Pods have arrived!

[VDub90]

So I went away on vacation for a week over christmas. I had given the 5 damsels in my tank away before I left. That left a bunch of crabs and snails. The nitrites had just dropped to zero a few days before I left(Yaaayy, my 3 month cycle has finally finished). On my way home I picked up a Royal Gramma, Firefish, as well as a Turbo snail, 3 more Nassarius snails, as well as a Cleaner Shrimp and a very small Tuxedo urchin. When I got home I checked the water and nitrites were still at 0, nitrates were at about 5. Everyone was alive except for 2 of the 3 Astrea snails I had, one was upside down so I flipped it over and it was still alive (I'm going to guess the other 2 fell over just after I left).

Anyway I noticed on the glass is covered in white dots which move. Upon further reading I'm guessing that these are copepods? So I'm glad to see my tank is moving along quite nicely after my cycling marathon (stupid Prime, lol).

Just for safety's sake I acclimated the new livestock seperately using the drip method for about 3 hours. And now they are in the tank and look like they are doing great. I'll have to update in the morning.

I also picked up a Coralife 3/4 watt lunar blue led moonlight, it bolts into the fixture super easy and looks fantastic. Just thought to post, if anyone cares. I check these forums a few times a day for new posts, and it was real tough being away for a week. Hope everyone had a good holiday.

[Mako]

Lol, you didn't miss anything. AC got spanked by the server for exceeding the bandwidth limit and was shut down for the last four days. Back up today!! :dance


Yup, you have amphipods or copepods or Ipods or beanpods, whatever they may be. A good thing to have, just don't get too attached. They come and go. The firefish will make quick work of most of them.

The blue led's look cool. I personally can't justify myself dropping $50 on one, but then again I'm a cheapskate (I use multiple 1/2 watt blue LED night lights, they're only $2 each at Walmart and rig up nicely in a wood canopy)

[VDub90]

Yeah these Led's are an accessory for Coralife fixtures, they also can be mounted universally, they were 19.95(Can) which is pretty reasonable.

I also noticed today I have a 1 inch bristleworm in my tank, when I showed my 8 year old daughter, she said "ohh yeah I saw that in the fish bag with the empty hermit shells". I guess it's my first hitch-hiker. It makes me a little nervous though, how big should I let it get, before I get it out? I heard that a nylon and some shrimp works good.