Was meaning to make a thread of the timeline of my nano tank for a while...
Initial Wish List:
2 Pom pom crabs
1 Porcelain Anemone Crab
2 Skunk cleaner shrimp/fire shrimp
3 Sexy Shrimp
1 Emerald Crab
1 Halloween hermit crab
1 Bumblebee shrimp
1 Anemone shrimp (like a Pederson's)
October 3, 2019:
Initial Equipment:
12~ Reef Saver Dry Rock
Stock Lights
Stock Pump
75W Neo Therm Heater
20lb CaribSea Oolite Sand
After about a week of having reef saver dry rock (12~ lbs?) , 20lb oolite sand, and generous additions of bottled bacteria I decided to buy some
critters for my tank. I have had experience using this bottled bacteria before and it works quite well to complete the nitrifying cycle (however, it will not
help complete biological processes that is required to happen for a tank to be completely considered "mature" and cycled). Just in case, I cycled for a short period
of time using a small piece of raw shrimp and tested the waters. When all seemed well, I decided to go to an LFS to pick up some stuff.
I decided to buy these things:
3 Nassarius snails - I really like these guys and used to have a large one with black and white flesh and a gorgeous beige and white shell... I wanted to get these instead of
any algae eating snails because I can supplement their diet easily with meaty foods.
Live rock - Initially I wanted to buy only aquaculture live rock to start my tank - that turned out to be too expensive, so I wanted to pic a few small pieces to seed my tank with
other goodies.
3 Sexy Shrimps - Always wanted these weird buggers.
No fish yet - I've had success adding fish after using the bottled bacteria, but I'd rather not risk losing a fish at this stage.
Here is what I came out with:
3 Astarea snails - I asked for nassarius snails and the worker gave me these... I did not bother to check until I got back home
Live rock - but I was overcharged 2x advertised price... I thought that the weight they gave me for the live rock seemed too heavy so I used my own scale at home to measure...
turns out they charged me 2x the amount I bought.
3 Sexy Shrimps... At least they got that right.
Needless to say I will not buy from this store EVER again. :mad:
A note about the sand: my favorite sand has always been oolite sand because of it being uniquely spherical... though I'm pretty sure I added too much. I wanted a deeper sand bed
(not aiming for a "deep sand bed" though) for burrowing critters. I was fully aware that this sand is very fine and gets kicked up a lot, though it still doesn't make it not annoying.
Initial Wish List:
2 Pom pom crabs
1 Porcelain Anemone Crab
2 Skunk cleaner shrimp/fire shrimp
3 Sexy Shrimp
1 Emerald Crab
1 Halloween hermit crab
1 Bumblebee shrimp
1 Anemone shrimp (like a Pederson's)
October 3, 2019:
Initial Equipment:
12~ Reef Saver Dry Rock
Stock Lights
Stock Pump
75W Neo Therm Heater
20lb CaribSea Oolite Sand
After about a week of having reef saver dry rock (12~ lbs?) , 20lb oolite sand, and generous additions of bottled bacteria I decided to buy some
critters for my tank. I have had experience using this bottled bacteria before and it works quite well to complete the nitrifying cycle (however, it will not
help complete biological processes that is required to happen for a tank to be completely considered "mature" and cycled). Just in case, I cycled for a short period
of time using a small piece of raw shrimp and tested the waters. When all seemed well, I decided to go to an LFS to pick up some stuff.
I decided to buy these things:
3 Nassarius snails - I really like these guys and used to have a large one with black and white flesh and a gorgeous beige and white shell... I wanted to get these instead of
any algae eating snails because I can supplement their diet easily with meaty foods.
Live rock - Initially I wanted to buy only aquaculture live rock to start my tank - that turned out to be too expensive, so I wanted to pic a few small pieces to seed my tank with
other goodies.
3 Sexy Shrimps - Always wanted these weird buggers.
No fish yet - I've had success adding fish after using the bottled bacteria, but I'd rather not risk losing a fish at this stage.
Here is what I came out with:
3 Astarea snails - I asked for nassarius snails and the worker gave me these... I did not bother to check until I got back home
Live rock - but I was overcharged 2x advertised price... I thought that the weight they gave me for the live rock seemed too heavy so I used my own scale at home to measure...
turns out they charged me 2x the amount I bought.
3 Sexy Shrimps... At least they got that right.
Needless to say I will not buy from this store EVER again. :mad:
A note about the sand: my favorite sand has always been oolite sand because of it being uniquely spherical... though I'm pretty sure I added too much. I wanted a deeper sand bed
(not aiming for a "deep sand bed" though) for burrowing critters. I was fully aware that this sand is very fine and gets kicked up a lot, though it still doesn't make it not annoying.