We tested my water today and everything was what it's suppose to be, so i have 2 new little additions that are doing great!

nice rock work, looks good...which can be tough to pull off considering the space constraints.

So what does your water quality look like?  What's your Ammonia, Nitrate and Nitrites look like?  Did you add anything to help with the cycling?

--AJ

My water quality is good. nitrite-0, nitrate-0, ammonia-0, ph 7.8...i checked everything today because i had quite a bit of algae growth in 2 days, so i got 3 snails and a horseshoe crab. hows yours coming along?

I don't know about that horseshoe crab, man.  I've heard bad things about them, let alone they get huge.

i havent really had that big of a problem and most good sand sifters get to big for that size of tank and easier to trade in for a smaller one on that kind of species

Things are coming along well.  Today I noticed all sorts of things that I had not previously seen.  There's bristle worms, a little shrimp-like thing living in the rock, and 4 colors of sponges.  I bought some crabs and they really cleaned up the algae that I had growing.  The only problem is that I think that I may have purchased too many as they cleaned up all the algae on the sand and are now working on the hair algae that's on the rocks.  I bought 6 crabs and 6 snails.  I didn't think that they were going to be so effective.  I'm going to have to keep an eye on things to make sure that they don't eat all the food.Â

On the negative side, I have some green bubble algae I need to remove from one of my rocks.  Other than that, things are doing good.   I should get my pump upgrade and additional powerhead tomorrow.  I'm considering doing a mod to the pump plumbing to put a spigot that I can use to make water changes easier.

I was chatting with some of the other guys about algae and they mentioned using GFO in the filter area.  It reduces/removes the phosphates that the algae uses to grow.  I'm looking into that.  It looks like it's a little expensive.  I'll keep you in the loop on what I find out in case you're interested in splitting an order or something.

--AJ

be carefull when removing bubble algea if you pop it, it will cause it to spread more a single emerald crab in that tank should take care of it

Posted By apjohnson on 10/27/2008 10:16 PM

Today I noticed all sorts of things that I had not previously seen.  There's bristle worms, a little shrimp-like thing living in the rock, and 4 colors of sponges.Â

This is exactly why reef tanks are so addictive...Â

Thanks for the warning....I've heard that.  I was planning on isolating it into a bucket while I do it so if I bust one, I can just rinse it good with saltwater and hope to get the spores off.  Hopefully I can free the tank of it before long.  Thanks again for the warning and I'll look into getting an emerald crab.

--AJ

My bit of brown algae thats turning into hair algae...

Looks like you are needing a little more rock. Clowns look good! I will update mine hopefully this week when the new light comes in. Did you talk to your dad about the acrylic tank yet?

A few newbies. Kinda fun playing hide and go seek with them.lol. Oh...and all of my tests turned out great!

Thats a nice tank. Those aquapods are pretty slick.

I've heard survival rate for horseshoes are low but I don't know much about them. Here's a few facts I found out about them:

• Horseshoe crabs possess the rare ability to regrow lost limbs, in a manner similar to sea stars

• The horseshoe crab can grow up to 60 centimetres (24 in) in length (including tail); the female is typically 25 to 30 percent larger than the male.

• The crabs feed on mollusks, annelid worms, other benthic invertebrates, and bits of fish. Lacking jaws, it grinds up the food with bristles on its legs and a gizzard that contains sand and gravel.