Hello,
I'm cycling a new tank right now as of about 3 days ago, and I was wondering how best to proceed with regards to a few different things:
- There are a couple of neat looking zoa polyps that I'd like to keep if possible. I'm keeping the lights off to hopefully keep algae at bay, but is there a way to make sure the zoas get enough nutrition to live for a month or two before lights come on? Is it OK to maybe give them 30 minutes a day just for bare-minimum subsistence, or would that be enough to let nuisance algae take hold?
- There are also some brittle stars I'd like to keep. Will they have enough to eat with just the stuff growing on the liverock, or should I add some flake food or something? I'd rather not add extra nutrients if I can avoid it.
- There are a few amphipods that have emerged dying from the live rock and proceeded to die over about a day. They're sitting on the sand right now, and no bristleworms or anything have come out to chow down yet. It's a 90G tank so I'm not too worried about tiny amphipods polluting it very quickly, but would you leave em in or take em out?
- I've found one tiny aiptasia (which means there are likely many more) - should I just cover it in superglue and hope for the best? Or will the lights-out treatment keep it at bay? I guess if I have lights on briefly to feed the zoas, the aiptasia would probably be kept up as well.
- I have a Tunze Osmolator 3155 - what's the best way to keep bubbles off the dang sensor? I've got it positioned on the opposite wall from where water falls into the return pump chamber and it still gets a few now and then which triggers the pump.
Thanks in advance!
I'm cycling a new tank right now as of about 3 days ago, and I was wondering how best to proceed with regards to a few different things:
- There are a couple of neat looking zoa polyps that I'd like to keep if possible. I'm keeping the lights off to hopefully keep algae at bay, but is there a way to make sure the zoas get enough nutrition to live for a month or two before lights come on? Is it OK to maybe give them 30 minutes a day just for bare-minimum subsistence, or would that be enough to let nuisance algae take hold?
- There are also some brittle stars I'd like to keep. Will they have enough to eat with just the stuff growing on the liverock, or should I add some flake food or something? I'd rather not add extra nutrients if I can avoid it.
- There are a few amphipods that have emerged dying from the live rock and proceeded to die over about a day. They're sitting on the sand right now, and no bristleworms or anything have come out to chow down yet. It's a 90G tank so I'm not too worried about tiny amphipods polluting it very quickly, but would you leave em in or take em out?
- I've found one tiny aiptasia (which means there are likely many more) - should I just cover it in superglue and hope for the best? Or will the lights-out treatment keep it at bay? I guess if I have lights on briefly to feed the zoas, the aiptasia would probably be kept up as well.
- I have a Tunze Osmolator 3155 - what's the best way to keep bubbles off the dang sensor? I've got it positioned on the opposite wall from where water falls into the return pump chamber and it still gets a few now and then which triggers the pump.
Thanks in advance!