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Orca Tl450 - Newbie Startup Step By Step Quest

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Piccy time again:

Ok, Ernie the base jumper is now starting to worry me, yesterday he failed to have a clean landing and so managed to land on his back.
After 5 mins of trying to right the shell, in the end he decided enough has enough and rotate the shell by hand:
S1054967.jpg
Reg Legged Hermit crab -minus 1 shell

Blue Legged crab tried to impress the camera, but failed
S1054960.jpg

S1054958.jpg
 
Ok....in the third picture you can see on the glass, shed loads, and I mean, shed loads of "midges"
Are this OK for the tank?
I must have over a 100 of these scattered over the back wall and glass. Is there anything I can buy which like to eat them ?
Should I be worried, are they a sign that the water is ok or bad ?
 
The midges are most likely just small 'pods and are a good thing which normally come with a stable, mature tank.

The fish will eat most of the ones you can see and they are a good source of food but there will always be more in the rockwork. In my tank I very rarely see any pods during the day in the display tank (if they do venture out they only normally last a few seconds before the clown finds them) but my 'fuge is covered in them.

Dont worry about the hermits, they can completely come out of the shell if it ever gets completely stuck (dont know if you have seen this yet or not, they look pretty strange). It doesnt hurt them and you dont have anything else in there that will take advantage of them being shell less.
 
This weeks update.......

Minor emergency yesterday (saturday). My digital temp guage, sparked into life giving an alarm reading of 29.5'c.
Dont know what has caused it.......I've not touched the thermometer for over 4 weeks. My only thought is has one of the pumps is overheating.
So tonight's job is to strip everything down and find out which pump is the hottest. As now the thermometer is set to 23 and the digital readout reads 26.8.

Overall......everything is fine......I commented that I had ebay mist the other week.....well....I've kept the item i've bought.....
Green Star Polyp......It's about 1 1/2 inch square....bright purple base with 5 star like tenticles with a right yellow centre. Very cool to watch as it shimmers in the flow.
It was quiet the first 2 days then on the third day it slowly but surly started to spread and show it's colours.
SO....I've done 2 water changes since having the polyp and so far so good.

Next is to add a fish ?............I really want a yellow goby, 2 x clowns....but dont know if to get the clowns first or after the goby ?
Any suggestions anyone ?
 
Quick update before the weekend.
My first death in the tank :( One of my turbo snails wont move. He originally fell from one of the LR on to the sand (on his back). After about 3 hrs it was cleaning time for the tank and I've moved him back to the LR.
That was thursday morning......It's now friday night and he aint moved...the levels in the tank are the same so no spike as yet.

I'll give him till Sunday morning ......else it's time to remove him.
This weekend I'm going to get a yellow watchman gody.........my 8 weeks are up for the tank.
 
wow.....no comments from anyone else for a while (hope I'm not boreing anyone)
Sunday snail update........My two blue legged crabs are enoying the snails.
Two out of my three are now a main course. I did right the two snails (after falling off and lying on their tips)...but the crabs thought better of it and ate them.

Almost bought a nemo today....the misses saw one at the LFS which 'looked lonely'....but I want to get a pair and the others seem alot bigger than the lonely one.
SO.....next weekend...I'll get the nemos (same size) and two more turbo snails.
 
plutosmate said:
wow.....no comments from anyone else for a while (hope I'm not boreing anyone)
Sunday snail update........My two blue legged crabs are enoying the snails.
Two out of my three are now a main course. I did right the two snails (after falling off and lying on their tips)...but the crabs thought better of it and ate them.

Almost bought a nemo today....the misses saw one at the LFS which 'looked lonely'....but I want to get a pair and the others seem alot bigger than the lonely one.
SO.....next weekend...I'll get the nemos (same size) and two more turbo snails.
Click to expand...

Don't worry plutosmate we are still reading and enjoying your updates.
I have noticed that the forum has been quiet recently and ppl are keeping themselves to themselves a bit more.
For a start I haven't got around to updating my journal so must find some time to do that.

I lost a turbo snail to the crabs the other day, or perhaps he was dying and they cleaned him up?

Cheers
 
Morning everyone......Answer to the last question.....I am using stock lights - switched on by hand every day at 7:30, off again at 9pm (moon lights (LED's) till the moring)

The Green Star Polyp seems to be enjoying the light and the tank, which is a big sign of relief after the crabs rolled it off the LR twice in the first week.
I didn't really want to glue the thing down, just incase I had put it in the wrong place. Overall the polyp is growing......there are 20 smaller stars growing on the side.

Snail wise......once there were three.....now I'm down to one......also where I thought I had two blue knuckled crabs...infact one of them is a blue left handed crab. (cool)
Below is a quick piccie of the polyp first thing in the morning, every day at 7am he starts to spread his 'stars'.
I'm not feeding it anything at the moment......I dont know if I should ?
S1054952_2.jpg
 
Nope no need to feed it. Once it gets going it will spread fast. Mine has spread about 2 inches in around 2-3 months so dont put anything else too close to it.

I've had no luck with snails either. I suspect a lot of the ones I have got where half dead when I got them (though I still suspect my hermit crabs as well). I have given up on them now but do have a couple of hitch hiking ones that have survived from the first lot of lr that was put into the tank (one of them is about twice as big now and black&white).
 
Morning everyone, hope yr enjoying the english bank holiday weekend....shock horror it's raining again.
ANYWAY..........bought 2 x (Tank-Bred) Ocellaris Clownfish @ a cost of 22 quid each. Cute little fellows.
The first 3hrs of the day they would not venture away from the front of the tank......now.....24hrs on, they are wizzing all over the place. (I'll place a picture up later this afternoon).

The first thing they did was completely clear the front of the tank of pods.....there are none left ....but the sides and back are still covered, so hopefully they move around these and enjoy the spoils.

Can someone answer my quick question............I asked my LFS to supply me with the right food the my nemo's and he supplied me with some frozen food...(cant remember the name, I'll dig this out in 10mins along with a piccie) so I cut the frozen cube in half, added a little RO water and then waited 15mins for it to defrost.
Once defrosted chucked the egg cup of ro water and food in the tank. The nemo's hid from the food.....only eating say 1/4 of the meaty selection after 10 mins (Oh I also switched the pumps off as the food was wizing around too much).......I know it's only 24hrs since they arrived....but they must be hungery......whats is the best thing to give them?.......would they have filled up on the pods from the tank?

The misses has got so attached to the ickle nemo's that I dont want to loose my first marine fish...please help and advise.
 
plutosmate said:
Morning everyone, hope yr enjoying the english bank holiday weekend....shock horror it's raining again.
ANYWAY..........bought 2 x (Tank-Bred) Ocellaris Clownfish @ a cost of 22 quid each. Cute little fellows.
The first 3hrs of the day they would not venture away from the front of the tank......now.....24hrs on, they are wizzing all over the place. (I'll place a picture up later this afternoon).

The first thing they did was completely clear the front of the tank of pods.....there are none left ....but the sides and back are still covered, so hopefully they move around these and enjoy the spoils.

Can someone answer my quick question............I asked my LFS to supply me with the right food the my nemo's and he supplied me with some frozen food...(cant remember the name, I'll dig this out in 10mins along with a piccie) so I cut the frozen cube in half, added a little RO water and then waited 15mins for it to defrost.
Once defrosted chucked the egg cup of ro water and food in the tank. The nemo's hid from the food.....only eating say 1/4 of the meaty selection after 10 mins (Oh I also switched the pumps off as the food was wizing around too much).......I know it's only 24hrs since they arrived....but they must be hungery......whats is the best thing to give them?.......would they have filled up on the pods from the tank?

The misses has got so attached to the ickle nemo's that I dont want to loose my first marine fish...please help and advise.
Click to expand...

Hi Plutosmate

I feed mine a mixture of frozen misis shrimp, flake, and some frozen pellets (Not all at once!). I've also given them a little daphnia on occasion. With the misis shrimp cubes I just cut a few slices from the cube and maybe a little lump of it and put it straight into the tank. This seems to be more than enough to feed the two clowns, the goby and the PJ and still some left for the hermits. One cube will last me about 4 feeding sessions. With the flakes I will break up 3 or 4 flakes and sprinkle around the tank. In both cases I leave the PHs going as my goby hides around the back and he likes to pounce on the food as it floats past him. I only feed once a day, normally in the evening but I will occasionally skip a day (about once a week or so).
Touchwood, not had any probs with the fish yet.

Cheers
 
CageUK,

What I have is "Dutch Select Food - Artemia" - Brime shrimp.
Currently I cut the cube into 4 and feed them 1/4 in the morning (around 7am just before I leave for work) then another 1/4 at 6pm. I thought the whole cube would be way too much. I even have the crabs eating the odd one which passes their noses. They eat the whole lot (apart from the odd bits cought in my LR grass)

At the moment, that is all I'm feeding them, they have finished all the pods in the tanks, the four sides are now completly clean....there are a loads left on the LR.

I'll pop to the LFS and get some flake to try and vary thier diet.....no doubt by the weekend they'll have shrimps comming out of their fins.

When would you recommmend adding a goby watchman and cleaning shrimp.....is it too early or can I spend more money ?
 
plutosmate said:
CageUK,

What I have is "Dutch Select Food - Artemia" - Brime shrimp.
Currently I cut the cube into 4 and feed them 1/4 in the morning (around 7am just before I leave for work) then another 1/4 at 6pm. I thought the whole cube would be way too much. I even have the crabs eating the odd one which passes their noses. They eat the whole lot (apart from the odd bits cought in my LR grass)

At the moment, that is all I'm feeding them, they have finished all the pods in the tanks, the four sides are now completly clean....there are a loads left on the LR.

I'll pop to the LFS and get some flake to try and vary thier diet.....no doubt by the weekend they'll have shrimps comming out of their fins.

When would you recommmend adding a goby watchman and cleaning shrimp.....is it too early or can I spend more money ?
Click to expand...

Well I allowed about 2 weeks between adding my fish, but your tanks has been running longer than mine had at the fish adding stage. It doesn't take too long for the nitrifying bacteria to grow to accomodate your new inhabitants so if they have been in for a week then I would consider it safe to add a YWG and a shrimp. Possibly staggering adding them over a few days will be a better idea.

On a completely different note, I've really noticed how the hot weather has effected the tank temps. My Orca is up to the mid to high 27c and today went to mid 28c. I unplugged the heater a couple of days ago and will have to start leaving the light off during the day and maybe go for a night time light cycle for a while!
I haven't got a fan but will maybe have to resort to one.
I left the lid open tonight to cool it down a little and I then found my clown had jumped into the filter chambers at the back and I then spent 15mins trying to catch the little blighter.
My tropical tanks are also getting hotter but I'm less worried about them, they can cope with higher temps better than marine.
 
I have the same problem with heat, I've got a conservatory and the amount of heat that holds in the day, the moment I open the patio door....the tank will rise 2 degree in 1 hr.

I have dropped my temp guage down to 24/25 now........the water temp stays around 26 during the night and rises to 28 during the day.....thats with having the lights on 8hrs.

One thing I have noticed this week is I've had a mast boost in bubble alge, I'm going to do a water clean/change tonight but dont know if it will help.
My levels are all normal, even with adding 2 clowns I've not had a rise in anything. I'm starting to think I'm not doing my tests right.
But reading the instrustions 5 times last night, I cant go wrong. :blush:


On a plus side, my clowns are way cool......they are wizzing around the tank when ever someone is watching, if you hide (sounds silly but :D hear me out) they just stay by each other...riding the flow from the tank....it's almost as if they showing off.
Finally named them....Mork and Mindy (bring back this old TV prog, it was way cool.....nanoo...nanooo) Mindy is a little bigger than Mork and commands the tank, she pushes Mork around and tells him when he can have food (typical women :p ).

I'll chuck a piccie up at lunch time today, showing the different in shade of colours between the two.
 
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