New Here!

[Nellyville41]

Hi guys! Been lurking and learning about Opae Ulas for like 6 months now. 3 weeks ago I finally decided to start 2 small tanks using the instructions on here. Basically used 1/2 the amount of instant ocean with distilled water. One tank is a round jar with those small pebbles as substrate and about 3/4 gal while the other tank is a square aquarium with black sand with about 1 1/4 gallons. Both have small lava rocks along with dead coral for the buffer. Been giving them 12hrs of light on a timer everyday. The only thing I really see so far is film developing on top of the square. The round jar doesn’t really have anything. I asked my local fish store that also deals with shrimps about helping to speed up the cycling of the tank. He just recommended me using stress zyme. Added 10ml a day for 7 days. I don’t know if I’m doing anything wrong but there’s still no signs of algae. Any input or ideas on what I can do to speed up the cycling?

[JoanToBa]

My first and only tank is ready for shrimp (they’re coming this monday ) and it only took about three or four weeks for the tank to be fully cycled. What I did is I just bought a 1 kilo live reef rock (without corals or anemones) and just waited. After two weeks there were already brown diatoms and after three there was already green algae.
Right now it’s been almost four weeks and there are little plants?/algae growing in it and a strange macroalgae that grows really fast.
Right now there are no ups and downs in ammonia, and there’s so much bubbling coming from the algae and the marimo that it’s almost causing salt creep.


So yup, I sincerely reccommend you buying a live rock, I think it’s faster and cheaper (it cost me 20 euros).
Hope it helps!

[Nellyville41]

Lucky! Lol. I didn’t want to add anything live and I was just following the guidelines to get the tank set up. I was reading about people dropping a piece of fish flake everyday to get it started as well. That might be my next step but I don’t want to delay it longer either. Weather here in Los Angeles has been anywhere from cool to hot. Lol.

[Nellyville41]

I ended picking up some established water from a media filter in a freshwater tank at my local aquarium. They also gave me some fish flakes. Gonna try it on one of my tank.

[Nellyville41]

I ended up placing an order for the macroalgae and snails. Gonna add them into both my tanks when they arrive. Do they need to be acclimated since they’re coming from a brackish environment already?

[MrsT]

Hi Nellyville41, no you don't have to acclimate the microalgae. What type of snails you're getting? Those from Mustafa , you need not acclimate them.

[Mustafa]

So yup, I sincerely reccommend you buying a live rock, I think it’s faster and cheaper (it cost me 20 euros).
Hope it helps!

Do *NOT* use live rock. It's not worth the risk. There's too much organic pollution that comes with such rocks. In a small system that can wreak havoc.

[Mustafa]

As always patience is the key here. Just wait and don't do *anything*. Nothing...until you see algae grow. And even then you still continue doing pretty much nothing for a while. Just add the shrimp and enjoy. Don't be tempted to use products like stress zyme...they don't help. And don't put food in there without something to eat it. Just let the tank sit. I promise everything will work out well in the end.

[Nellyville41]

As always patience is the key here. Just wait and don't do *anything*. Nothing...until you see algae grow. And even then you still continue doing pretty much nothing for a while. Just add the shrimp and enjoy. Don't be tempted to use products like stress zyme...they don't help. And don't put food in there without something to eat it. Just let the tank sit. I promise everything will work out well in the end.

Thanks! It’s hard to stay confident when one of the tanks has zero activity lol. At least my other tank has film on top although it’s like a transparent looking film.

[Nellyville41]

Added the snails right now after acclimating them. One of them already buried itself under the sand. Lol

[Mustafa]

Great! Now just wait until you see algae. It may take a week or two or days...it all depends on the individual tank. Your containers/tanks are mostly likely already ready for shrimp even now since you've been running them for about a month, but if you want to be 110% sure you'll just wait until you see algae growth (as I mentioned above already).

[Nellyville41]

The snails are now active! A few of them are crawling along the side of the tank and one of them was suspended upside down on the very top of the water just moving around and eating?!? I can’t wait to order the shrimps!

[Nellyville41]

Also would any of you guys know what this white thing is that’s floating in the middle of the pic?

[Nellyville41]

So I ended up getting rid of the jar container. It wasn’t productive and producing any biofilm compared to the acrylic cube. I bought another giant cube and emptied the water from the jar into it and then added like 1.5 more gallons of brackish water. I got rid of the rock substrate and put in sand instead. Question is do I have to wait for the bigger cube to establish and cycle itself again since I used the same water? My initial thoughts are telling me yes.

[Vorteil]

Looks like the white thing is a Malaysian trumpet snail.