Our First Build: IM Nuvo 38g

[Agatheron]

Day 3 after live rock. This morning's tests show the same as before. Salinity stable at 1.023; 0.25ppm Ammonia; 0 nitrites and 0 nitrates. pH is also stable at 8.0.

That tells me my cycle hasn't started yet.

Wondering if I should go get a shrimp.

Also, seems the Aiptasia has gone into hiding. Even if I had some solution on hand, I couldn't make use of it. Suggestions?

 

[spoonman]

I would get some pure ammonia. Much easier to control the levels.

 

[Jaysreefworld]

Bacteria in a bottle is always an option

 

[Agatheron]

I have Bacteria in a Bottle. I've used some of it, but there's a step 2 that I can also make use of. I may dose that tonight. Ive been reluctant because it reduces ammonia spikes.

 

[Jaysreefworld]

I cycled my tank with it and it did great. I was kinda iffy about it but in very impressed with the results

 

[Agatheron]

Just doing an update. I spiked the water with a very small amount of Ammonia yesterday, but curiously enough the water tests both later in the day and this morning showed hardly a blip. Ammonia is still at 0.25, perhaps a bit lower, and both Nitrites and Nitrates are showing at 0. The pH is a little low at 8.0.

However, something is indeed going on in the tank. There's a brownish algae which I presume is the early tank Diatom bloom. It's growing fairly rapidly, here's a picture of it this morning:

And then early this afternoon:

I understand that the diatoms are simply a natural development and they'll eventually go away... especially after the clean-up crew is added. However, I am not entirely sure the tank has had its initial ammonia cycle yet despite me spiking the tank yesterday. I've seeded the tank with Beneficial Bacteria, but I'm still waiting for the spike in both ammonia an nitrites before thinking of adding in the clean-up crew.

Any advice?

 

[qb6fire]

Looking good, tank is comming along great

I actually liked my tank more with the diatom bloom ha made it look more realistic to me

 

[Jaysreefworld]

Did you fully dose the bacteria?

 

[Agatheron]

Did you fully dose the bacteria?

Actually, I overdosed it. Put in the amount for algae control rather than tank start-up! I know that Diatom blooms in the early stages are perfectly normal... its certainly growing quickly... which means I may need to get the clean-up crew in there sooner than expected.

 

[Jaysreefworld]

Wouldn't hurt I got mine in Tuesday and I see a difference fast

 

[kdpuffer]

Something to keep in mind is that if your live rock was kept wet during your trip home then you likely won't have much of a cycle. I used all live rock in my 55g and let it sit for 2 weeks before testing and everything was 0. I had 2 clowns in the tank from day one so there was an ammonia source. My rock came straight out of a display tank It's been 2 months now and ammo is 0 nitrites 0 nitrates 0. This doesn't mean you won't have a cycle but if your dosing ammonia and it is going down without seeing an increase in trites and trates then it is processing properly and you should be ok to start slowly adding livestock. Start with snails and if you want crabs.

 

[Agatheron]

Something to keep in mind is that if your live rock was kept wet during your trip home then you likely won't have much of a cycle. I used all live rock in my 55g and let it sit for 2 weeks before testing and everything was 0. I had 2 clowns in the tank from day one so there was an ammonia source. My rock came straight out of a display tank It's been 2 months now and ammo is 0 nitrites 0 nitrates 0. This doesn't mean you won't have a cycle but if your dosing ammonia and it is going down without seeing an increase in trites and trates then it is processing properly and you should be ok to start slowly adding livestock. Start with snails and if you want crabs.

The live rock came out of the tank at the store, went into a foam containers, we drove home which was 15 minutes away, we took the rock upstairs, and I put it straight into the tank without doing any arranging. The aquascaping came later... so the rock was still obviously wet when I put it into the tank at home.

I spoke to the expert at the LFS today, and he said if the levels continue to be low, I'm safe to add in the first of the cleaning crew on Saturday... The bloom continues to grow, and by Saturday there should be lots of food for the new occupants. He suggested that I start with 3 smaller turbo snails and 5 hermit crabs and then work my way up from there.

 

[Agatheron]

Well, a fresh update. I added the first of the cleaning crew today. A modest amount, but they started in on munching on stuff right away. They look very happy the buffet.

In all I got 3 smaller turbo snails, 5 blue-legged hermit crabs, and one Halloween hermit crab. The latter is probably bigger than all 5 of the other hermits combined.

Some pictures:

Getting ready:

Once they were into the tank, they all started exploring and eating as they went. I'm not sure how many more of these guys I should get. Either way, I'm expecting at least 2 weeks before getting any more inverts.

More pics:

Glad to see them in the tank

 

[kdpuffer]

You float acclimate? Most people use the drip acclimation.

 

[Agatheron]

For these guys, float acclimate was fine since they are pretty hardy. When I do shrimp, or other inverts that are more sensitive to changes in salinity, I may end up doing drip. I try to make sure my salinity matches the tanks from the LFS. There's a conflict of sorts though, in that I've also been told to never include water from someone else's tank when bringing new fish. so how does one drip acclimate without including water from the livestock bag?

So far these guys have been doing a great job, but I am curious as to how many more of them I might need, and how many would be too many.

 

[Agatheron]

Okay... a short update and some new pictures. Yesterday I noticed a small aiptasia on the backside of one of the rocks... not really in a reachable position. We decided to get a single Peppermint Shrimp and a few more blue-legged hermits. Not surprisingly, the Peppermint Shrimp, which my daughter has nicknamed "Pepperme" has started exploring all the hiding places in the aquarium first.

On the other hand, I've started noticing other hitchhikers in the aquarium, which is quite exciting... but as always, it's a "Oh! That's new... I wonder if it's good or bad." There's a number of things, but the two I was able to take pictures of was the anemone that I had first found when we rearranged the live rock into its current configuration.

Here's a pic of it, but you're going to have to look carefully. It's smack in the middle of the pic, and it's essentially nestled into a hole, with just the edges of its tentacles sticking out. The tentacles are too short and wrong colour for aiptasia, but I'm not sure what kind this one is:

The second picture shows a number of tiny white polyps on the upper part of our top piece of live rock. They're really small, and I'm not sure if this is eeensy aiptasia growing, or if these are polyps from a surviving piece of coral. Any guesses?

I've also noticed some feather-like bits sticking out in silhouette in various nooks and crannies in the rock... at least two species of starfish of some sort... plus these long white tentacles that periodically extend from various tubes in the rock.

Looks like we got lots of hitchhikers... Still don't know if that's a good or bad thing!

 

[Agatheron]

Sorry for the bump, but a bit of an update. Looks like the smaller polyps may be a resurgent White Star Polyp Coral (Yay?), and the other is a benign Anemone (forget the name).

Our Halloween Hermit Crab traded in its shell for a bigger one this morning, but I am concerned that the shell is both too big and too heavy. "Jack" (as my daughter calls it) has been literally dragging this shell around instead of balancing the shell on his back. I nabbed another (lighter) cone type shell and put it in the tank just in case Jack gets tired of lugging this thing around. It's comical to watch, but I worry that he might hurt himself or get stuck with the weight.

 

[qb6fire]

I had my smallest hermit take the biggest empty shell ha after a few days dragging he was confronted by the largest hermit and they traded shells

 

[Agatheron]

Well... "Jack" seems to have adapted to his new shell, although curiously enough once on the sand, he drags it around... there's even a small trench showing where he's been.

The little guys do seem to be keeping the algae largely under contol, although there are a few places where it's getting a bit long. If anything it's collecting more on the sand now than on the rocks...

Also, we've ended up with another new anemone that crawled out of the rock... good size too. I'll snap a picture of it and post it in the identification forum when I get a moment.

 

[Agatheron]

A few more pics to share. Things are starting to mature nicely:

First a shot of the three anemones in our tank, all posing in the same frame. Two are at the bottom and one is at the top:

A couple of what may be pest starfish. I'm not sure of the type, but if you can help me that'd be great:

Our Halloween Hermit Crab "Jack" along with some proof that the reason he was hiding for a few days was because he was moulting:

Our new Cleaner Shrimp:

And then our two new Emerald Crabs:

All told things are going well. I even saw one of the baby brittle stars crawling quickly about the rock, although it looked as if it had a run in having only 2 1/2 arms... but that didn't seem to slow it down.

As of now our tank population looks like this:
Purchased Livestock:
15 Red Tipped Hermit Crabs
1 Halloween (Orange Striped) Hermit Crab
7 Trochus Snails
1 Peppermint Shrimp
1 Pacific Cleaner Shrimp
2 Emerald Crabs

In addition to this, we have those tiny starfish, the tiny brittle stars, 3 rock flower(?) anemones, several tube worms with a pair of long thin strands they extend into the water... plus at least two coral species that are very very tiny at the moment, but starting to take hold.