Stampos' Nano Diary

[Stampos]

Your cycled get your CuC in!!!! Now the fun begins

What would you recommend mate?

I have to have a couple of hermits (at least) but not sure which snails I'd need?

Also noticed an Aiptasia earlier (will get some Joes Juice for this as not a fan of Peppermints) and some bubble algae, although fairly small.

 

[sorgan]

Go for 6 hermits (any flavour you want)
2 Turbo snails (asteria)
4 nassarius

And I have 1 peppermint in all my tanks, you rarely see them but they do their job

After a week or two bang a cleaner shrimp in.
Next week if your tests are good get a fish in, a nice hardy one.

 

[Stampos]

Go for 6 hermits (any flavour you want)
2 Turbo snails (asteria)
4 nassarius

And I have 1 peppermint in all my tanks, you rarely see them but they do their job

After a week or two bang a cleaner shrimp in.
Next week if your tests are good get a fish in, a nice hardy one.

Awesome, thanks

I am contemplating an emerald crab for the bubble algae, but then I like Porcelain crabs as well! Not just yet though.

Are turbo snails the ones you have to correct if they land upside down?

 

[sorgan]

Not all of them mate, go for spiny's over the pointy ones.
How the pointy ones ever managed to evolve is beyond me.

 

[Stampos]

Not all of them mate, go for spiny's over the pointy ones.
How the pointy ones ever managed to evolve is beyond me.

Thanks

 

[Stampos]

As I had the day off today I popped down to the LFS to get some CUC. Sadly I could only get two red legged hermits until the weekend. At least I know they will be well fed!

Also picked up three Cerith snails and three Trochus. I drip acclimated all of them for three hours (possibly too long as my water/salt is the same as the LFS?) but unfortunately I think the smaller of the two crabs may have attempted freeing a Cerith from its shell

Here are some pics

This is the Cerith which I think was attacked, the other two went straight under the sand.

After about twenty minutes he perked up and half buried himself

Trochus

And "Killer" the hermit, who is quite small compared to the other crab

He seems to have settled in an area and not moved since putting him in, hope he is ok?

Finally, last night I spotted a bristle worm

Back Saturday for some more Hermits, then I have two weeks off and a payday!

Simon

 

[Stampos]

I visited the LFS again today (on first name terms now ) and picked up some more bits.

Firstly I got some more hermits, as I must admit they are my favourite of all CUC. I got four dwarf blue legs (Clibanarius Tricolor) which I'm told are less destructive than blue knuckles?

Not a great pic but here they are:

Got some shells to hopefully prevent any murders!

And I managed to get a handful of Chaeto from the LFS sump system, and an Arcadia 1w LED to light it. I plan on adding my first fish next Thursday so thought I'd get a head start on reducing nitrates!

Took literally 30 seconds to fit

Still debating whether to light on reverse or constant lighting? Reverse seems to help avoid PH crashes from what I read but is 24/7 lighting better? Any advice appreciated!

Saw a beautiful six line wrasse down there which made me decide I want one too

Current fish wish list:

Pair of tank bred clowns
Six line wrasse
Mandarin (once tank established 6 months plus)

Simon

 

[seffieuk]

Its looking really nice, be careful mixing hemit species, they can often fight to the death, just make sure there are plenty of new shells and food

Seffie x

ps would you mind popping into my thread ' I was thinking'?

 

[Stampos]

Thanks Seffie

One of the blue legs has "upgraded" into one of the shells I added to the tank, I was recording him inspecting it but then he left it so I stopped filming. Little sod must have done the swap over night

As I'm on holiday and as my car got through its MOT for less than I expected(!!), I took a trip to The Japanese Koi Company in Bedfordshire today

First of all, wow what a shop! Bit of a mission to get to thanks to my satnav but I'll definitely be visiting again! They had Cayman alligators in there!! Amazing.

I picked up 5 frags, 3x Zoa, 1x Mushroom and 1x GSP.

Here they are acclimating:

Put them in the tank where I thought they would best suit (will move them if necessary) and waited for them to open.

The mushy started straight away:

Zoa's took a little while, but eventually they all opened:

I've decided the left side of my rockwork will be a Zoa garden, so I'll be looking to add frags of the brightly coloured ones in the future.

The GSP took about an hour to open, when it did I realised why I like it so much! Thanks Sorgan for recommending it

I plan to let it encrust the plate

Finally a full tank shot(ish)

Really happy with these, and looking forward to seeing the growth - how quick do these corals take to spread? I've noticed tiny little Zoa heads on the rocks. I'll hopefully get some pictures under the LED's later.

Really happy with the tank, Nitrates are at zero (along with all other Parameters).

Simon

 

[Stampos]

I was going to wait until they had settled in for a bit, but as they are doing so well I thought I'd pap them and add them on here:

My new clown pair

Already feeding on New Era marine flake (pink text) but will put them on the Aegis programme after 4 weeks. Lovely little things, staying side by side and picking the pods off the glass. Best hobby ever

Simon

 

[seffieuk]

Nice progress

Don't forget to add our newest clown pair to the clown fish of the week thread, pretty please and what are you rnew babies names?


Seffie x

 

[Stampos]

Nice progress

Don't forget to add our newest clown pair to the clown fish of the week thread, pretty please and what are you rnew babies names?


Seffie x

Thanks Seffie

I'll add them once I manage to get some better shots of them, no names so far as I am struggling to find any that suit!

I went to the LFS again yesterday and found a nice little toadstool coral (Sarcopython) for £12! It sulked initially, but seems to have cheered up after I sat him up high in direct flow of the powerhead. I noticed it shed a very fine layer and is now starting to show polyps. I am taking photos in stages to show the transformation so will add them once the polyps are fully out.

Simon

 

[-FighterFishh]

Your planned stocking will be brilliant! I love the mandarin. I've seen some really beautiful marine fish down at my LFS, but I think that a marine set up would be much too expensive for me unless it's nano!
Will be keeping an eye on this topic, especially interested in what fish you're going to put in!

 

[Stampos]

Thanks

As promised, here are the shots I took of my toadstool leather having a sulk for a couple of days after adding him to the tank. I read lots of great info on here saying how high flow will help remove the shed layer so I stuck him in front of the powerhead and reduced it to 1000lph - three days later he is happy and not even sulking after being put in his new place!

Absolutely fascinating animals

 

[Gytas]

wow