This is Erica (i.e. the only girl that showed up to the meeting on her own). I stopped in PA and was asking about the pom-pom/boxer/anemone crab-still want one. Also a couple of sexy shrimp if you can get them, maybe a frag too?
Let me know!
thanks
E
hay, this is glenn , so you are looking for frags? what where you looking for? as i am sure that one of us would have it or be willing to give you a frag of what we have. I see you want crabs…lol :-)lol ya i remembered how you think. ok well let us know.
If you are looking for boxer crabs, Premium Aquatics has them in stock.
Tom :-)###
I will take basically any frag that will work in a 3 gal tank. And, yes I must admit, I am eager to get crabs! That is def a first! I stopped by PA last friday, they said they would hold one for me (a pom-pom). However, I am heistant to put the little guy in there, as i had a blue hermit and a pepermint shrimp both croak over the weekend. The snail, red and zebra still seem to be doing fine. The mushroom seems to be on the move, but he seems to have stopped (but is still eating)
I am going to try to purchase a better test kit this weekend as well, maybe the change is too subtly for the 6-in-1 dip test.
thoughts?
E
Snails are easier then crabs in my opinion. (They die slower) I would hold off on a new text kit. In your case since your tank is so new I would just test the basics - Temp, salinity, nitrates, alkalinity and ph. Little tanks fluctuate more then large tanks so they need more attention. Also when you do add crabs and such the tank will cycle again so add creatures slowly.
For my tank I have found Ph as a quick test of overall health of the tank. Not that this will work for all tanks. When it is off by as litttle as .2 I start to look for other problems. Usually alk or calcium is off if the ph is off. There are other reasons but this is a quick test I can do every day.
I do the 6-n-1 pretty much every day, and all has seemed normal, nothing out of range, even after the deaths, no spike in nitrites or anything. But they don’t show down to point anything, it is just the color blocks that you mach up, like a keytone test strip for diabetics. Temp and salinity have all been fine as well, nothing out of range.
So far the red hermit and the marga snail have lasted the longest, going on 2 weeks! I have not added anything faster than a rate of one/two things a week (that being a combo of the blue herm/1st snail, and then the red herm/ 2nd snail) but nothing has caused spikes of anything.
Would it be best to add the crab this week, then shrimps another week? Or so I toss then all in at once and keep an eye on the parameters?
hello agian i have some frags i could give you . small ones that you could have for your 3 gallon. if you want i can give them to you on the 17 th or if you ever get to dover area you may pick out of tank. i also have a few 10 gallon tanks that i am not using if you upgrade…
Hi Erica.
I also have a large amount of purple mushrooms I could get you as many of those as you want. Let me know. BILL
Sure, I’ll take any frags anybody cares to bring to the May meeting. With a 3 gal, it seems I will be all about the shrooms! Purple is one of my favorite colors!
the 10gals are tempting, but then I would want to set them up, and stock them, and then I would have to move them… I am actually trying to save money, so I figured the 3gal, I can’t get in too deep, right!!!
The only thing is you are going to fill that 3 gallon up so fast. You are going to get bored and want to get more things. That happens no matter what size tank you have. I started with a 75 gallon. Then I added an additional 180 gallon. Then I replaced the 180 with a 300. The 300 is getting full but I can’t go larger or I will no longer be married… ;D
:Welcome) i have a bunch of blue shrooms
Hey Tat, I’ll take a couple of the blue, if you have to spare! ^:|b I plan on attending the may meeting, not the rock DIY, but the meeting, if we have one.
Yeah, I catch myself wanting a bigger tank, but I have to keep myself in check. In anouther year or so, I’m heading to nYC, and there is no way i am hauling a 300gal up a 5th floor walkup. Plus, I am pretty sure apartments will frown on that sort of thing-the 60lb dog and 2 cats is bad enough, but at least I can sneak the cats in! Plus (the plan right now; subject to change) I will probably only stay in NYC for a few years, then I plan on going continent hopping. I would hate to build the tank of my dreams, collect all the things I want…and then sell it.
E
Yeah it would not be fun to transport a 300 gallon tank up 5 flights of stairs. It was hard enough getting mine down one set into the basement. I will bring you some stuff to the next meeting. If you don’t want what I bring I am sure some of the others might be interested.
Erica;
tamu = aggie?
Aggie=whoop! Class of 2002
It’s also the big shiny gold thing I wear on my right hand. Most people in this area of the country think it is a high school ring. :-((
ps-the zebra hermit died today and I think the red is on his way out. Snail and shroom seem okay. I had a fantastic scum bloom too, although I left the light off today, hoping to slow it down. I tested the water, still nothing out of parameters. I think that MIGHT be wrong.
Jumping in to this conversation late…
How are you aclimating your inverts?
If all the test strips are showing normal and you’re experiencing that much loss I would look at acclimation methods. Are you just temp acclimating or are you drip acclimating?
Craig
Just temp aclimating. I am assuming that to drip would involve slowly chaging the water from store to tank by a drip system?
[quote=“Cdangel0, post:16, topic:561”]
Jumping in to this conversation late…
How are you aclimating your inverts?
If all the test strips are showing normal and you’re experiencing that much loss I would look at acclimation methods. Are you just temp acclimating or are you drip acclimating?
Craig[/quote]
At 3.5 gallons you would have to have extra water available otherwise the tank is going to be empty.
First off sorry I hadn’t been in the forum this last week. Class work has been hell. Haven’t slept but a couple of hours each night and I have a major exam in two hours. I promised you I would get up with you on here, so I thought I could take one second to respond.
PA does in fact have boxer crabs. We also have a little red and white pistol shrimp which might be an option for you, but at this point I wouldn’t add anything till the tank is more stable.
When I drip little frags and corals I only use about .25 gallons of water in the process. For your tank this is equal to a water change, so this method would work fine. I can explain or even demonstrate a drip acclimation later.
“6-in-1 dip test” crap crap crap. Every author and serious hobbyist I know will tell you to get rid of them. I realize that one of the LFS around here pushes them and it seems like a cheap easy option, but they are horrible. First of all I found that in some of the instructions they have, “acceptable ranges” which would kill many corals and inverts and even some fish. This is true for the acceptable ranges they mention for just about everything including pH and Nitrogen.
Secondly they have very low resolution so it is hard to tell between the tank is doing ok and the tank needs help. If the strip works it can tell you if your tank has crashed, but who needs a test to tell them that.
Finally the strips don’t work most of the time and are well off. Usually when someone brings in a water test if they have used dip strips and all things are well then the store test kits find at least one that is off.
While we are on the topic of testing, what do you keep your salinity at? I have also found a lot of people follow what would appear to be a recommended salinity on a swing on hydrometer which is way off the of what reef conditions are and can be dangerous to many inverts.
I have lots of frags I could give you, but unfortunately none of them are separate from my flat worm troubles. 
Perhaps this summer when I get time to work on my tanks I’ll have something for you if you haven’t already filled your tank.
If you have any questions please post. We’re here to help.
Well, at least you come with the info when you get there! I understand classwork=hell.
I will take you up on the offer to demonstrate drip- apparently the temp might not be good enough. I do believe I will hold off on adding anything right now, but I’ll be in to get a new test kit, for sure! I do have one of the swing arm hydrometers, and that has stayed in the parameters suggested as well, but I might need soemthing more accurate for the tiny tank. I also need something to control the fantastic red algae bloom that has happened the past couple of days. I have left the light off to try to slow it down, but it seems I am back to square one on the tank. :-("