My first salt water life! (besides lr)

[lziarek]

So I went to the lfs today to do research on their prices, what they can special order etc, as well as to buy some more lr and maybe a crab or two to try out a hermit crab nitro cycle (suggested in a post earlier today). They were having a sale, 12 blue hermit crabs for 12 dollars, so I decided to go for it. They are all very little, but happily active. Currently there is a mini dinner party going on around the algea wafer I threw in for them. The lfs also threw in some free shells, two of which turned out to have crabs in them and one a snail =).

 

[BillyZ]

maybe a crab or two to try out a hermit crab nitro cycle (suggested in a post earlier today).

if I read this right, you have not yet cycled your tank? There is a great article in our Articles Section on how to Cycle Without Fish/Crabs. You should not use any live creatures to complete your cycle. Especialy inverts, they will not be able to handle the high nitrite/nitrate levels.

Also, I would see if you can find or order some dry base rock to supliment your LR you already have. It's better to get the rock in the system sooner rather than later. Base rock is much cheaper and as long as you have some LR to seed it (as you do) it will become live rock.

 

[Atari]

I find it hard to believe that someone on this site recommended that method of cycling.

I feel sorry for that snail too :?

 

[BillyZ]

The thread he's refering to is someone quoting a suggestion from another site.

 

[Atari]

Just saw it, thanks

 

[lziarek]

more details on the tank: cycling with frozen shrimp 2 weeks, added about 20lbs live rock and let cycle some more for another week, then added crabs

yep was reffering to that post, was a little misleading (thought it would be safe for the little guys)

 

[Atari]

They should be fine if it's been 3 weeks then.. what are the water parameters?

 

[lziarek]

0ppm amonia 0ppm nitrite .25ppm nitrate

what are considered "safe" levels?

 

[BillyZ]

sounds like your cycle is finished. here's how a cycle runs:

Ammonia Spikes
Nitrites spike as ammonia begins to fall.
ammonia drops to zero as nitrites remain high and nitrates begin to show up.
nitrites drop to zero while nitrates begin to rise sharply.
once ammonia and nitrites are zero, do a large water change 25-35% IMO and move some life into your tank.

The bacteria that dismantles the nitrates is the slowest to colonize your LR/LS and nitrates are also the least deadly of the 3 waste biproducts. for fish only tanks, nitrates are "ok" in the 30-40s i think? if you have inverts in your tank, you want to stay as low as possible, obviously zero would be best but is tough to acchieve.

any amount of ammonia/nitrite is bad and a sign of something out of balance.