First dwellers!

[Tooch]

I'm happy to announce that my nano cube has it's first inhabitants! I went out Monday and got 3 Margarita Snails, 3 hermit crabs, an Emerald Green crab, and another awesome crab. I can't remember the name of it right now. It's a yellowish color, and it has a bright green line that goes across it's face and down the side of the body. They are super cool.

As soon as I stuck them in there, they started right on the LR.

Which brings me to another question. The LR when I bought it had a bunch of white worm looking things on them. I figured that's exactly what they were, but just dead. I'm noticing that they are starting to "sprout". They look like the large Featherdusters (I think that's what their called) that our lfs has in their 600gal reef tank, but not so colorful. Anyone have any idea what they are? It seems as if they are pretty common, as there are several on the rock. I was hoping for some other cool hitch hikers like I've been reading about in the threads, but so far, nothing else has shown up. Still pretty awesome though! thumbs2:

[jbeining75]

Civic try to take a pic and post it up. I'm sure someone will know what it is. Congrats on your nano setup......

[Pez]

ZC I am in the same boat as you just getting started with some clean up crews ready to put some fish in soon have you decided on what fish you will put in your tank when you are ready ? Find out the name of that crab you really like I am in need for a few more. Thanks Pez

[Tolley]

Congrats on your new additions! New stuff will show up i remember fenix found nothing for a while, then something new every week!Try looking it at night with your flashlight! thumbs2:

[spudbuds]

Congrats on the new stuff! A pic of your "growth" would help identify it.

[Levi]

man, i want a nano now

[Fenix]

Sweet dude. But need pics :thumb:

As Tolley said, you'll have to be patient and wait for things to come out. I still find weird things now and then, and my tank is tiny. I'm still adding coral and every time I throw in a new piece something weird comes out of it. I'm sure you have a whole bunch of stuff its just you haven't seen them yet. I spend a disgusting amount of time watching my tank and I keep a camera beside it too. You never know when something weird is going to happen.

Congrats on the new addition. I hope you have better luck with the crabs than I did.

Btw: heres a un-related question. what does the Zamboni actually do? Does it drop hot water on the ice to melt the top layer of ice? always wondered.

[Levi]

Btw: heres a un-related question. what does the Zamboni actually do? Does it drop hot water on the ice to melt the top layer of ice? always wondered.

lol zamboni

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[kitten3326]

Congratulations on the nano tank, we are setting up a 90 gallon salt water corner tank come this summer, can`t wait, I will need lots of help:)

[Tigerbarb]

Glad to hear about your new friends! Be sure to post some pix!

[Tooch]

LOL First things first...

I figured out the crabs we have. One is an Emerald Crab, the other is a Sally Lightfoot crab. The white things are some type of worm. I've been taking pictures of the tank every night, around 8pm. This way I can compare pictures after awhile and hopefully notice the most subtle differences! I'll have to get some up for you guys!

I took the water back last night to get re-checked. The phosphates were down where they needed to be, but now my Calcium was low (at 300, needs to be at 450) and my pH was low (around 7.6). So the guy we talk to about our SW gave us a bottle of calcium drops for free, and we bought Kent superbuffer to raise the pH. I don't remember what the calcium drops are, but we're adding 4 drops/night to bring that up. I also dissolved about 1/2tsp in some FW last night and added that to the tank. Hopefull this will level out soon!

In simple terms, a Zamboni shaves of a small layer of ice, about 1/16", and then lays down a new layer of hot water. There is a towel that drags along behind the conditioner (Big thing the zamboni pulls behind it) that spreads the water out, and fills in whats left of the cracks. There is actually 2 water tanks in the zamboni, a big one and a smaller big one. The one holds around 300 gallons of water, which is what is used to lay down a new layer of ice. The smaller one holds about 60gallons, which is used as wash water. As the blade shaves the ice, it gets pushed into an auger, which carries the ice to the middle of the conditioner. The wash water sprays at high velocity and attempts to seperate the ice from any debris that it got (mouth guards, tape) so it doesn't clog. Then the ice is carried up another auger and sprays into the dump bucket.

The blade is 6' long and as sharp as a razor blade. It really sucks, they needed changed once a week. If you even touch a newly sharpened blade, your guaranteed at least a small cut, worse if your hand moves across it.

[Tooch]

Congrats on the new addition. I hope you have better luck with the crabs than I did..



BTW: What did you mean by this?

[Tooch]

ZC I am in the same boat as you just getting started with some clean up crews ready to put some fish in soon have you decided on what fish you will put in your tank when you are ready ? Find out the name of that crab you really like I am in need for a few more. Thanks Pez


The crab I really like is the Emerald Crab. As far as fish, I'm not 100% sure. A couple of clown fish, and a 6-line wrasse I'm thinkin. I'm really into this because I want to do some coral, so the fish are just a bonus in my case.

[Fenix]

BTW: What did you mean by this?

I found crabs to be annoying and they ultimately died.

[Tooch]

I found crabs to be annoying and they ultimately died.



LOL annoying, because they died? Or for other reasons? More info! :ezpi_wink1:

[Levi]

i've read that hermits can get really big and start wrecking stuff in the tank

they are so cool tho

[Fenix]

i've read that hermits can get really big and start wrecking stuff in the tank

they are so cool tho

What he said. Except mine didn't grow they just wrecked stuff.

[Tooch]

No kidding! Well, I havent had any problems with them yet, but they've only been in there a few days. The second I dropped them in, they started eating crap off the LR. I hope I don't have any problems with them, because they do a great job eating detrius (sp?). The Emerald and Sally Lightfoot are awesome tho!

[Pez]

The emerald crab is the one I am thinking about I see you like him so I will probably give him a try. I put a Royal gramma Basslet in the tank today so hopefuly he will adapt and do fine. He is my first offical salt water fish!!!!! PEZ

[Tooch]

The emerald crab is the one I am thinking about I see you like him so I will probably give him a try. I put a Royal gramma Basslet in the tank today so hopefuly he will adapt and do fine. He is my first offical salt water fish!!!!! PEZ


He;s an awesome crab. I'll get pix of him up tomorrow when I get to work. For some reason, my fiances laptop won't allow me to add pictures right to the thread for some reason... It says it's because a pop-up was blocked, but I have the pop-up blocker shut off under the Tools bar... Weird...

I just got another 3 hermits and 3 Margarita Snails today. So now I'm at 6 snails, 6 hermits, an emerald crab and a sally lightfoot crab! Calcium still needs to come up and Phosphate needs to come down, so I'm waiting on fish/corals until everything is leveled out

[Fenix]

No kidding! Well, I havent had any problems with them yet, but they've only been in there a few days. The second I dropped them in, they started eating crap off the LR. I hope I don't have any problems with them, because they do a great job eating detrius (sp?). The Emerald and Sally Lightfoot are awesome tho!

Well the crab becomes a problem when you have coral cause they step all over it. congrats on even more stuff

[cocoa_pleco]

yeah, regular hermits arent a issue, mine ignore my corals. when i had hair algae i was gonna get a scarlet crab but i heard they sometimes destroy corals