Setting Live Rock and Live Sand

[Bearfan]

Excellent! Did you have it on a normal light schedule and all? Did you dip the rock, or just place it direct?

[reefrunner69]

Did you dip the rock, or just place it direct?

Whether you do water changes or not, should be dependant on whether you get a spike and how high it goes. I suspect it will go higher than .25, but ynk. However, I highly recommend you have a couple 5g buckets on hand, one mixed to the proper SG (using carbonated water) and one mixed to the appropriate SG using RO/DI water. Dunk the rock in the carbonated SW first and let it sit for a minute, the fizzing will drive mantis and other unwanted hitchikers nuts and cause them to flee the rock to get away from it. Then dunk the rock in the RO/DI SW and place it in the tank. Be prepared to put the beneficial hitchikers back in the tank, they don't like the fizzing either

highly recommend you have a couple 5g buckets on hand, one mixed to the proper SG (using carbonated water) and one mixed to the appropriate SG using RO/DI water. Dunk the rock in the carbonated SW first and let it sit for a minute, the fizzing will drive mantis and other unwanted hitchikers nuts and cause them to flee the rock to get away from it. Then dunk the rock in the RO/DI SW and place it in the tank. Be prepared to put the beneficial hitchikers back in the tank, they don't like the fizzing either

I agree..

I suspect it will go higher than .25

Hey Kevin wanna put some money on it??? lol

James

normal light schedule

BTW yes I did have it on my normal light schedule... I didnt dip it but wish i would have.. I only had 2 mantis is 100lbs though and I caught them both.. However i did have a mated pair of pistols and an extra one lol still have yet to catch them...


James

[Bearfan]

Any preference on carbonated water. I am a pierre fan myself, but maybe I'm just a snob

Seriously though, I would want to remove the mantis shrimp and pistol shrimp and bristle worms. Is there anything else I should look out for? How long would they survive in the carbonated water before causing damage to the beneficial species?

The pistol shrimp are just removed because of the loud noise they produce, correct?

If there were ones I could not recognize, could I house them temporarily in my 3 gal tank until I could get them Identified if the water conditions were the same as my tank?

I've edited this 3 times now, but more questions:

Would the dips hurt the other life forms such as the sponges, corals, feather dusters, nudibranch or whatever has decided this rock isn't too bad a place to live?

[reefrunner69]

I would want to remove the mantis shrimp and pistol shrimp and bristle worms

The mantis definitely, the pistol...depends how you feel about them (they are diggers), leave the worms, unless they are over 4-4". The smaller ones are benificial detrivores.

Is there anything else I should look out for?

Crabs, unless you can ID them as beneficial (no such puppy, IMO) they should be removed.

If there were ones I could not recognize, could I house them temporarily in my 3 gal tank until I could get them Identified if the water conditions were the same as my tank?

Yep

Would the dips hurt the other life forms such as the sponges, corals, feather dusters, nudibranch or whatever has decided this rock isn't too bad a place to live?

No, it won't actually hurt the pests either, it just irritates them till the water goes flat.

How long would they survive in the carbonated water before causing damage to the beneficial species?

They should survive indefinitely, albeit they will be madder than hell. I personally would remove all species from the carbonated water between each rock dunking. Simply to prevent any mantis or crabs from trying to escape the fizzing by jumping in the next rock.

[Bearfan]

That's what I was thinking. So, you're not a crab fan?

The pistols, I was more concerned about the noise. This tank is in my bedroom.

Oh yeah, and I was kind of serious about what kind of carbonated water, or does it matter.

[reefrunner69]

Oh yeah, and I was kind of serious about what kind of carbonated water, or does it matter.

Oops, meant to answer that question, plain carbonated water, no flavoring, whatever is cheapest.

The pistols, I was more concerned about the noise. This tank is in my bedroom.

Oh yeah, they wopuldn't be in my tank if they were anywhere near the bedroom

That's what I was thinking. So, you're not a crab fan?

I like their legs and claws on my plate, with some lemon and melted butter

Quote:

The pistols, I was more concerned about the noise. This tank is in my bedroom.



Oh yeah, they wopuldn't be in my tank if they were anywhere near the bedroom

Even in the livingroom they still wake me up.. I am soo annoyed with the noise I wish i would have dipped the rock.. Well too late now.. lol

You will notice many many Red Emerald crabs and Anemone crabs as well.. There was soo many crabs in the LR is was unbelievable.. I got most of them out of my tank now lol... Mantis trap helped a bit.. I am mainly glad that all the Mantis are gone.. BTW i have found whelks in the LR too so Id remove them as well...

HTH,
James

[Bearfan]

What is it that the crabs do that is so damaging?

Also, I'm searching the web for info on whelks, but to no avail as of yet.

How did you dispose of the crabs and mantis shrimp?

How did you dispose of the crabs and mantis shrimp?

I placed them in a 29gal tank that I had that was empty then I traded all of them for some frags.. However 1 mantis ate the other lol...

I wasnt able to find any info on whelks either.. I just at the advice of another Advisor here removed anything that looked like a whelk as I lost a clam that was doing great for a while.. They look like Nassarisus snails..

James

Ohh and the crabs well they just liked to rearrage my rocks.. 1 of them tried to eat my lettuce Nudi..

James

[Bearfan]

Whelks aren't a very popular net topic yet.

[Bearfan]

I was looking at more of the blue leg hermits and such, not so much the emerald type crabs. I've watched them fin nip at too many pet stores. Are hermit crabs damaging?

I have 40+ hermits in my tank and haven't had an issue as of yet.. They clean the algae very well.. I know that at Etropicals if you order 60.00+ of their tank cleaners its free shipping.. Awesome deal.. I like the Blue Legged hermits, Red tipped, and the Zebra hermits..

As for whelks I tried to even search using Copernic Pro and wasnt able to find much.. You might want to check Clamsdirect.. Whelks are clam predators mainly and you might be able to find some there.. There is a link in my sig to the clamsdirect website..

HTH<
James

[Bearfan]

Cool. I like hermit crabs and was hoping they were okay.