First Aquarium!

[Rikatix]

Hello all,

First I would like to say that this website is awesome and chock-full of great information with lots of very supportive and helpful members.

Long story short I did what so very many others here have done to get into aquariums... I dumbly bought into the ecosphere concept a few weeks ago and it has since become painfully obvious how tortuous these things can be. I love all life, snakes, insects, plants, all of it! So certainly it sucks to have supported someone who sells these death spheres.

On to the next, there is lots of great information here and it is because of that information that I have pieced together a couple orders to make this right. I'm also using this as an excuse to learn all about aquariums, I've never had one and this seems like a great entry into the aquarium experience with a creature that will not be so easy to kill as they are SUPERshrimp, haha.

I've use the many threads in this forum to guide my hand, but would someone please tell me that I've bought everything I need to start a proper tank for these guys.

My small sphere came with 4 shrimp, a twig and some white substrate, I'm assuming its crushed shells maybe. There is some filamentous algae in there as well.

Here is what I have on the way so far. I haven't bought any decorations yet, wanted everything to arrive then would go from there:

Aquarium:
Tetra 29095 Cube Aquarium Kit, 3-Gallon
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008CA ... ailpages00

Sand/Substrate:
Carib Sea ACS05821 Tahitian Moon Sand for Aquarium, 5-Pound
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003JW ... ge_o00_s00

Salt:
Instant Ocean Sea Salt (7.5 pounds)
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00025 ... ailpages00

Water Test Kit:
API Saltwater Master Test Kit
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001EU ... ailpages00

Hydrometer:
Instant Ocean SeaTest Hydrometer
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00019 ... ailpages00

FROM PETSHRIMP:

Snails:
Brackish Water Snails - 10 Pack
http://www.petshrimp.com/store/index.ph ... ucts_id=20

Macro algae:
Supershrimp Macroalgae!
http://www.petshrimp.com/store/index.ph ... ucts_id=18

Moss Ball:
Supershrimp Algaeball/Mossball -- Only available here!
http://www.petshrimp.com/store/index.ph ... ucts_id=30


Thank you guys for help and recommendations as to what I can do to make this a great environment for these really interesting creatures.

My plan of action was to basically get all this stuff here, dump in the sand, water, salt, algae ball, snails and macro algae. After the tank cycles and all the numbers are stable (via confirmation from the test kit) I would then add my 4 shrimps and consider buying more shrimp at that point.

Would it be fine to add the water, substrate, algae that is in my ecosphere that they live in now? (once the environment is stable enough for the shrimp, that is)

Thanks again, this is a wonderful site.

[mcdaney]

Welcome to the hobby!

Would it be fine to add the water, substrate, algae that is in my ecosphere that they live in now? (once the environment is stable enough for the shrimp, that is)

Yes it'll be fine to add them.

[Rikatix]

The tank, salt, hydrometer, test kit and sand all arrived yesterday. I added the sand and some salt and water, activated the pump and filter. I intended on stopping the pump and filter soon. I won't run it with live stuff in it, just used it to clean up the tank.

This morning I ran all my tests. These are my results:

SG - 1.0095
pH - 8
Ammonia - 0.5-1 ppm
Nitrite - 0 ppm
Nitrate - 0 ppm

Thats assuming I read the results right, hence the picture of the results. Maybe someone would confirm I am seeing everything correctly.

The snails, macroalgae and moss ball will all be here today. Am I to understand that I can throw all 3 in whenever they get here and they'll just survive? Certainly I'll be waiting a couple weeks to add the ecosphere shrimp.

Thanks again to this community, I look forward to learning more about these guys. Also, here is a picture of the tank setup as of right now, suppose a trip to the pet store is going to be necessary as the place needs some decoration!

[minishrimps]

Hi Rikatix, I'm new to the hobby too, and am just getting my tank established as well. From what I can tell your Ammonia looks a little high but I think the snails will be ok and may actually help with the ammonia level. Keep an eye on it though. Hopefully the snails will have enough to eat since there isn't much algae growth in your tank yet. The snails are tiny so they don't consume much and they will dig through the substate to find food. The algae ball and macroalgae will be fine. Definitely make sure you add all the water the snails and algae come with from the shipment. It will introduce all the good stuff from the breeding tank into your tank and will help establish the algae and food that all the organisms in your tank will need to eat.

a suggestion: I'd get the aquascaping done before you add the snails, they are really small and once you put them in there they will slowly start to move, digging around, burying themselves. You won't ever really see all of them at once again after they go in. It's probably better for you to have all that stuff in place. And, it will increase surface area for biofilm and algae to coat.

[Rikatix]

Thanks, minishrimps. I've been following your thread as well for pointers and it has been helping.

Got curious, how many snails is too many? I ordered the 10-pack from this website, the description says that 10 are fine for 1/2 gallon tanks and larger. I have 3 gallon tank with probably 2.7 gallons of water in it. Looking online, it looks like from freshwater aquarium folks, they talk about 1-2 snails per every 10 gallons. Why are so many more tolerable in this case?

How many snails per gallon are acceptable when it comes to Opae Ula?

[minishrimps]

That's a good question! There are obviously many different types of snails, and each has different feeding behaviors. A nerite for example, is bigger and apparently devours algae like crazy. If there are two many they will eat up the food supply and then starve so 1 to 2 per gallon may be the recommendation for that species. My understanding is that the snails Petshrimp Store sells are generically referred to as MTS (Malaysian Trumpet Snails). These particular snails are a bit smaller and not as aggressive a feeder as a bigger nerite. 1 nerite could conceivably do the job of 10 MTS. They will reproduce in your tank readily and quickly depending on food availability. My understanding is that they will eventually stop reproducing when the population has met its carrying capacity with the other organisms in your tank. Available food directly correlates to population size and they won't reproduce as much if there isn't the resources or until the population dwindles or they are out competed by other things living in the tank... 10 to start can quickly turn into 20 given the right tank conditions, so to start, 10 is a good number. Then you get to watch the population grow.

[minishrimps]

also, you can probably ditch the filter, you want all the stuff in the tank that it will filter out to help establish the good algae

[Varanus]

also, you can probably ditch the filter, you want all the stuff in the tank that it will filter out to help establish the good algae

I think the reference to using it to clean the tank is just to get rid of any clouding/dust from the sand, I doubt the filter will remove anything important from the water.

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As for feeding the snails, as the tank will be rather spartan at first, you might put in a single small bit of food in after a few days just to be safe. At least that is what I did, though it may not be necessary. The biolfilm present on the macroalgae and moss ball may be sufficient for them until biofilm coats other surfaces.

I've also gotten the impression over time that it actually takes a long time for snails to starve. I had one horned nerite that was stuck in a filter tube for I estimate a couple weeks. I assumed it was dead (I saw the assassin snails eating what I thought was its soft body in another part of the tank) and didn't bother removing it until I cleaned the filter, only to be shocked to find that it was still alive and perfectly healthy (albeit quite hungry). Course it may have been eating some biofilm in the tube, but I never saw it do so.

[Rikatix]

Thanks for the useful information! It all has been reassuring. Here is a picture of the tank now. The snails, mossball and macroalgae arrived yesterday. Had to pick off many of the snails from the plastic bag. Was worried I might have damaged their suckers doing that but they all seem active and have been moving around the tank a bit.

The water is around 65F. Kinda low from what I've seen others say but as it warms up outside it should hover around 70F in the months to come.

As you can tell I've removed the filter/pump. Just good ol' stagnant saltwater now! I'll probably do the liquid test in a few days and see where we're at.

Thanks for all the advice people, I suppose its time to play the waiting game.

Edit: One other thing. The white rock to the left. I scrubbed all the rocks with my hands and plenty of hot water before putting them in the tank but as you can see it has green grassy/mossy stuff on it. That stuff came with it, something I should be concerned about?

[Varanus]

That's odd... how fast did it grow? I've never seen that in my tanks so hopefully someone else can identify it, but you may indeed need to worry about it potentially being a type of algae that can cause problems. That said, the low nutrient level in the tank should keep it from taking over, so you should probably wait to have someone here or elsewhere identify it properly before taking action.

[minishrimps]

maybe remove that rock until it's cleaned up, no sense in making things worse if you don't know what it is yet, if it something bad i mean...

looks cool!

[Rikatix]

it was already on the rock! i can't tell if its growing any

[mcdaney]

Nothing to be concerned of from what I see. I have a tank that has dead coral/rock with algae growth on it.
The green adds color to the tank I feel and it'll act as a food source for the shrimps.
If it's hair-like then you need to remove it, brush it and sun dry.

[Rikatix]

Still waiting on the Ammonia to go down.

Question: How long is a gallon of distilled water good after opening? I've done some looking online for other communities, one for CPAP machines, one for cigar humidors. Various answers are found from "a few months, keep out of sunlight to prevent bacterial growth or keep in fridge" to "its .89 cents, just buy a new gallon"

I don't mind to buy a new gallon every time I want to top off the water, but just curious how long you folks keep your distilled water around?

The snails seem to be doing fine. They are all crawling about. I had some cloudiness appear a few days ago but its has started to clear up.

The green stuff on the rock, if you zoom in to the picture I attached above looks to be "hair-like" but then again I think everything growing in the tank appears to be hair-like, including the moss ball and macroalgae.

[JennyPenny]

I don't know about the water. It didn't occur to me it would go bad. I keep mine in my pantry and would have topped off the tank without thinking. I wouldn't worry about bacteria growing in the bottle of water as long as it has a lid. I'm sure people using distilled water for medical equipment must be very careful, but I don't think our shrimp have such discriminating standards. Though I'm curious as to what others will say.
I think the algae on your coral looks fine for now. Looks like your cycle is coming along nicely!