Cycle is complete, now what?

[jroescher]

"So far I've have no algae, diatoms or anything of the sort." ...yet. You will, just hide and watch. When you start adding things to your tank, you will start having to deal with this.

No matter what you do next, I would add a few snails to the mix. Crabs are debatable.

[Reefer4ever]

True. A lot of people don't like crabs. I used to have all sorts of crabs, but now I only have a few hermit crabs. When I caught the crabs, I fed them to my oscar, Oscar(R.I.P:( ). Now I have two red leg hermit crabs. All kinds of crabs knock things over and some destroy coral. Therefore, people don't want crabs.

[CoryDude]

Reefer, I wasn't going after you. I was really curious as why. If I had a nickel for everytime sometime around here told me I was wrong, I could set you up a DSA 140 complete w/LED's and a Deltec Skimmer and reactor.

The main reason I was questioning you was because I'm ready to put sand in my fuge that's already got cheato and I didn't want to do anything wrong. BTW, I too was sucked into the beauty of the trash palys and then I started to see them spread over the rocks way too fast. From what other Maast members have said, they will kill just about anything they touch.

Nassarius snails would make a good addition, and like I side, maybe once or twice a week drop a little food in the tank to keep your bacteria levels up and the snails fed.

[Reefer4ever]

The palys have been touching one of my red/white acan heads and hasn't been bothered by it, but if there is a possibility of them hurting my acans, I'll move the acans a little bit over. Also, I'm not trying to highjack the OP's thread, but will a green striped mushroom hurt my green/purple acans?

[tebstan]

The chaeto won't tumble as well on a sand bed unless flow is high, but then sand is flowing as well. Chaeto can be over a sand bed, but it will do better without it. (Thanks Ping, at LMAR... )

I've had mushrooms near acans. If anything, the acans messed up the mushroom pretty bad. Once they were separated, the mushroom grew back to its normal shape.

To the OP.. some people don't like hermits, but their hilarious antics will give you something to stare at while you wait for the tank to develop more. Stick with one kind - red legs or blue legs or scarlet reef, etc, and you'll have fewer hermit wars break out. Toss in a few extra shells to prevent battles. Be careful adding hermits and snails at the same time to a new tank. There may not be enough algae for the snails. And some snails don't flip themselves easily when they fall upside down, making them crab bait.

[ramsey]

Therefore, people don't want crabs.

I agree, they're such a pain in the groin. Also, once you get them, they're very hard to get rid of. It's like an itch impossible to scratch. Well, that's what I've heard anyway.

[allan]

I started with about 10 or 15 tx trash pallies... Which grew in a plague like fashion.

The thing is that they do grow, they grow everywhere. I had a chalice that was spreading out real nice, figured that the tx trash would starve for a lack of light. Instead they grew up and onto the chalice. On top of it!

I still have them, I hate killing them in the tank because all of the fleshy material that floats away. Taking them out isn't always as easy as that. But I did remove a ten pound rock that had been placed too close... Half the rock was covered in the palies.

Growing things is cool, it growing so fast and so much that it becomes your only coral? I wouldn't recommend it.

[DarkHorseMBA]

I agree, they're such a pain in the groin. Also, once you get them, they're very hard to get rid of. It's like an itch impossible to scratch. Well, that's what I've heard anyway.

We're still talking about saltwater crabs right? :-)


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[ErikH]

Like I said, I don't have first hand experience with a sump, as I've never had one, yet. Just trying to give what knowledge I've accumulated from reef forums.
I really don't care about the "Texas Trash Palys". If they grow, they grow. Rip some out when there are too many, let them grow back, and then rip some more out. I don't see why these palys are such a fuss.

They are "such a fuss" because of their growth rate. I have had them for a few years, and they have managed to singly take out more zoa colonies and montis than any other coral in my tank. Sure you just rip them out, but they grow back in double the amount. Please let those of us with some wisdom on the subject shed some light on it without smearing the comment and interjecting with an opinion that is not based on experience. You haven't had a plague such as them, and you are lucky. They are as bad a pest as any in a reef tank, and when you spend thousands of dollars trying to make your tank perfect, it really sucks to have one stupid paly become the downfall of many hundreds of dollars worth of corals. That is unless you want your tank to look brown. I am actually about to make some more rock because I need to pull all of the rock out of this tank due to Texas Trash.

[ErikH]

Oh, and as far as a CUC.....

I would go with blue leg and red leg hermits and nassarius snails. Turbos, astreas, and all of the other snails don't clean the glass enough to really be beneficial, IMHO.
Also, the snails that tend to get on the glass, tend to get into your overflows. This happened to me this week. I had a slight overflow of the display because I have a Mag24 as a return and my overflows couldn't stand to have one being clogged.

Hermits and nassarius eat up the food not consumed by the fish, and will also eat poop at times. This is what you want... As Tebstan stated, put some extra shells in there so they can grow into them. That will keep them from fighting over larger shells as they grow. Hobby Lobby sells packs of decorator shells for a decent price, and it dresses up the hermits into nicer costumes. Of course, as with anything that moves, they can knock over frags, etc. Just glue the frags you get down well enough the first time and you should be fine. It's cool to watch the nassarius rise up out of your sandbed when you feed. It's like night of the living dead.

1" sandbed or less, larger is a detritus trap which will cause nitrates to hover at undesirable levels.