Newbie needs some help

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wdp67

New Member
Hi all 1st post here.
Can anyone help me with directions on raising the S.G. of my tank. Yea I now add more salt, but is there a way to figure out how much with out taking days of adding salt and checking it.

I have a 24 gal Aqua Pod I am using Instant Ocean, and evidently the 5 gal bucket I used to mix the water in holds more than 5 gals, my specific gravity is 1.022 instead of 1.025. I am just learning all this stuff so please bare with me if I ask some dumb questions. My LFS wants me to get my S.G. up to 1.025, as I am hoping to do some corals.

Any advice would be welcome. Looking forward to hearing from you!

Thanks
Walt
 
TimSchmidt

TimSchmidt

New Member
First off:

:welcome to Nanotank!

That can be done a couple of ways. If you have ANY livestock you will want to gradually increase your SG. One way is to top off with water with a slightly lower SG (keep the top off at about 1.022) this will raise the SG nicely. Just make sure to test the next day after top off (to let everything mix). Most people agree that there is a range of acceptable SGs. But I personally keep things at 1.026.

Pics? :D
 
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wdp67

New Member
I do not have any fish yet, cycle is getting close to being finished, but there are 3 mushrooms and a few polyps on the live rock that apeared after a couple of weeks. I am trying to be patient but it is getting really hard. In the last couple of days the algae really started growing, and the tank looks just awfull.

I hope the cycle is complete by this weekend so I can get a CUC to take care of the algae.

What would you reccomend for a 24 gal tank as far as a clean up crew?

Thanks
Walt
 
TimSchmidt

TimSchmidt

New Member
Well honestly just let the tank run it's course a bit. It will be ugly before it gets better. Seemingly on it's own. I like the tonga nassarius snails. They are big and one or two will keep the sand stirred nicely. I don't like astrea snails anymore becuase they ALWAYS fall over and never seem to be able to get back up (I'm exaggerating, but I don't like snails that can't pick themselves up). Cerith snails are ok. I say about 5 for now, but you can add or remove as you need. Your tank will let you know if you need more. A couple of dwarf hermits can be added too, but if you don't have enough open shells they may kill snails. Heck they may kill even with open shells... :twisted:
 
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wdp67

New Member
Thanks for the info!! Do I need to wait before I put them in still or do you think I can put them in now?
 
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wdp67

New Member
Ok Tested my water this morning, and 0's across the board after having way higher readings earlier in the week, so I went to the LFS which is a Saltwater only store where I bought my tank, and had them check it. Hurray!! they said I was ready for the CUC. I got 2 turbo snails, 4 Nassarius(sp) and 5 sm hermit crabs on their reccomendation. Does that sound ok for my 24 gal tank?

They are going nuts eating up the nasty looking algae. It is mostly crap colored algea. There is some hairy looking stuff though also. Will the CUC eat this also or do I need to do something else about that?

Thanks
Walt
 
TimSchmidt

TimSchmidt

New Member
Let the tank be for a bit. If they don't eat then it should die out assuming you don't over feed and keep up on water changes. Time and patience is key at this point.
 
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wdp67

New Member
I should not have to feed the CUC at all right? That is all that is in there. as far as water changes goes it is a 24 gal tank do you think that 5 gal a week is sufficient or should I do more?

Thanks for all your help, I really appreciate it!

Walt
 
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wdp67

New Member
The water that they are in now is the water I started with, should I start doing water changes beggining this week then? Or should I have already changed the water?

Walt
 
TimSchmidt

TimSchmidt

New Member
You can just start your regiment now that the cycle is complete. You can actually start adding livestock now if you want too. Inverts and corals add almost no bio load (but if you feed corals the excess food is something to look out for). Fish you will want to add slowly.

I quarantine my fish, but that is just my habits from the larger tanks. To be honest I don't quarantine one type of fish, Dragonettes. Food supply is too specialized and they are reportedly highly resistant to Ich. Haven't seen any mandarins with ich, yet. I'm sure it happens though.
 
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wdp67

New Member
Do you think 6 tiny hermits 4 nassarius and 2 turbos is enough of a crew or should I do more? I was looking at Liveaquaria.com and they seem to have way bigger packages for 30 gals than what I have in a 24 gal tank.

Walt
 
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reefman23

New Member
wdp67 said:
Do you think 6 tiny hermits 4 nassarius and 2 turbos is enough of a crew or should I do more? I was looking at Liveaquaria.com and they seem to have way bigger packages for 30 gals than what I have in a 24 gal tank.

Walt
Click to expand...
Dont base your selection off of what sites like that suggest.

That sounds good to me. If anything, I would say try 4 hermits instead of 6. I am I bit biased though as I dont really like CUC's. I only have the bristleworms, stomatellas, etc that hitchhiked their way in. I have found cleaner shrimp to be a nuisance to my LPS that I have to feed and hermits tend to do more harm to other members of the CUC than good for the tank IMO. Certain snails are good IMO though. I like the nassarius and astreas. Turbos tend be be big bulldozers and knock stuff around. Just my $0.02.

Jesse
 
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wdp67

New Member
Hers what my tank looks like so far.



Should I do something about the long stringy algea? If so what.

Thanks
Walt
 
TimSchmidt

TimSchmidt

New Member
You can manually remove it if you have a sponge. I just run a brush over it and let the sponge catch it all. maybe mess with the flow a bit to get more water moving across the top of the rocks?
 
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wdp67

New Member
Thanks, by the way I just noticed you can see my patio in that picture, but rest assured it is not sitting right next to a window, it is actually in a pretty dark corner of the room, that is a reflection :D
 
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