Newbie 14 gallon Bio cube

[liquidattitude]

So Clean up crew ...hermit crab or not? I was reading that they kill the snails? Opinion?

 

[little_fish]

they do kill snails, i personally dont like them at all. They kill snails, walk on corals and steal food from corals when I try and spot feed them.

 

[liquidattitude]

Is there a list of preferred fish for small tanks like mine? I have been reading articles and stickies on this board and haven't come across one.
thanks in advance,
Kat

 

[Smitty]

Here you go...
Nano Fish

 

[liquidattitude]

Thank you Smitty.
I was hoping I could do a pair of clown fish. They are not on the Nano list. :(
Lots of goby's.....
Also, the guy that gave me the tank had at least 2 kinds of coral and at least 1 anemone in it. Everything I am reading says anemones need larger than i have? is there a anemone that i can do in my Bio cube?
He also had a pair of clown fish in it -now they have all moved to a 29 gallon. This is our learning tank..its in our bedroom....i love staring at it as i go to sleep(even empty)..my husband and I are already fantasizing about our next tank.
Thanks everyone for your help.
Kat
:sfish:

 

[liquidattitude]

in the cube i have 10,000k 24 watt coral life bulb and accent 24 watt coral life, and some LED's that are supposed to mimic moonlight?
Do i have the right lighting in this nano tank to have coral?
I am off to the book store to get some resources, so I am not such a pest :)

 

[little_fish]

A pair of small clowns would be fine in that tank for awhile, but they will need a larger home eventually.

I would not put a nem in that size tank, they require mature, established, stable tanks to thrive and if they die the can nuke everything in the tank because of the toxins they release. Plus there is no guarantee that they clowns will even be hosted by the nem.

That light should be fine for keeping soft corals, which would do very well in a new tank. Check out toadstools, leathers, mushrooms, zoas, xenia. And clowns are known to be hosted by these corals too

 

[liquidattitude]

Is it possible? that our cycle could be done?
Background: tank was up for about 2 weeks with 12lbs of live rock, 20 lbs of sand with 2 cups of live sand from established tank, sponge from live tank added to something in the back?-the guy didn't show me...guess i will find out when i clean. Then we added a fatty table shrimp....on the 6th, We had ammonia spike(see previous posts) but today we tested and we are:
PH:7.8
ammonia:0
nitirte:0
Nitrate:.20
PO 3\4:0.5
salinity:1.024
Temp:77
Are we good to do our water change for the week and add clean up crew?
Thanks for all the help to get us here!
Kat

 

[little_fish]

Yep! looks like you are ready to!!

 

[liquidattitude]

Thanks Little Fish on getting back to me...we will stick to soft corals and plan for a larger tank down the road....
Kat

 

[liquidattitude]

Yea! I have never been so excited to get snails :)
Kat

 

[liquidattitude]

do you see anything that need adjustment before we do? I keep reading that PH needs to be higher, but you said its lower in the morning and higher at night....so?
Kat

 

[little_fish]

It all looks fine to me

 

[Smitty]

Yep, everything looks good. And a pair of clowns will do well in that tank, especially since they don't swim around much.

 

[spongeycrab]

Oh brother they kill the snails for they're shells put some extra ones in there and they should be fine I've seen tons of tanks with snails and hermits and corals and there just fine get some hermits they really do help and they're just cool

 

[little_fish]

No, some hermits kill snails just for the fun of it others like to eat them. Having extra shells will help prevent some deaths, but not all of them

 

[spongeycrab]

No, some hermits kill snails just for the fun of it others like to eat them. Having extra shells will help prevent some deaths, but not all of them

snails are cheap and you can get more I mean if I had hermits and snails and a snail was killed I would'nt think anything of it and just get a new one

 

[little_fish]

thats great for you, most of us dont want to continue buying snails. IMO, snails are better workers than hermit crabs. Some people like snails, some people like hermits, some people like both. Nothing wrong with that, but just because you like them doesnt mean they wont kill snails on occasion, just a fact of life. Many people are ok with that, other arent. Nothing wrong with that either.

 

[spongeycrab]

thats great for you, most of us dont want to continue buying snails. IMO, snails are better workers than hermit crabs. Some people like snails, some people like hermits, some people like both. Nothing wrong with that, but just because you like them doesnt mean they wont kill snails on occasion, just a fact of life. Many people are ok with that, other arent. Nothing wrong with that either.

I didn't make a big deal of it I said my opinion and you said yours I was just trying to Lqiuid to not be sacred of getting hermit crabs wich Lqiuid shouldn't be.

 

[little_fish]

I dont have a problem with your opinion, I was correcting your misinformation

This is not true:

Oh brother they kill the snails for they're shells put some extra ones in there and they should be fine