New tank here we go!

[silvercorona]

Hi all,

I like many seem to have made my way to supershrimp via purchasing an eco sphere and realizing that I want to do better for my little shrimp dudes. I purchased a 7 gallon tank, crushed coral, argonite sand, reef salt, and a big cool rock and have followed the tank set up instructions from the site and am getting pumped up for the day when I can introduce my eco shrimps (along with 10 to 20 more) to the new home. I have a tank light on a 12 hour on/off cycle right now, the tank has been on the light cycle for 2 weeks now.

I've just purchased the macro Algae and the moss ball and hope to introduce them into the tank next week when they arrive. Right now I see some yellowish patches growing on the sand/coral on the left side of the rock, but there is no sign of green growth yet. Is the yellow some sort of algae that is starting to become established?

I also see a white haziness in the bottom eighth or so of the tank that seems to be settled salt or dust or something? I stirred it up a few days ago and it appears to be mixing in with the water, should I be concerned about this before adding living plants and ultimately shrimp?

thanks,
Silver

[silvercorona]

Here's a better look at the yellow on the sand, it's continuing to spread so I am assuming this is algae.

I'm also throwing in a picture of the other side of my rock, its starting to look green which is making me feel good about incorporating shrimps in a few weeks.

[JoanToBa]

I think that could possibly be mustard algae. I’m not sure if the shrimps will eat it, but still, don’t worry because it can’t hurt them. I hope your shrimps arrive soon, good luck!

[Varanus]

The substrate looks fairly deep, will you be getting trumpet snails to aerate it? I'm not sure if its deep enough to cause any problems if there is no aeration, but its worth considering.

[silvercorona]

Yes, I'll be grabbing a pack of snails from Mustafa

[silvercorona]

Macro algae and Mossball from Mustafa showed up today!

I've got quite a bit of "scum" at the top, any worries?

[JoanToBa]

That could be caused by the organic matter in the tank, if you have one, use a protein skimmer, if you don't then wait until your tank fully cycles.
Now that you have plants that can absorb nitrates created by decayed organic matter, you only have to wait for the foam to decompose and the plants to absorb all of that (your chaeto will probably do it).
Good luck then!

[Mustafa]

Yes, that's algae/diatoms. Your tank is ready for shrimp already actually. And you don't need to do anything about the surface film. The shrimp will eat it... Don't even think about using anything like a protein skimmer. Just leave things alone. Everything is fine and will remain fine as long as you resist the urge to make changes after being worried about something.

[silvercorona]

My malaysian trumpet snails arrived this week!
They had to be acclimated to brackish for a few days but now they are rocking it in style and cleaning everything up.

I squished the air bubbles out of my Marimo and that seems to have allowed it to chill on the surface for a bit. The macro algae got a thorough cleaning from the snails and I think knocked the air bubbles off that were causing it to float away too.


Looking to add some shrimps in the new year, I can't wait!
Will continue to update as they progress.

[silvercorona]

Shrimps were added a few weeks ago and seem to be coexisting nicely with the snails.

I "sunk" the original eco sphere that I got with my first opae and released them into the 7 gallon tank before the big group showed up. The shrimp seem to love swimming into it and back out.

The new group rest most of the day on the large rock but occasionally will flock out and swim around the tank grabbing up food.

I'm hoping everything settles in and I see some breeding happen in 6 months or so. I'll post more as the tank matures.

[i<3Opae]

That’s a nice look having the bottle in the tank! Good luck and having fun shrimp watching

[jcfrank922]

Your tank looks awesome! You have a nice setup!

[Mustafa]

Thanks for the updates! Just one thing..if that "mossball"/algaeball is from me, it's *not* a marimo ball. It's a different species/type of algae ball. Just want to avoid some confusion for future forum members that will be reading this thread.

[tmjump]

Hello just starting out. I have a one gallon tank I got sand from the beach and ocean water. Turned the water into brackish water. Let the tank sit for a month. Now algae growing strong. Order the shrimp. I was curious if I need to order snails. I plan to keep it as much as a closed eco system as possible but I plan to check once a month by feeding the eco system to see if the shrimp need food. Any advice at all will be useful Thank you

[Varanus]

Hello just starting out. I have a one gallon tank I got sand from the beach and ocean water. Turned the water into brackish water. Let the tank sit for a month. Now algae growing strong. Order the shrimp. I was curious if I need to order snails. I plan to keep it as much as a closed eco system as possible but I plan to check once a month by feeding the eco system to see if the shrimp need food. Any advice at all will be useful Thank you

The snails help aerate the sand and clean it but they aren't usually vital as far as I know.