Gatorfreak
Aquarium Advice FINatic
I drove to LiveRocks.com yesterday. About 2.5 hours for me. Mike and Ron are great. They spent over an hour with just my wife and I showing us around, giving advice, and helping us pick out some rocks. The facility is pretty cool too. Lots of cool stuff in those tanks!
I've been reading on here for a month or two but now that I finally got LR I have so many questions!
I have a 90 gal tank with 90# sand, and 60# base rock. I added 40# keys rock and 20# gulf rock from LR.com at about 6pm last night (when I got home). I just put the rock right in for a couple reasons... I wanted to minimize die-off and secondly, that I can't tell what's what anyway.
The tank cleared up over night so I couldn't take pics until this morning but I had to go to work. I'll post some pics tonight.
On to the questions...
1. I saw a starfish with about a 1" wingspan moving across the sand this morning. It has short,red bristles/hairs. What's that?
2. I have many crabs. Seem they're all red. I saw a larger one this morning with hairy legs but the body was not hairy. I've seen a pic of a "bad hitchhiker" that was a hairy crab but I remember it having a hairy body too. This isn't it, is it?
3. I hear clicking/popping. It's usually a single pop but sometimes multiple with a second or so in between. Not really rapid fire. I don't know if I can trust me ears but it sounds like they come from both ends of the tank. Pistol shrimp? Multiple pistol shrimp? Mantis shrimp?
4. Do feather dusters need light? In other words, should I position them so they have more light? I have lots of 'em.
5. How long should I expect it to take before I get an ammonia spike? I put in a piece of grouper (was caught the day before) that was about the size of a shrimp.
6. What, if anything, should I be feeding everything during the cycling?
I'm so worried about things dying! I could see tracks in the sand this morning so I know a lot of things are still living and moving around. I also got a purple sea cucumber and at least one hermit crab. Now I just can't wait to get home and see how things are going.
I've been reading on here for a month or two but now that I finally got LR I have so many questions!
I have a 90 gal tank with 90# sand, and 60# base rock. I added 40# keys rock and 20# gulf rock from LR.com at about 6pm last night (when I got home). I just put the rock right in for a couple reasons... I wanted to minimize die-off and secondly, that I can't tell what's what anyway.
The tank cleared up over night so I couldn't take pics until this morning but I had to go to work. I'll post some pics tonight.
On to the questions...
1. I saw a starfish with about a 1" wingspan moving across the sand this morning. It has short,red bristles/hairs. What's that?
2. I have many crabs. Seem they're all red. I saw a larger one this morning with hairy legs but the body was not hairy. I've seen a pic of a "bad hitchhiker" that was a hairy crab but I remember it having a hairy body too. This isn't it, is it?
3. I hear clicking/popping. It's usually a single pop but sometimes multiple with a second or so in between. Not really rapid fire. I don't know if I can trust me ears but it sounds like they come from both ends of the tank. Pistol shrimp? Multiple pistol shrimp? Mantis shrimp?
4. Do feather dusters need light? In other words, should I position them so they have more light? I have lots of 'em.
5. How long should I expect it to take before I get an ammonia spike? I put in a piece of grouper (was caught the day before) that was about the size of a shrimp.
6. What, if anything, should I be feeding everything during the cycling?
I'm so worried about things dying! I could see tracks in the sand this morning so I know a lot of things are still living and moving around. I also got a purple sea cucumber and at least one hermit crab. Now I just can't wait to get home and see how things are going.