grimlock3000
Aquarium Advice Addict
My Nano has not changed much at all since I first set it up. It has been fully cycled with LR and had just a few snails and crabs that passed the test of not going belly up as I learned the tank. The tank has been getting quite nasty with algae, even though I pretty much never feed the tank and use distilled water for water changes and top off. The few inverts in the tank simply could not keep up with the algae. Today my wife and I went out to pickup a clean up crew with the intent of getting fish in the next few weeks after the cleanup crew gets established. My wife has been getting quite frustrated with our marine tank since it has not held much of anything new and interesting.
First we went to one LFS and picked up 7 Nassarius Snails and 4 more Hermit Crabs for the tank. The Nassarius are for turning over the substrate since it is not being touched currently. The Crabs are to eat various stuff in the tank. Then, we decided to go to another LFS just to get a couple Astrea snails since I forgot to get those with the other stuff.
Well, the second LFS had a tank of "Mixed Anemones" for $12 and on sale for another 10% off. In the tank there were a bunch of Condy Anemones and a few small LTAs that were colored up quite nicely. To make a long story short, my wife ended up getting one of the small LTAs as a "Starter Anemone" for our tank. Something about the cheap price and pretty LTA made it impossible for her to resist. Now I get to see how long it takes the LTA to take over the tank and then go trade it in for something more suitable
As always, I will be the bad guy when the LTA goes away. But maybe I can use it as an excuse for a bigger tank... 
When I got home with everything, I had the fun of acclimating four seperate buckets of critters at the same time. Somehow, I only spilled a little bit of water on the floor The Nassarius Snails went into the tank first acclimation. The Snails were in the tank for less than 5 minutes before 4 of them buried themselves and started doing their jobs very well. The new Hermit Crabs have been active, and the two new Astreas have just sat in one spot for now. I gave the LTA the longest acclimation and kept is underwater at all times. I put it in the middle of the tank on a small piece of LR. It can wander down off the rock and pick its own place to stay if it does not like it.
First we went to one LFS and picked up 7 Nassarius Snails and 4 more Hermit Crabs for the tank. The Nassarius are for turning over the substrate since it is not being touched currently. The Crabs are to eat various stuff in the tank. Then, we decided to go to another LFS just to get a couple Astrea snails since I forgot to get those with the other stuff.
Well, the second LFS had a tank of "Mixed Anemones" for $12 and on sale for another 10% off. In the tank there were a bunch of Condy Anemones and a few small LTAs that were colored up quite nicely. To make a long story short, my wife ended up getting one of the small LTAs as a "Starter Anemone" for our tank. Something about the cheap price and pretty LTA made it impossible for her to resist. Now I get to see how long it takes the LTA to take over the tank and then go trade it in for something more suitable
As always, I will be the bad guy when the LTA goes away. But maybe I can use it as an excuse for a bigger tank... When I got home with everything, I had the fun of acclimating four seperate buckets of critters at the same time. Somehow, I only spilled a little bit of water on the floor
The Nassarius Snails went into the tank first acclimation. The Snails were in the tank for less than 5 minutes before 4 of them buried themselves and started doing their jobs very well. The new Hermit Crabs have been active, and the two new Astreas have just sat in one spot for now. I gave the LTA the longest acclimation and kept is underwater at all times. I put it in the middle of the tank on a small piece of LR. It can wander down off the rock and pick its own place to stay if it does not like it.
