanotank.com!

Jesse

 

[skipm]

Ditto about the conch, they are only suitable for very large aquariums.
:welcome to the board!

 

[proeddie]

Thanks for the replies and the welcome.

I will bring the queen back tomorrow, and I think I will pick up a cleaner shrimp. I'm just so excited to have some sort of movement in my tank. :lol3:

Since I will be taking the queen back, do you think that I should take one of the turbos back as well, or is 2 ok for a 12 gallon.

Thanks again.

 

[davenia7]

I have 2 nassarius and 2 nerites.
as soon as the food hits the top of the water... the nassarius fly fromthe back of the tank to eat. and here i thought snails were slow. ha!!!
but seriously turbos do a good job. they do get big though... but i think 2 in a 12 is fine in my opinion.

 

[proeddie]

The cuc was doing a good job until a couple of days ago, then it got really brown. So last night I picked up 2 margarita snails and a cleaner shrimp. I am kinda relunctant to get any more crabs as I already have 4.

I put the shrimp in the tank and within a couple hours, my tank were full of baby shrimp. They werent attached to the rocks, they were just floating around in the water column. This morning I looked again, and only saw 3-4 of them. They probably all got sucked into the filter.

Is there any chance that there could be shrimp baby survivors?

 

[reefman23]

I would highly recommend you just give your tank some time... the algae you are describing is perfectly natural for a tank that age. Give it time, water changes, and patience and it WILL go away.

I doubt any shrimps will survive.. just an inappropriate environment for baby shrimp Im afraid.

HTH,

Jesse

 

[Trogdor]

I agree with Jesse. Patience in this hobby will save you so much time, effort and money. Go slow and only speed up when something is seriously wrong with the tank.

 

[proeddie]

Thanks for the responses and the advice to go slow. My tank has been up now for 4.5 weeks. Here are my miles stones

Week 1-2 - cycling

Week 2 - Ammonia - 0 Nitrites - 0 Nitrates - 10 (got 2 red legged hermits)

Week 3 - Ammonia - 0 Nitrites - 0 Nitrates - 20 (first water change 1 gallon Nitrates down to 10. Picked up 2 Reef hermits, 2 turbos, 2 nassarius snails, 1 queen conch.

Week 4 - Ammonia - 0 Nitrites -0 Nitrates - 15 (did 2 water changes within this week because of nitrates. Picked up a cleaner shrimp and 2 margarita snails).

My nitrates were down to 5 on 03/19/07. When do you think I will be able to pick up my first fish. Should I wait another week or so.

Thanks again

 

[KidNano]

you should be fine to get a fish. what kind are you looking at getting? from my understanding you are safe to start putting fish in as soon as your cycle completes. you've done well at introducing things slowly though. better then I did. although I didn't kill anything which I'm proud of. well mostly didn't kill anything. :lol: