Hi all, I am new to keeping Opae Ula. I come from the planted freshwater world and was just getting worn down with the constant maintenance and ultimate algae doom that all my tanks eventually succumbed to. I had broken all of them down but still had the itch for some sort of aquarium. A friend mentioned Opaes and I eventually started researching them. They checked all my boxes! Little to no maintenance, few feedings, and most importantly algae is a good thing! I've kept freshwater shrimp like cherries and CRS but they are finicky about water condition (CRS for sure).
I pulled a Fluval Edge with the top de-rimmed out of the attic and ordered up a bag of argonite sand. The rocks in the tank were from my freshwater tank. Same goes with the light, just a retread. All in all the setup cost me under $20 (sand and salt). It's been setup for a couple weeks now and I added an algae ball from Mustafa. That thing moves all over the tank! I guess the photosynthesis bubbles cause it to float and roll every so often even without any water movement.
Here are a couple pictures of the setup. I'm getting the itch to add some Opaes but the water still has some ammonia in it. The salinity is dialed in at 1.01. I know these shrimp can adapt to wide water parameters but the CRS keeper in me keeps wanting perfect conditions before adding them.
I'd say 2 weeks in is probably enough. Do you have any algae growth or biofilm on the water surface?
I also came from the planted tank/freshwater shrimp world for the same reasons you cite. My opae have been in a converted 10 gallon since June. Still going strong. No feedings yet.
My experience: My tank had been set up about a week, maybe 10 days, before I added shrimp. (You can read the details in previous topics I started.) I didn't test for anything, but I assume I had a lot of ammonia. The marimo in the tank were pearling and sometimes floating daily. I had almost immediate algae growth, but I cheated. After adding shrimp, algae growth continued for a few weeks until I could barely see into the tank. The shrimp ate holes in the algae and it's more controlled now.
Hi mike, thanks for the info! I actually went ahead and placed an order for the opaes and should be getting them early this week.
In my ammonia tests I've been getting .25-.5ppm so not a whole lot. I do have some green fuzzy algae on the rocks but not the usual brown diatoms I expected in a new setup yet. I'm sure they are on the way. Luckily my light is dimmable so if algae gets to be a big issue I can turn the lights down some. There is a layer of biofilm on the water surface.
I haven't seen any brown diatoms in my tank yet. It's all been the green fuzz. I like the green.
I had to take out my marimo, they were entwined with some hair algae I was too slow about removing. I'll try adding them back when I'm sure I have a handle on the hair algae. (I should have cleaned the rocks...)
I forgot to mention I really like your setup. You laid out the rocks very nicely.
Luckily I got the opaes in just before the hurricane hit here in Houston. They have been pretty active which I hear is normal the first couple days in a new tank. I also got 2 M. Lohena. They are much more reclusive. 1 seems to have made home on the underside of the rock on the right and the other found a hole in the rock on the left. They pretty much stay in the shadows the entire time the lights are on.
Diatoms are growing on the sand and a bit on the front glass so the shrimp should have some good algae to get started on. The opaes seem to love the top of the middle rock. Maybe its closest to the light, therefore has the most biofilm growing on it.
