new cleaners with pics

Jman

Jman

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Jan 21, 2004
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Got a cleaner shrimp, a couple of snails and a serpent star today.
the yellow tang went nuts when the shrimp hit the water. the clowns weren't sure it wasn't food but the tang was just ecstatic. She presented right away but the shrimp was still a little jumpy from the change. Soon enough they got into a routine. The tang does laps around the tank and stops for the cleaner. got a pic of them together. It's not very good but...cleaner

The serpent star made a beeline for one of the empty hermit crab shells and hasn't been out since? I'll wait till tomorrow to worry about the star.

The LFS said these were turbo snails can u id them for me for sure?

I want to thank everyone for all of their help in getting this thing off of the gound.

tank
 
The tank's looking nice so far! Did a baboon fall in and die?

Those snails look a lot like turbos to me. Round, fairly smooth shell, distinct split in the foot. I'd say turbo.
 
I bought some iodine for the cleaner.(for molting and all that) While I was at it I picked up some Kent's liquid calcium. One of the patrons at an LFS said that it promotes coraline algae growth and the label says that its good for the fish and inverts as well. Should I use it? Will it help?
 
:)

awesome pictures! i wanna post some of mine soon! real quexik question....can a yellow tang be kept successfully in a 30 gal. reef tank?
 
I wouldn't dose iodine unless you're testing for it. As far as I can tell, the connection between iodine and shrimp molting is controversial at best. There's probably plenty coming in with food and water changes in any case.

Adding calcium is generally a good thing. But again, you have to test to be sure you have the right levels. I don't want to make this sound too complicated, but the main thing is to keep calcium and alkalinity balanced. If you dump in a lot of calcium, it can throw you alkalinity out of whack, so you don't want to add too much. For a FOWLR tank, keeping Ca above 350 ppm is probably fine, and you can probably just add the Liquid Calcium sparingly. If you want to push the Ca to higher levels, you will want to go to kalkwasser or a two-part additive to balance Ca and alkalinity.

I am wondering if any of this makes sense.
 
Great stuff!
I appreciate it. I'll pick up some tests.

Eventually when the tank has been up and running for several months(and I'm ready to plunk down for lighting!!) I will probably get some corals so being ready to test and maintain these trace elements will part of my routine in the future.
 
I agree with Mogurnda 100% on testing your water prior to adding additives. I don't know what anyone else has done but, I have a lot of success with adding a variety of cleaners to my tank. Different snails will exploit a number of different feeding opportunities in your tank and more efficiently remove algae.
hth
Chris
 
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