Joel's 1st Marine Build

[Ace25]

Level and bubbles look better. Next thing, turn down your skimmer just a tad on the dial. You want the bubbles/foam to stop about 1/2 way up the collection cup neck. It will still get the gunk out of the water, as the gunk builds up the bubbles become stronger and makes them foam over the top every once and a while. That is how you get the stuff in the cup to be darker and not water looking like your first pic.

As for the film.. some of it is skimmer, some of it is due to low flow in the sump (which is a good thing most of the time, but you need to have something to break up the water surface). I had to put a koralia3 in my sump to get the water/surface moving around because I was getting that same film.

 

[joel.uejio]

Cool. I turned down the skimmer and it looks like it's starting to do some nice collecting. I'll keep tabs on it and also on sump water movement.

I did another water test and got NH3=0, NO2=0, NO3=15 -- cycled! Then, may have jumped the gun a little bit, but went out and picked up some inverts: 2x Nassarius snails, 2x Nerite snails, 1x Skunk cleaner shrimp!!

Shrimp:


Nerite:


Nassarius probe (I couldn't believe how fast these guys buried!):


I'll keep testing and do water changes -- also plan to drop in some algae wafers in case there's not enough detritus for these guys to feed on.

Any suggestions / comments?

 

[greech]

I wouldn't feed the tank much at this stage. You may want to target feed the shrimp every other day with some mysis or maybe some pellets but just give him a little. Maybe a dozen or so pieces of mysis or 6-10 pellets. I use an eye dropper to spot feed mine and corals. Congrats on your first editions but I would not add anything else until your water tests can be confirmed routinely.

 

[Amphiprion]

You definitely need to feed--just be sure not to overdo it. Greech's suggestions seem reasonable.

 

[Fishfriend1]

looks good

 

[joel.uejio]

I fed some mysis shrimp to the cleaner as greech suggested and he loved it! It was like watching a contestant in one of those old-school carnival games where they're in a windy booth trying to grab cash out of the air. I also put in an algae wafer for the snails, but didn't see any immediate action.

As suggested, I won't add anything else and will keep testing the water to check for stability.

Thanks all!

 

[Amphiprion]

Some dried seaweed will work for the nerites, but Nassarius will prefer meaty foods like the mysids you fed to your cleaner shrimp.

 

[joel.uejio]

Ah, ok, gotcha. So should I get some seaweed sheets and stick to the glass for the nerites?

For the nassarius, should I use a baster to bury some mysis in the sand for them?

 

[greech]

Did the shrimp come to the turkey baster? Mine comes up to it and latches on and uses his legs to literally pull the mysis from the tube which is nice because food doesn't fly all over the tank. I think your nass snails probably have some cleaning up to do with your live sand and rocks but you could add a few pieces of mysis to the sand. My guess is that the shrimp will get to them first though . Try turning off all of your flow, fee the shrimp and then put a few mysis in a cormer where the nass can go get it. they will come out of the sand like zombies as soon as the scent hits the water. You can also pick them up and put them right next to the food (again your shrimp will be quick to get to them). You could also rubberband some algae to a rock and place it where the nerites can get to it easier than on the glass. With that few of snails, my guess is that they will have enough rocks to scour and find enough to eat on their own. Just try not to leave uneaten food sitting in the tank for extended periods.

 

[Amphiprion]

Unless there is a significant amount of carrion in and around the live sand and/or rock, the Nassarius wont' have much to eat without manually feeding them. They do not, despite some of common info you'll find, eat detritus or anything like it.