Cucumber or copepods?

[TopClamSkoo]

Hey y'all.

Sooooooo .. need some advice. I have a 9 month old 10 gallon nano. Everything is doing well - corals, cuc, electric indigo dottyback, etc.. I have the usual diatoms in the sand. It's not too bad but it is annoying. In the past I would just wait it out and after 2 years it would go away. But wanna try experimenting this time around by getting either more copepods into the system or a cucumber. Maybe both...

As a side note, used to have a billon copepods in my tank before I got a fish.. I had zero diatoms and at that time my tank was 5 months old. Then I got a scooter blenny. Biggest mistake of my life.. fed it everyday with mysid... But it still starved to death.. it even desimated my pod population... I then got a dottyback which I love. Got a diatom bloom after my dragonet died and even though I feed sparingly to my only fish and do weekly water changes... Diatoms aren't going away. I attribute this to the fact my copepod population is just not there to help keep it at bay.

Anywho, my copepods population never got back to the way it was ever since the dragnet was added.. my mistake... Never get one for a nano.

So... Here we are now.. gonna add copepods into my tank and want to also add a cucumber.
I heard they can nuke your tank if they die. Any personal experience with them in nanos? Most importantly, would it help cure the diatoms? Or would it just be just like my tiger conch that kinda eats it...

Thanks in advance!

 

[MischiefReef]

Hey y'all.

Sooooooo .. need some advice. I have a 9 month old 10 gallon nano. Everything is doing well - corals, cuc, electric indigo dottyback, etc.. I have the usual diatoms in the sand. It's not too bad but it is annoying. In the past I would just wait it out and after 2 years it would go away. But wanna try experimenting this time around by getting either more copepods into the system or a cucumber. Maybe both...

As a side note, used to have a billon copepods in my tank before I got a fish.. I had zero diatoms and at that time my tank was 5 months old. Then I got a scooter blenny. Biggest mistake of my life.. fed it everyday with mysid... But it still starved to death.. it even desimated my pod population... I then got a dottyback which I love. Got a diatom bloom after my dragonet died and even though I feed sparingly to my only fish and do weekly water changes... Diatoms aren't going away. I attribute this to the fact my copepod population is just not there to help keep it at bay.

Anywho, my copepods population never got back to the way it was ever since the dragnet was added.. my mistake... Never get one for a nano.

So... Here we are now.. gonna add copepods into my tank and want to also add a cucumber.
I heard they can nuke your tank if they die. Any personal experience with them in nanos? Most importantly, would it help cure the diatoms? Or would it just be just like my tiger conch that kinda eats it...

Thanks in advance!

Copepods are a good addition. And I agree in a nano tank without ample refugium space it can be tough to sustain a dragonet!
Cucumber nuking is a debated topic, there are different types of sea slugs sold as sea cucumbers in this hobby. It highly depends on the species you get, the volume of water and whether you run activated carbon plays a significant role. From my non-expert understanding the ink released by most sea slugs is just a deterrent that makes them unpalatable to predators. However in a smaller water volume and enclosed environment it’s tough to say what the results can be.

 

[TopClamSkoo]

Copepods are a good addition. And I agree in a nano tank without ample refugium space it can be tough to sustain a dragonet!
Cucumber nuking is a debated topic, there are different types of sea slugs sold as sea cucumbers in this hobby. It highly depends on the species you get, the volume of water and whether you run activated carbon plays a significant role. From my non-expert understanding the ink released by most sea slugs is just a deterrent that makes them unpalatable to predators. However in a smaller water volume and enclosed environment it’s tough to say what the results can be.

Wow .. so cucumbers release out ink??
I thought they were just like a snail . Crawl around and consume things. .

 

[TopClamSkoo]

I run filter pads that I replace every two weeks and I run chemipure elite that I switch out every 2 months..

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

Wow .. so cucumbers release out ink??
I thought they were just like a snail . Crawl around and consume things. .

Sea hares release ink (and there is some dispute over if they can nuke a tank or not), sea cucumbers eviscerate themselves and spew out their organs (to my understanding most/many survive this and regenerate their organs after a few weeks). The organs released by sea cucumbers are ichthyotoxic (highly toxic to fish; the toxins are called holothurin), and these have nuked some tanks before.* However, some sea cucumber species are much less likely to eviscerate than others, and some release much less toxin than others - I don't personally recommend keeping species that are highly toxic/highly prone to evisceration (like Sea Apples reportedly are), but many species can be kept safely (in fact, some sea cucumbers won't eviscerate even if they're being eaten). Either way, if you decide to keep a sea cucumber (or any other toxic critter) I'd recommend taking some precautions like keeping some mixed saltwater around for an emergency water, running carbon/keeping carbon on hand to run if needed, wearing PPE, etc., just in case.

A 10 gallon would likely be too small for the vast majority of sand sifting sea cucumbers (these guys typically get larger and are less toxic than their filter feeding relatives), but you might be able to find a small species that could work (though you may need to supplement its food).

If you want more info on the toxin, I can give you probably more info than you would care to know, but - again - with many species the risk can be effectively managed.

*A "cuke nuke" example:

EMERGENCY - Anemone Toxin / Sea Cucumber Toxin

Hi! Unfortunately, this morning I woke up to all my fish deceased, the sea cucumber and anemone also dead, with some gooey like slime stuck in my return pump. All of my crabs and snails are alive including my pom-pom, Anemone Crab and my Conchs, critters I thought to be extremely sensitive...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[TopClamSkoo]

Sea hares release ink (and there is some dispute over if they can nuke a tank or not), sea cucumbers eviscerate themselves and spew out their organs (to my understanding most/many survive this and regenerate their organs after a few weeks). The organs released by sea cucumbers are ichthyotoxic (highly toxic to fish; the toxins are called holothurin), and these have nuked some tanks before.* However, some sea cucumber species are much less likely to eviscerate than others, and some release much less toxin than others - I don't personally recommend keeping species that are highly toxic/highly prone to evisceration (like Sea Apples reportedly are), but many species can be kept safely (in fact, some sea cucumbers won't eviscerate even if they're being eaten). Either way, if you decide to keep a sea cucumber (or any other toxic critter) I'd recommend taking some precautions like keeping some mixed saltwater around for an emergency water, running carbon/keeping carbon on hand to run if needed, wearing PPE, etc., just in case.

A 10 gallon would likely be too small for the vast majority of sand sifting sea cucumbers (these guys typically get larger and are less toxic than their filter feeding relatives), but you might be able to find a small species that could work (though you may need to supplement its food).

If you want more info on the toxin, I can give you probably more info than you would care to know, but - again - with many species the risk can be effectively managed.

*A "cuke nuke" example:

EMERGENCY - Anemone Toxin / Sea Cucumber Toxin

Hi! Unfortunately, this morning I woke up to all my fish deceased, the sea cucumber and anemone also dead, with some gooey like slime stuck in my return pump. All of my crabs and snails are alive including my pom-pom, Anemone Crab and my Conchs, critters I thought to be extremely sensitive...

www.reef2reef.com

thanks so much... reading the thread right now.
dang... makes me think twice.
I may just go ahead and just get a bunch of copepods and hopefully my dottyback wont eat them too much before they get a chance to the eat the diatoms..
too bad.