General discussion and questions about my tank because I am noob at this
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Amethyst
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Ok I found 4 more of those pretty snails they were small I added all 5 to my tank they immediately started moving around when I added them. there were tens of millions of little clams in multiple layers covering the entire beach today, I collected about 20 in a quarter handful of sand, added them to my tank and they immediately started filtering and digging around. I added another clam it reminds me of a pismo clam but it has a thin shell. I kept the sand dollar I think based on what you said it will be a challenge but I am sure I can and if I look up how2take car of sandollar It will tell me how, do you have any tips? also the clams covering the beach are really interesting because they come in all sizes and colors of the rainbow, they have a weird shape like pizza lemme try to find a picture
Found a picture this is what they look like
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The clams are Coquina clams (Donax sp. - I'm not super familiar with the Donax species in California, but possibly Donax gouldii). The shapes in the rock may have been formed by different sea creatures over the years.
With the sand dollar, I would guess you have Dendraster excentricus, the eccentric sand dollar, but I don't know for certain. These guys feed primarily on pods (Tisbe, Tigriopus, Acartia, Parvocalanus, etc.), rotifers (Brachionus spp.), other small crustaceans, and diatoms (Isochrysis/T-iso, Chaetoceros, Thalassiosira, Pavlova, etc.), but they also feed on algae fragments; larvae have been reared on Dunaliella tertiolecta, Isochrysis galbana, and Rhodomonas spp.
The hard part is likely going to be feeding them enough, and these guys apparently bury themselves in the sand at low tide, then filter feed from the flow at high tide.
The hard part is likely going to be feeding them enough, and these guys apparently bury themselves in the sand at low tide, then filter feed from the flow at high tide.
You'd likely have to buy it. Once you've bought it, you could culture your own (though this involves setting up more, small tanks) - it's harder and time consuming, but it's cheaper than buying it over and over. If you want to culture either pods or phyto, you have to buy individual species to culture and keep them separate from each other; if you just want to buy them repeatedly, then you can buy them in mixed bags (and I'd recommend doing so). Here are some reportedly good places to get them from (you can get both pods and phyto from most of these places):
Phytopreme Live
Live phytoplankton for sale to feed and culture copepods. Phytoplankton is also good for feeding corals in the reef tank aquarium. When you buy our blend of saltwater algae called Phytopreme Live you get the most concentrated live algae anywhere on line. Phytopreme Live is a blend of...
www.aquaculturenurseryfarms.com
Reef Soup 6 Types
Copepods Reef Soup for Sale. Blend of 6 types of Copepods at the highest densities and best prices. Get Copepods with guaranteed delivery service to receive the freshest possible specimens to your door. Why buy Copepods for the saltwater aquarium tank?
www.aquaculturenurseryfarms.com
S-ROTIFERS
S-type rotifers are cyclical parthenogens (meaning they alternate between asexual and sexual reproduction. Parthenogenesis allows them to rapidly colonize an environment given favorable environmental conditions. Brachionus rotundiformis been used with great success in the larval culture of more...
reedmariculture.com
Live Marine Rotifers
Brachionus plicatilis (L-type) rotifers: essential live food organism fed on our nutritious RGComplete for corals, filter-feeders and planktivorous fish. Euryhaline species, capable of thriving in salinities 5-40 ppt. Available in quantities 1 million to 1.5 billion, concentrated and packaged...
reefnutrition.com
Thalassiosira, Living
Genus and Species: Thalassiosira sp. Optimal Medium: Alga-Gro® Seawater Optimal Temperature: 22° C Optimal Light: High (200 to 400 foot-candles) Motility: None Classification: Diatoms
www.carolina.com
Algae Research Supply: Algae Culture Thalassiosira pseudonana
Thalassiosira is a marine diatom that is used in aquaculture and home aquariums to feed corals and clams.
algaeresearchsupply.com
Chaetoceros gracilis, Living
Genus and Species: Chaetoceros gracilis Optimal Medium: Erdschreiber's Optimal Temperature: 22° C Optimal Light: High (200 to 400 foot-candles) Motility: None Classification: Diatoms
www.carolina.com
Isochrysis, Living
Genus and Species: Isochrysis sp. Optimal Medium: Soil Seawater Optimal Temperature: 22° C Optimal Light: High (200 to 400 foot-candles) Motility: Flagellum Classification: Golden-Brown Algae
www.carolina.com
For pH, the article linked below has a "Solutions to Low pH Problems" section - and I'd recommend looking at it - but for your tank specifically, I would add some aragonite (calcium carbonate) rocks or sand to the tank, because calcium carbonate helps keep the pH from dropping too low.
With the carbonate and hardness, though, again, these aren't typically considered useful measures for saltwater aquariums. So, your carbonate reading 0 isn't necessarily an issue; it's your calcium and magnesium levels that are important (these are related to hardness, but hardness doesn't tell you how much of either you have). That said, to my limited knowledge, adding calcium carbonate rocks/sand should help raise your carbonate readings too.
Just note that they need to be specific kinds of rocks (coral skeletons, aragonite, limestone, and potentially marble should theoretically all work to my limited knowledge, though aragonite is the hobby gold standard).
Amethyst
Active Member
I saw some red coral plants that was shaped like a dead tree on a rock during low tide, would that be good? and also in a few years or less I want an octopus, what creatures can live with it and how big would a tank need to be to hold 1 the size of your hand and also it would probably need a good top so the octopus doesn't crawl up the sides.
To my understanding, calcified macroalgae (what I suspect your red coral plants shaped like a dead tree may be - though you may also be thinking of some kind of gorgonian/sea whip/sea fan too) would theoretically work, though likely not nearly as effectively as regular aragonite/coral skeletons. Any macro/gorgonian you put in your tank is not likely to do well with the pH that low though.
Yeah, that's a gorgonian.
No - gorgonians don't typically build calcium carbonate skeletons, so it wouldn't help much if at all.
Rock identification isn’t my specialty, but “beachrock” (see the link below) may work, corals that are totally white and dead, sea shells, etc. are all calcium carbonate and should help (these are also known to grow algae pretty well). A better option would likely be to just buy some dry rock from an aquarium store, but these other options should all theoretically help.
Calcium Carbonate - Building an Atoll | Tetiaroa Society
The construction of an amazing island like Tetiaroa by the chemical wizardry of animals and plants combined with the actions of the ocean has to be one of the great wonders of the world.
www.tetiaroasociety.org
The smaller pattern may be a bryozoan or similar, simple life form.
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