Newbie: JBJ 12 gallon nano build

[ahoDMV]

We had a bad storm in Virginia that knocked out most of the power of northern Virginia.

Good news snails are moving!

[Jmkb02]

Storm are our worse nightmare! I found a ups online for 60 bucks that will last about 4 hours for my two tanks, or about 6 if I just run Powerheads and pumps. Pretty good deal. I highly recommend looking into it if power outages are common in your area. Glad to hear the cuc made it through.

[ahoDMV]

Yeah I'll have to look into one of those. Cuc actually doesn't look to good. My dad got my hopes up but I'll see if they move tomorrow morning.

[Jmkb02]

How they looking today?

[ahoDMV]

The two snails don't look to great. Haven't moved much. So I moved them on top of a rock and see if they'll move from there tomorrow morning.

Went to the lfs today and picked up two turbo snails and 3 nerite snails. They seem to be doing moving around a lot.

The hermit crab is moving all over the tank.

The tank seems to had algae all over the glass this morning and there is a bunch of hair algae on the rocks.

Here is an updated photo: did a water change today and parameters were normal.

Temp 79
NH3 - 0
NO2 - 0
NO3 - 0
Ph - 8.2
Salinity - 1.025

[ahoDMV]

If the snails are dead could I empty the shell and leave it on the sand bed? If so how do I go about removing the snail from the shell?

[Jmkb02]

The crabs will clean em out don't worry about it. What all do you have for your cuc now?

[Readingexcalibur]

Originally Posted by Jmkb02

The crabs will clean em out don't worry about it. What all do you have for your cuc now?

The crabs will move in! Lol

[Jmkb02]

Yeah when they get big enough or the snails die off, the crabs will take over that shell. So what all do you have for a cuc?

[ahoDMV]

I have 2 turbos, 3 nerites, 1 blue legged crab, and i think 1 nassarius.

planning on getting 1 or 2 more crabs by the end of this week.

[ahoDMV]

Would it be okay to get more crabs today? or should I wait a little?

[Jmkb02]

Yeah you can get more today, try and get that hair algae under somewhat control. Bigger hermits worked for me, To get it under control, but they will starve if you don't have a constant supply of food for them to eat. Turbos are good eaters too but they will knock over frags due to their size. I like emerald crabs bc they eat other things besides hair algae like bubble algae and dietrus, but they are supper sensitive to water level spikes so you have to be careful with them. Not trying to scold I had to learn the hard way on most of this. Hope it helps.

[ahoDMV]

Heading to the lfs soon. Planning on buying one emerald crab, one hermit, some snails to clean up the sand bed, and possibly a cleaner shrimp.

Is it too early for a cleaner shrimp?

[Jmkb02]

How steady have your levels been? Do you have any fish yet?

[ahoDMV]

Parameters has been pretty steady. Just working on the temp still.

Still no fishes.

Came back from the lfs with 2 blue legged hermit crabs, 2 emerald crabs and 5 nassarius. I think I'm set with the cuc.

[Jmkb02]

I would pull some of that hair algae off by hand if possible and when is the last water change you did?

[ahoDMV]

Did a water change right before I put the new livestock in.

I'll probably try to pull them out when I do my next water change. Or should I do it ASAP?

[Jmkb02]

Well it's not an ASAP thing just when u get a chance. Soon than later is prob better though.

[ahoDMV]

I ended up going to check out a new lfs and I ended up coming back with a tail spot blenny.

Did a little algae hair pulling today and also ended up moving the rocks around. i'll up date with pictures

[Jmkb02]

Way cool didn't know they had blennys that small. He should do some damage on that hair algae. Good job on that buy