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Old 12-02-2007, 07:43 PM   #1
predator
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Default 10 Gal Mantis

Today i bit the bullet and bought someof the starter stuff for my mantis shrimp tank.

Here are the goodies:

10 gallon tank
glass lid
arogonite sand
distilled water
marine salt
digital thermo

So i get it home and rince it out and put it in its new home with out much to talk about...



sept i got a lil wet in the process



i rinced off the sand and put it in...



started mixing the salt and after like 5 hours of mixing i enlisted a buddy to help me



but that didnt work so since i dont have powerheads just laying around i had to hand mix it all

after i got it all mixed here is what i have...



Its still really cloudy... i have a small hob on it just to try to circulate the water a bit... (its the best i have) and i have a heater that i have to put on it... And i just ordered all the equipment hopefully here by the weekend...

Tommorrow im gonna check the SG... Im gonna hold off on any LR or cleaning crew untill the actual equip gets in since they will have atleast a month to cycle the tank...

Oh but i had this blue powder that fell out of solution and collected at the bottom of my mixing bucket...

any ideas i used instant ocean salt... do i need to add it back to the tank... is it calcium or something?



-me
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Last edited by predator; 12-02-2007 at 08:18 PM.
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Old 12-05-2007, 05:03 AM   #2
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Good news and bad...

My orders shipped out from Big Al's, but the skimmer was out of stock so im gonna have to wait on that.

And I dont think my heater is working (i used one i had laying aorund) so im gonna have to play with that a bit....

The tank is finally clearing up though and ive almost got the SG where i want it...

-me
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Old 12-06-2007, 08:57 AM   #3
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Hmmm.. the blue stuff is a bit weird, but I think it's a leftover effect from your dechlorinator. It might also have something to do with the fact you used metal mixing beaters on your mixer, which certainly goes right into the what-were-you-thinking file. Metal + inverts = less than stellar success.
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Old 12-07-2007, 05:06 AM   #4
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i only used the beater for like a minute... it was causing no circulation... and then i was like hmmmm wonder if this wiel hurt anything?....

since i thought it might be something that just wasnt disolving very fast i actually put it into my hob so it could get good cirulation and hopefully dissolve. still just sitting in the bottom of the filter... when i get my actual equipment in im gonna take the small hob off the back and the bule powder... im just using it mainly as a way to circulate water to get the temp stable and i can add salt with it and know it gets mixed in...

since you mentioned the metal thing... Is there a good copper test kit out there?

i have atleast a month to get all the parameters right on this thing and i might as well check for as much as i can....

-me
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Old 12-07-2007, 08:17 AM   #5
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Sure, there's lots of copper tests out there, and like most things in the marine side of the hobby, you tend to get what you pay for. Most of the cheap ones are still good enough.
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Old 12-13-2007, 05:24 PM   #6
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Ok so my net has been down a while so ill give you a run down of whats happened...

Friday I was actually really bored with the setup so i went and got a power head to act as a temp circulation unit and a full time sal mixer... picked it and about 6 pounds of LR up and got the tank a bit less barren...



This was on my step on Tuesday...



As you can tell my cat was more excited that i was... and it was filled with some goodies...



and i got another goodie on Wed...



So after a few hours and some blood sweat and tears i would like to introduce you to my cycling 10 gallon future home for a mantis shrimp...



now i know it looks a little under decorated when it comes to rocks, but i set up some pretty good lil lairs for the lil guy to use and i plan on adding som LR bits to it when i can get some pay palage going on.

Here are the lairs of evil....




all for now...

-me

p.s. seems to be cycling well... my ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate lvls are all moderately high and im checking them daily.
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Old 12-13-2007, 07:45 PM   #7
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looking good, keep up the good work!

when do you plan on getting the shrimp?
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Old 12-13-2007, 08:27 PM   #8
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OMG were did you get that light. i have a 10g and need a light. thank one looks pretty cool
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Old 12-13-2007, 08:49 PM   #9
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shrimp will prolly be mid to late january depending on how everything goes...

and light
http://www.bigalsonline.com/BigAlsUS...plight1x28watt

then i just got some of the like $6 legs to get the light up off the tank...

-me
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Old 12-16-2007, 11:52 AM   #10
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here is it with a bit of a rearranging of the rocks... I like it alot better like this. It looks like i have more rock in it this way and is just overall more pleasing to the eye...



It will still be atleast a week befor all my water paramets let me add anything, but i think its doing pretty well for my first SW attempt...

-me
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Old 12-17-2007, 12:25 PM   #11
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How big will it's tank have to be when he is fully grown?
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Old 12-17-2007, 01:13 PM   #12
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If I remember correctly, he plans on getting Pseudosquilla ciliata? In which case, the tank is large enough for the mantis to live in for the entirety of its life.
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Old 12-17-2007, 04:59 PM   #13
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BANGO scuba.

I was willing to spend the cash for a 20 gallon, but after reading i found that a 10 is plenty for some of the smaller species... so even if i have to get another species i should pretty easily be able to find on that will fit the tank...

-me
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Old 12-18-2007, 11:03 AM   #14
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hey love the setup wish i had room to do that, maybe someday how much has it cost so far, roughly?
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Old 12-18-2007, 05:10 PM   #15
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$200

but i had heater and test kits already... i expect about $300 total when stocked...

-me
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Old 12-18-2007, 05:58 PM   #16
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Just on update...

I looked in the tank today and i have some lil critters running around... just some lil slug looking creatures and what i guess are small stars... they were 5 to 7 legged lil spider looking things...

also i have a bit of a black algae starting to grow near the base of a rock so im gonna need to pick up a claen up crew pretty soon it looks like...

-me
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Old 12-31-2007, 01:14 PM   #17
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after a few weeks of cycling and inattention i have developed an algae issue as seen in the picture below... so today i went and tried to round up a clean up crew... my LFS sucks (sadly its prolly on of the best in the state) so i couldnt get near what i wanted... I got 3 scarlet hermit, 2 blue leg herms, and 1 turbo... They had some bumble bee snails that i considered instead of the turbo, but i hadnt done any research on them so i decided not to get them... turns out from what i read at a glance they should have been fine... so prolly should have gotten them and might still go back this weekend and pick some up...

Yuck!!!


hopefully my lil critters will start to clean up the mess...

BTW i tried to clean it up a bit when i did a water change and really didnt have any luck... so we will see waht happens...

-me
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Old 01-14-2008, 08:38 AM   #18
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Quick pic update of the tank... I added a few more "turbos" to the tank... Im actually not sure they are turbos though. I got them at Deathco (I know bad predator), but upon inspection i think they are Astrea or Truchus. Looks like thier stupidity worked out in my favor...



As you can tell the algae issue is definately still there... but its not as bad as it has been... so maybe im whipping it down a bit with less light and more herbivores...

-me
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Old 01-18-2008, 07:19 AM   #19
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The cyno is slowly but surely passing into the abis.

I had a blue leg hermit molt. I guess this is a good sign.

I am getting some rubble and sand and few other things from S13 in a few days.

Things are looking like they are nearing the time for me to get my Mantis...

-me
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Old 01-24-2008, 07:28 PM   #20
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found a brand new LFS that had my snails so I added 3 nerite, 3 nassarium (sp), and 3 cerith...

-me
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