80 L Nano Tank Having Trouble Please Help

[marineNoob]

Hi everyone

After reading loads and keeping tropical fish for a few years I finally took the plunge and purchased a 80l orca reef setup.

After setting up the water (with RO) adding live rock and live sand I played the waiting game......

After three weeks the water parimeters droped to acceptible levels ph 8.4, nitrite 0, nitrate 0 and amonia 0.

I started to get a massive algea bloom consisting of brown hair algea and green moss type stuff

After reading that I should think about putting in a cleaning crew, I decided to add two red legged hermit crabs (these are the first inhabitants of the tank)

This is where the problems start......I aclimitised them for about an hour by slowly adding water to thier bag (which was in the top of the tank to maintain the temp) and they seemed fine....... then came the time to put them in

As soon as I put them in the tank they shot in their shells. It has now been about 18 hours and they have not moved at all, I tryed moving them to a more sheltered part of the tank (in a cave) and left them over night but still no movement??

Are they dead and is there any way I can check ?

Does anyone have any idea what is going wrong?

Any help would be much appreciated

Thanks again

 

[littleme1969]

Whats the s.g on the tank? and also whats the temp?
Red legs are very lazy in the hermit world , and do tend to chill most of the time. If you want alge eating you want blue legs, they are more agressive, but only to each other, wont bother anything else in the tank and only fight when one sheds. Hermits, snails and shrimps are very sensertive and will react badly to sudden changes. They could be just resting, but to me it does not sound good. Mine started raoming stright away after a 2 hour slow drip aclimatisation.

 

[@ombomb]

If you want alge eating you want blue legs, they are more agressive, but only to each other, wont bother anything else in the tank and only fight when one sheds.

I'm afraid there are many people, me included, who have had much more aggressive blue hermits than the ones littleme describes.

Sounds to me like a problem with the water params. Did you check the TDS of the RO water?

 

[littleme1969]

I can only comment on my own stock. I keep Red Legs, Orange Claw, Black legs, and the common blue legs. The only ones that show any aggression are the blue legs, and only ever to each other when they shed their skin. So I just seperate the one thats getting picked on to the oposite side of the tank, and calm is restored. I guess if you didnt feed them and there was not enough food to go round, then yes they could get quite nasty, but mine have always been a fantastic addition to my tank, and to be honest out of the hermits I have they do the best job of rock cleaning and have never bothered any corals. I have about a dozen in a 25g tank with no problems what so ever. I guess its down to managment of the tank and feeding.

 

[@ombomb]

I guess its down to managment of the tank and feeding.

That's right, everyone has seen blue hermits being aggressive isn't managing or feeding the tank correctly

 

[marineNoob]

Thank you very much for all of your help.....

I decided to leave them for another day and still no movement

So i took them back to lfs and swapped them for an orange stripy and a blue legged they are having a brilliant time in the tank as they have the whole tank to themselves for the minute......and they are attempting to eat an algae bloom yum yum

Thanks again