Help getting started

[Nexus6]

Fine grain sand is fine, why would it be bad? My opaes love picking up grains of sand and looking for goodies on it. They even swim around with it.

[Mech]

Fine grain sand is fine, why would it be bad? My opaes love picking up grains of sand and looking for goodies on it. They even swim around with it.

I second this, my Opae pick up my shiney fine sand and swim around with it and eat from it. I have read fine sand is better because they can pick it up and spin it around removing the bio film and goodies from it, drop it and move onto another peice.

[Varanus]

Fine grain sand is fine, why would it be bad? My opaes love picking up grains of sand and looking for goodies on it. They even swim around with it.

I second this, my Opae pick up my shiney fine sand and swim around with it and eat from it. I have read fine sand is better because they can pick it up and spin it around removing the bio film and goodies from it, drop it and move onto another peice.

Well at least a couple posts like the reply to this topic noted fine sand can be inconvenient: viewtopic.php?f=16&t=5740

Anyway, I ended up not using the calcite. The water was refusing to clear after several rinses in a bucket and there was an ugly film on the surface and it just looked too unnatural for my tastes. I decided on a compromise and got semi-fine aragonite. It looks better than I expected, not quite white, and the grains should still be small enough for the shrimp and snails to move around or burrow in for the latter.

I have fine black sand in another tank and even after rinsing it took days of running through a filter to clear out all the bits with air bubbles and such. This aragonite has cleared up after one night of running the tank with a filter, so I can remove said filter and get seriously started on the tank sooner.

Well anyway, hopefully I won't regret the substrate choice. It's in the tank now so getting it out would be a lot of trouble. As others noted I can always add another substrate in the future on top of it.

[Mech]

Sounds good, there is no rush when it comes to the opae ula tanks, they have to be well matured

[Varanus]

Sounds good, there is no rush when it comes to the opae ula tanks, they have to be well matured

On that note, the site says the macroalgae speeds up the process. I've already ordered some as well as snails, but it doesn't say how much it speeds things up. I guess in general wait a few weeks and see if more algae is growing?

Also, I read that having hiding spaces out of the light may be important for breeding. Will the spaces between the lava rocks and the substrate be enough or should I add some other shelter? I had planned to stack the rocks but there wasn't enough room. I have a "holey rock" in there as well but most of the holes probably won't block out much light (though it is leaning against the back of the tank so behind the rock should be darker).

FullSizeRender2.jpg (828.9 KiB) Viewed 1540 times

The tank isn't filled all the way to make sure there is room for the water that comes with the snails and algae.

One more question, the water is still too cloudy for my liking (stirred it up when repositioning the rocks). I have no experience with aragonite so does anyone know if the filter will clear it if it stays on long enough and if it will stay clear even after the filter is gone?

I wish I had rinsed it more, but I was running out of distilled water and didn't want to go out and get more at the time. Plus I've never been able to rinse substrate enough, it always needs more clearing once its in the tank.

At least I got the salinity right. 1.012

[Mech]

I wouldnt worry about hiding spots to start with, the cycling to make it safe will take a couple of weeks. When algy is growing you really are nearly ready.

The water will clear in a few days but will come back again once the bacteria starts to colonise, this will happen sooner if you are using water/media/substrate or in you case some plants which will have some good bacteria on them to pass onto your tank. When it goes cloudy a 2nd time leave it be still, don't undo your hard work by replacing water and taking all your bacteria out

[Varanus]

I wouldnt worry about hiding spots to start with, the cycling to make it safe will take a couple of weeks. When algy is growing you really are nearly ready.

The water will clear in a few days but will come back again once the bacteria starts to colonise, this will happen sooner if you are using water/media/substrate or in you case some plants which will have some good bacteria on them to pass onto your tank. When it goes cloudy a 2nd time leave it be still, don't undo your hard work by replacing water and taking all your bacteria out

Oh, I'm aware of cloudiness from bacteria and that it will go away so no worries there. I'm assuming the current cloudiness is from the aragonite, basically calcium dust from it, and am concerned it won't break down and will stay forever unless the filter gets it all out. I tend to worry about details like that.

[Nexus6]

I also had calcium dust at the beginning, it went away after a few water changes, (this is why its important to rinse the substrate) it takes longer to clear up/settle since its brackish water as compared to freshwater. i did a lot of water changes in the beginning to clear things up, then once clear you dont want to disturb the water until the bacteria start to colonize, grow and settle on your subsrate/rocks/filter/etc. for opaes, you dont really need to do any water changes, just test your water params every so often, especially since your at the cycling stage.

[Varanus]

I also had calcium dust at the beginning, it went away after a few water changes, (this is why its important to rinse the substrate) it takes longer to clear up/settle since its brackish water as compared to freshwater. i did a lot of water changes in the beginning to clear things up, then once clear you dont want to disturb the water until the bacteria start to colonize, grow and settle on your subsrate/rocks/filter/etc. for opaes, you dont really need to do any water changes, just test your water params every so often, especially since your at the cycling stage.

Well the filter ended up clearing things up pretty well and the water has stayed clear after the filter was removed. Started the day/night light cycle and now just have to wait for the algae and snails to arrive.

[Varanus]

All right, snails and algae have arrived (and a little shrimp as a stowaway as well). Is acclimation the same as for freshwater (add a bit of the new water to the old over the course of fifteen to twenty minutes) or do I just put them in? The site says nothing about acclimating them as far as I can tell, and I suppose they may not need it due to their adaptability, but I wanted to make sure.

No need to worry about major temperature changes, its cooled down so its about the same temperature outside as inside now.

Current parameters of the tank water:

PH: 7.5
KH: 80

Nitrate and Nitrite are 0 of course.

[Mech]

I'd drop in your tanks water over an hour or more to be on the safe side.