Live Rock Hitchhikers

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animal15

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Our previous 26 gallon Colbalt Aquatics AIO tank cracked for reasons still unknown. Thank God my family and me were home and were able to save our clownfish and diamond goby. However, we needed a tank fast, so we purchased the display model of an Innovative Marine 20 gallon AIO tank from our local fish shop. It came with everything we needed (Water, heater, light, live rock, clean up crew, and apparently some hitchhikers as well) and was basically done with its cycle so we were able to add the fishbright away.
Fast foward three weeks and those previously mentioned hitchhikers are starting to appear. The good news the numbers in the tank have looked good for those three weeks: Ammonia 0, Nitrites 0, Nitrates: 10-20, Salinity 1.026, and PH 8.1. My question is which hitchikers will dissappear on their own assuming the water chemistry is stable, and which ones i need to remove right away.
Thanks for the replies and help!
 
In such a small tank I would

1. Try Peppermint Shrimp for the Apitasia or Berghia Nudibranch.
2. Possibly Bumblebee snails and limit suspended food particles in the water column, manual removal for Vermitid.

Personally I would get new pest free rock and recycle what you got. That's extreme, but it cost much more to treat.
 

IF YOU HAD TO OPERATE EVERYTHING ELSE MANUALLY, WHICH AUTOMATED SYSTEM WOULD YOU KEEP?

  • Auto top-off

    Votes: 55 58.5%
  • Automated dosing

    Votes: 6 6.4%
  • Mechanical filtration / roller filter

    Votes: 4 4.3%
  • Automated water testing

    Votes: 3 3.2%
  • Automatic feeding

    Votes: 1 1.1%
  • Lighting schedule

    Votes: 17 18.1%
  • Controller and remote monitoring

    Votes: 3 3.2%
  • Leak detection and emergency shutoff

    Votes: 1 1.1%
  • Automatic water changes

    Votes: 3 3.2%
  • None. I prefer to operate everything manually

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Something else (explain in the comments)

    Votes: 1 1.1%
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