20 G Long Journal

[nogarobluenano]

Well today my heater malfunctioned to the point of failure and the temperature got up to around 84.7, a few hours later I noticed little things floating around that looked like little shrimp or similar creatures. The thing is some of them have longer legs, and some with none, is this just normal die off?

 

[SkiFletch]

No not really. Heater malfucntions are a big deal and not be messed with. Was the heater new?

 

[nogarobluenano]

The heater was new, it was a hydor inline I posted another topic about it. I went out and bought a aqueon today and it seems to be holding temperature much better. Pet solutions is going to refund me the hydor purchase when I send it back to them (they are paying for return shipping). But other than that the tank is doing fine, nitrate and nitrite are 0, ph is about 8.2-8.4, sg is 1.023, and ammonia is just starting to spike a little.

 

[xxBarneyxx]

Looking like a good start. Sucks about the heater, the things you found floating on the top where probably just 'pods of various sorts. It may have been possible with cured LR to not have any noticable spike but I think after the heater probably you will get a fair amount of die off which will cause a spike.

One other thing I would suggest is putting a background on the tank.

 

[nogarobluenano]

I know, I now regret not spraying it black. Algae is really starting to build up more and more every hour.

 

[xxBarneyxx]

Personally I like using plastic/vinyl backgrounds rather then painting them. Then if I get bored of it I can swap it in a few seconds

Dont worry too much about the algae. It will be bad to begin with. Just remove what you can by hand and once the tank has cycled your cuc will most likely be able to take care of the rest Once the tank has cycled the amount of algae growing will drop a lot as well.

 

[nogarobluenano]

Well, the algae exploded overnight, I'll post pics later. My ph is 8.2, nitrate is 3.0, nitrite is .10 , ammonia looks like about .25-.30 . Should I do a water change of about 10% tonight, opinions?

 

[nogarobluenano]

Well I am piecing together my CUC right now, here is the list I have right now, any suggestions or if I need to add more or less of what I have picked out let me know, I won't be ordering until I think I need them, let me know, I'd appreciate it.

Nassarius Snail x5
Astraea Turbo Snail x3
Cerith Snail (BYO) x5
Scarlet Reef Hermit Crab x1
Dwarf Blue Leg Hermit Crab x1
Peppermint Shrimp x1

 

[nogarobluenano]

Well here are pictures from about 5 minuets ago:

I know the water level looks a little low, thats because it is, I had to pull off the piece of junk heater to send back to pet solutions and lost some water from the tank. Hopefully tomorrow night I'll be doing a water change to get the levels down to zero.

 

[SkiFletch]

Wow, cyanobacteria already? Watch out for that stuff, the heater must have caused a good amount of dieoff

 

[nogarobluenano]

It must of, what should I do??!?!

 

[nogarobluenano]

Well here are my levels for today:

SG 1.023
pH 8.2
Ammonia .25
Nitrate .25
Nitrite .1

I did about a 9-10% water change and I will be checking the levels later tonight, any advice on when to add CUC?

 

[xxBarneyxx]

Wait till the ammonia and nitrite are at zero. If it was me I would then wait a couple of days to make sure it stays at zero and then add half the cuc, leave it another week and add the other half. I would probably add some more LR before adding any CUC though.

 

[nogarobluenano]

I am supposed to be getting 15lbs of 3 year old cured Fiji LR on friday. I wasn't planning on CUC until way after that.

 

[nogarobluenano]

Well, I checked the levels again about an hour ago and came up with this:

SG 1.023
pH 8.2
Ammonia .15
Nitrate 1.2
Nitrite .1