nor cal bay area
- Thread starter ffmedic
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petemichelle
Well-Known Member
el cerrito california here, hey i'm setting up a 150 gal tank and need a scoop of sand from a live sand bed. Does anybody have a deep sand bed that I can get a cup of sand from to seed my new tank?
petemichelle
Well-Known Member
I work in sand francisco everyday. nice to know there's somebody close. seems everybody listed is in southern california. are you by chance running a deep sand bed? I'm just finishing the set up on mines and could use some advice. I'm currently going back and forth about the worms, star fish and other critters to add to the sand bed. I'm starting the tank with dry rock, instead of live, and bagged live sand. this is an attempt to keep out the unwanted hitchhikers and such. so since the start up is really sterile, I want to talk with and check out what has actually worked for different folks, and not just info on the internet. there is so much mis-information out there, i'm almost just stumped... well let me know, maybe we can communicate and I can get some actual experienced advice.
mrsmanhattan
Community Member
I'm in Fremont! Was wondering if I could hire someone local to care for my tank while I'm away in April, or what you guys do when you are away.
mrsmanhattan
Community Member
petemichelle, I did dry rock, it took a bit longer to cycle...I added in some microbactor7 and it sped up the process but not much. I think its a good idea just takes longer...there are different view points on substrate but from what ive read a deep sand bed is beneficial...good luck! I wouldn't mind giving you some of my sand but mine is still fairly new so if you'd wait a bit it might be of better help to you....
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petemichelle
Well-Known Member
are you doing a deep sand bed? how big of a tank?
mrsmanhattan
Community Member
petemichelle, no not too deep but, if you are still in need I wouldn't mind at all as I have more sand that I would like to add over time
petemichelle
Well-Known Member
mrsmanhatttan, I appreciate the offer. my tank is cycling right now and I don't want to add anything to it as it may not be able to sustain the life I would so be insterested in your sand. what kind of a tank do you have? you mentioned earlier that you too started with dry rock instead of live rock. how long has your tank been up, and how did you seed the sand bed? when I say seed, I mean add the micro fauna, like the cope pods and amphi pods, the worms and other animals that are beneficial?
mrsmanhattan
Community Member
I have a dsa 105 and and eshopps 300 refugium. I cycled my tank adding amonia and microbactor 7 until there were no more amonia or nitrites. Once I had nitrates I added macro algae bought from my lfs loaded with pods, and got a clean up crew. I continued adding micro Baxter 7 and I fed pellets to my hermit crabs which added more waste for the cycling process. Then I added more macro algae and I fed the pods phytoplankton until I had a pod bloom. Then I added some clowns to make sure everything was stable and my reading are really good I had a good pod collection I don't have any worms. I do water changes every week things seems fine. I always do maintenance doses of microbactor and it seems to keep my nitrites low but to be honest my readings are always 0 in nitrites and amonia. Now I have more fish and some coral. Everything seems fine.
mrsmanhattan
Community Member
I have a dsa 105 and and eshopps 300 refugium. I cycled my tank adding amonia and microbactor 7 until there were no more amonia or nitrites. Once I had nitrates I added macro algae bought from my lfs loaded with pods, and got a clean up crew. I continued adding micro Baxter 7 and I fed pellets to my hermit crabs which added more waste for the cycling process. Then I added more macro algae and I fed the pods phytoplankton until I had a pod bloom. Then I added some clowns to make sure everything was stable and my reading are really good I had a good pod collection I don't have any worms. I do water changes every week things seems fine. I always do maintenance doses of microbactor and it seems to keep my nitrites low but to be honest my readings are always 0 in nitrites and amonia. Now I have more fish and some coral. Everything seems fine.
petemichelle
Well-Known Member
how long has your tank been up? the macro algae you bought from the lfs that was loaded with pods. did you put that in your display tank or the refugium? If it was in your display tank, how did you get rid of the macro algae after the pod bloom, or did you? if it was in your refugium, how do the pods get back up into the display? doesn't going through the pumps kill them, and won't they get filtered out. The phytoplankton you fed the pods. where did you get it, was it something in a bottle with a name? How much did you feed and how long did it take before you had the pod bloom?
I'm sorry about all the questions. I am starting to feel guilty from drilling you with all of these question. I am though, trying to replicate what you did so I hope you take that as a form of flattery, they say "imitation is the most sincere form of flattery". I do appreciate it.
my tank is just finishing it's initial cycle. I will do a 40 percent water change i a couple of days. I ordered a lot of pods and worms from Indo-Pacific sea farms. but I am not too sure how to keep them alive let alone get them to multiple before I add any fish. I too want to add a couple of clowns as my start up fish but I hear they do and will eat pods. I don't want my new pods to die because I'm not feeding them right or for them to end up as very expensive feed. ha, ha. thanks again for your help mrsmanhattan
mrsmanhattan
Community Member
Oops, I didn't mean to post that two times. How do I erase one?
My tank has been set up since the mid February. I put the macro algae in the refugium and before I put it in the water I shook it off really well to make sure IF there were any pods on it they would fall to the bottom before flowing to the return and getting pumped into the tank. Yes, some pods do die in the process but most survive being returned into the tank. I went back every Friday to Neptune Aquatics in Milipitas every Friday and got more macro algae and did the same thing until I felt I had enough algae in there (with room to go because it can grow out of control). I fed it phyto feast in a green bottle name brand reef nutrition every other day following the directions on the bottle which says 5 drops per 10 gallons taking into consideration of the extra water in your refugium as well. Honestly, it took a while like 2 months before I saw a "bloom" of them. It appeared to be small bubbles in my water and on the glass but when you looked closely it was thousands of little pods. They look like little sand lice or something. It was A LOT, but that is normal and it will naturally decrease to the needed amount of the tank and if not you can feed them more or seed more later.
You are not bothering me with your questions I actually can't believe I have any advice to offer you...ha ha I'm still so new to the hobby myself. What does your water parameters look like. Do you have high nitrites or nitrates?
You actually do not need the pods right away for fish unless you plan on adding a fish that would not do well without them like a mandarin or a goby. My clowns do not eat them but that's not to say your future ones will not. If you wanted I wouldn't mind giving you handful of my chaeto to give you some of my pods when you pick up the sand. I have not done any research on worms so you will have to let me know how that works out for you
My tank has been set up since the mid February. I put the macro algae in the refugium and before I put it in the water I shook it off really well to make sure IF there were any pods on it they would fall to the bottom before flowing to the return and getting pumped into the tank. Yes, some pods do die in the process but most survive being returned into the tank. I went back every Friday to Neptune Aquatics in Milipitas every Friday and got more macro algae and did the same thing until I felt I had enough algae in there (with room to go because it can grow out of control). I fed it phyto feast in a green bottle name brand reef nutrition every other day following the directions on the bottle which says 5 drops per 10 gallons taking into consideration of the extra water in your refugium as well. Honestly, it took a while like 2 months before I saw a "bloom" of them. It appeared to be small bubbles in my water and on the glass but when you looked closely it was thousands of little pods. They look like little sand lice or something. It was A LOT, but that is normal and it will naturally decrease to the needed amount of the tank and if not you can feed them more or seed more later.
You are not bothering me with your questions I actually can't believe I have any advice to offer you...ha ha I'm still so new to the hobby myself. What does your water parameters look like. Do you have high nitrites or nitrates?
You actually do not need the pods right away for fish unless you plan on adding a fish that would not do well without them like a mandarin or a goby. My clowns do not eat them but that's not to say your future ones will not. If you wanted I wouldn't mind giving you handful of my chaeto to give you some of my pods when you pick up the sand. I have not done any research on worms so you will have to let me know how that works out for you
petemichelle
Well-Known Member
Oops, I didn't mean to post that two times. How do I erase one?
My tank has been set up since the mid February. I put the macro algae in the refugium and before I put it in the water I shook it off really well to make sure IF there were any pods on it they would fall to the bottom before flowing to the return and getting pumped into the tank. Yes, some pods do die in the process but most survive being returned into the tank. I went back every Friday to Neptune Aquatics in Milipitas every Friday and got more macro algae and did the same thing until I felt I had enough algae in there (with room to go because it can grow out of control). I fed it phyto feast in a green bottle name brand reef nutrition every other day following the directions on the bottle which says 5 drops per 10 gallons taking into consideration of the extra water in your refugium as well. Honestly, it took a while like 2 months before I saw a "bloom" of them. It appeared to be small bubbles in my water and on the glass but when you looked closely it was thousands of little pods. They look like little sand lice or something. It was A LOT, but that is normal and it will naturally decrease to the needed amount of the tank and if not you can feed them more or seed more later.
You are not bothering me with your questions I actually can't believe I have any advice to offer you...ha ha I'm still so new to the hobby myself. What does your water parameters look like. Do you have high nitrites or nitrates?
You actually do not need the pods right away for fish unless you plan on adding a fish that would not do well without them like a mandarin or a goby. My clowns do not eat them but that's not to say your future ones will not. If you wanted I wouldn't mind giving you handful of my chaeto to give you some of my pods when you pick up the sand. I have not done any research on worms so you will have to let me know how that works out for you
man, you are giving me so much insight on procedure. everybody talks about things like adding pods before fish, but it's hard to get them to actually respond with detail procedures like you are doing. thanks. when you say "some pod do die in the process" is my concern. my sump is split into 3 sections. I have the 36s ruby from Trigger Systems. The first is the section the drain from the display empties into and has the skimmer, the second section is the refugium, which I have 4 inches of sand and also some dry rock, as the water leaves the refugium section it goes through this black sponge type filter before entering the last section with the return pumps. the sponge is not super fine, it's kind of like the material that comes with some mag drives for the intake, if you know what I mean. anyway, my concern is that the pods would get caught up in this filter and die. do you have that kind of filter that the pods have to go through before entering true return pump section? and obviously you don't have any foam or filters on the intake of your return pumps. I'm running 2 mag 6 for my returns.
oh also, I cycled my tank by hanging a raw piece of cut up shrimp in a mesh bag that I let dangle in front of the return jets in the display tank. I would watch the amount of shrimp decaying in the bag, and when It was almost gone I would cut up and put another shrimp in there, which was about every 3 or 4 days. My ammonia is now 0, nitrites 0 and my nitrates were around 30 after 45 days. I just today did a 40% water change, and will test the water tomorrow sometime, just to give it time to really stabilize and mix. now here's the lead in to the question, I know the pods, worms and clean up crew have a really small foot print as far as a bio load. So should I continue to keep the shrimp in there so as to feed the bacteria that converts ammonia to nitrites, and nitrites to nitrates, maybe half a shrimp??? until I see the bloom and then add a couple of clowns as you did. then stop with the shrimp completely? I'm worried that in the two months of waiting for the pods to bloom that the beneficial bacteria will die off or at least dramatically shrink due to the very small foot print that the pods and clean up crew present, then when I do add the clowns when it's time, it will kick off another ammonia cycle. how did you deal with that?
I am currently waiting for the pods, worms and hermits that I ordered from Indo-Pacific farms in hawaii. they are due next week.
I know I ask a lot of questions, please, answer them at your leasure, thanks again.
mrsmanhattan
Community Member
I had an emergency situation PeteMichelle pertaining to me having no say in a termite treatment since I am the renter and I could not risk killing everything so I called up the only people I personally know in the hobby and he came and thankfully took everything off of my hands so they wouldn't die and I know they are in good hands. I have a 5 gallon bucket full of sand for you to come and take. I would come asap also to get my macroalgae and pods in my refugium. Bring a siphon hose and a bucket of your own. Let me know if your interested or I'll just give it away on craigslist or something. If anyone else is interested let me know.
petemichelle
Well-Known Member
I wouldn't be able to make it. thanks a lot for thinking of me. i am so sorry to hear of your situation. it sounds like a nightmare.
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