[fishgeeksrus]

I ordered a Reef tune up kit and some spaghetti worms from IPSF...

Now this is just to start...

6 Hawaiian Trocus Grazers tm (Trochus intextus). Simply the most active and effective reef tank grazer you can buy... anywhere. Beautiful red and white shells, high work rate and 100% captive bred only by Indo-Pacific Sea Farms. Will not grow too large - they are shipped at about 1/2 inch in shell diameter - never gets bigger than an inch. Place right-side up on live rocks after acclimation. Read our Customer Feedback page for dozens of Trocus Grazer testimonials!

1 Free Hawaiian Turbo Grazers tm (Turbo sandwicensis).. Direct from our hatchery! Indo-Pacific Sea Farms is the only captive-bred source in America for these true Indo-Pacific reef grazers. Our Hawaiian turbos are active, voracious algae eaters with a multi-year life span. They have a distinctive cat's eye operculum that the early Hawaiians called mahina or moon. Shipped at approximately 1/2 inch in shell diameter. Of course they are 100% captive-bred (you can purchase the babies as part of the Mix 'n Match Special.) Reef-safe, will not bulldoze. Place right-side up on live rocks after acclimation.

12 Nerite Grazers tm (Nerita sp.). Exceptionally hardy herbivorous snails; superior glass polishers; jet-black in color, night feeders. Add directly to tank; place right-side up on live rocks after acclimation.

12 MicroHermitstm (Calcinus sp.). Reef-safe, highly active, approx.1/4 inch shell. Great rock and sand cleaners. Add to sand at bottom of tank after acclimation. These small hermits pose no threat to the snails in your reef aquarium.

12 Strombus Grazers tm (Strombus maculatus). The marine aquarium industry's hottest new grazer. Reef-safe, highly active, approx. 1/4 inch shell. These are miniature Pacific relatives of the famous Queen Conch known from Caribbean waters. Hawaiian Strombus Grazers stay small and never exceed about 1/2 inch in length. They are the perfect size for reef aquariums! Many customers report that our Strombus Grazers lay eggs on the front glass, giving rise about 2 weeks later to hundreds of baby snails. An army of small algae eaters working day and night to keep your tank free of problem algae! Of course ours are 100% captive-bred. Grow your own! Add right-side-up to sand at bottom of tank, after acclimation.

Mama Mia Worms tm. The common name of these deposit-feeding annelids from the family Terrebellidae is Spaghetti Worms. But let's face it - how many people can spell "spaghetti" correctly on the first try? We sure couldn't. Hence the name, Mama Mia. These highly active worms have bright red buccal tentacles which extend out over the sand bed to gather suitably sized particulate materials, which they "lasso" by tentacular contraction. It's fascinating to watch, and it sure beats vacuuming your sand bed. Here's a bonus: you can count on Mama Mia worms to reproduce in your tank because they have direct development (no planktonic stage). Specimens average approx. 1/2 "-1" in length with tentacles extended.100% captive-bred by IPSF. Mama Mia Worms tm. $19.95 (6 specimens)Order

He is also going to throw in some bristle worms for me!

[Reefland]

Isn't it amazing how we can get so darn excited about receiving some worms and snails.

[fishgeeksrus]

haha, I know! I am watching the clock as we speak. It seems like it has been empty for so long! It is pretty pathetic that I am excited over worms and snails! LOL! So far, the only thing in there is a few hermits, a Sohal tang and a Purple tang. I did move a few corals over from the smaller tank. It is amazing how they are coloring up. One coral in paticular is purple with yellow/green polyps. It is already growing like crazy. Oh what fun!!!

Andrea

[RayPollett]

Originally Posted by fishgeeksrus

haha, I know! I am watching the clock as we speak. It seems like it has been empty for so long! It is pretty pathetic that I am excited over worms and snails! LOL! So far, the only thing in there is a few hermits, a Sohal tang and a Purple tang. I did move a few corals over from the smaller tank. It is amazing how they are coloring up. One coral in paticular is purple with yellow/green polyps. It is already growing like crazy. Oh what fun!!!

Andrea

Glad it is all coming together. Leave the lights off for a day to try and give the Momma-mia worms time to hide.

Ray

[Ninong]

I ordered the same package from IPSF as well as ordering a bunch of stuff from Inland Aquatics. I didn't have any problems putting my new critters into my tank because there was no livestock in the tank at that time.

The only thing in that package that you will have to be especially protective of would be the so-called Mama Mia worms. I would hold these separately in a small tupperware container with tankwater until at least two hours after your lights are out for the day. Another trick is to place the entire tupperware container on top of the worms on the surface of the sand bed but this results in all of the worms ending up in a very confined area. I believe it would be save to simply scatter them separately over your sand bed if you wait until all of your fish are sound asleep. BTW, they aren't spaghetti worms because they aren't Terrebellids. They're hair worms. Doesn't really make any difference but both IPSF and Inland Aquatics misidentify these animals.

The so-called Strombus grazers are nice but they aren't strombids at all and certainly not Stombus maculatus. Whatever they are, they stay very small and are cute little algal grazers. Another case of misidentification. Two molluscan specialists who have examined specimens of these so-called "Strombus Grazers" have determined that they are actually columbellid snails. This information was passed on to Gerald eight months ago but he did not respond.

The trochus grazers are actually trochids and very nice. The Hawaiian turban was nice but the poor little thing didn't last long in my tank. That was because once the so-called MicroHermits grew up, they became holy terrors in my tank. They killed off my Hawaiian turban and at least half a dozen other snails before I was able to remove all of them. I believe I ended up with at least 18 of those "little" beasts in my tank because I got the dozen that came in that package and then another half dozen that came mixed up in the live sand and live mud package. My experience was that some of the "micro hermits" remained small but several of them grew gigantic -- larger than 1". They attacked my Scarlet Reef Hermits (that were much bigger than them originally) and certain of my snails. I would strongly advise you to NOT put these things in your tank but that's up to you. I was VERY sorry that I allowed them into my tank. I figured that since they came as part of the package, I should at least try them out, especially considering the claims by Gerald that they were harmless. Big mistake!!!

P.S. -- You will need to be protective of your baby bristle worms, too. Same procedure as for the hair worms. Scatter them on your sand bed in the dark at least two hours after the lights have gone out and try to drop them on the sand bed next to the live rock.

[fishgeeksrus]

Geesh, I wish I would have read this before I started putting all of these into the tank. The hair worms fell in between some of the lr onto the sand. Unfortunately, I could not get to them to move them. But I figured this was probably a good thing anyway. I placed a piece of rock over the crack that they fell into so the fish would not bother them. The bristle worms took cover immediately into the lr. One is in the front near the glass. He is starting to dig into the sand. I saw one of the micro hermits and one of my blue legged hermits having a issue. Do you have to put in bigger shells for the micro hermits? I only bought one pckg, so i think it came with 12 micro hermits. I will remember to skip those next time. Anything else that you would reccommend adding?

Andrea

[Ninong]

In my experience, the micro hermits were not a problem until they got larger. MUCH LARGER! At that point, they had no trouble finding their own new homes. Perhaps if I had some empty shells available in my tank they would have used those but I didn't and they took matters into their own hands. Claws. Whatever!

Your hair worms should be OK once they get into the sand bed. That may not hold true in all cases, it all depends on what fish you keep. A Chelmon rostratus might eat them and some dottybacks might eat them. Those are just a couple of examples that I can think of off the top of my head. My Pseudochromis fridmani doesn't actually eat them but he does nibble on their buccal tentacles from time to time. He does eat bristle worms though, especially the big ones. The smaller ones seem to be able to avoid him but once they get big enough they are not long for this world. All three species of dottybacks from the Red Sea are reputed to eat bristle worms.

What you have so far is a good start as far as sand bed type fauna. What you might want to do now is acquire some live sand samples from a few different sources. When I ordered my stuff from IPSF and from Inland Aquatics, I included their live sand/live mud packages and their amphipod/copepod packages. My live rock had lots and lots of amphipods and copepods but I figured more couldn't hurt and might add extra diversity. I also got 12-lbs of live sand from the guy who sold me my live rock. In addition to that, I added about 30 lbs of live sand from the Florida Keys and a small sample of live sand from another online vendor when I ordered some frags. A lot of the sand bed infauna are actually too small to see with the naked eye (especially my naked eyes), so I figured the more the merrier.

[fishgeeksrus]

I don't plan on having those kinds of fish. I should be ok. I will look into the live sand. Eventually, I will order some more of the snails and I some live sand too! Everything seems to be coming together now. Hopefully in the next couple of weeks I will be able to upgrade my skimmer. I am also looking into purchasing one of those Tunze ts24 kits. Then a chiller, then a calcium reactor etc...


Thanks for the info!

[fishgeeksrus]

So far so good. I also threw in some more snails. LFS called them margarita snails. I don't know a lot about them. They were in his reef in the store.

[Ninong]

Originally Posted by fishgeeksrus

So far so good. I also threw in some more snails. LFS called them margarita snails. I don't know a lot about them. They were in his reef in the store.

Too bad they're still collecting those things and passing them off as "reef" snails. It's really a shame. They are a cold water snail that won't live more than a few months at typical reef tank temperatures. Then, as they die off, they will foul your water.

Never believe anything the LFS people tell you unless you verify it independently and never assume that they know what they are doing.

[fishgeeksrus]

Ninong,
I think I am going to check with you in the future before I buy anything.

I was thinking about the Tunze TS24 Kit. Know anything about this? Also, I am looking into upgrading my protein skimmer. Thinking about the Precision Marine Bullet 2 with a Iwaki 40 RLT. Do you know anything about this particular brand? Thanks in advance!

[Penguin]

Originally Posted by Ninong

Too bad they're still collecting those things and passing them off as "reef" snails. It's really a shame. They are a cold water snail that won't live more than a few months at typical reef tank temperatures. Then, as they die off, they will foul your water.

Unless your LFS is like mine and labels nerite snails as margarita snails. Nerites will do well in a reef. Just another example of common names being inconsistent and misused.

[Ninong]

Originally Posted by fishgeeksrus

Ninong,
I think I am going to check with you in the future before I buy anything.

You don't have to check with me, just run a search on the various boards using the keyword and see what you find. Just pay careful attention to who it is that's making the claims. Ad copy for online sellers is notoriously unreliable. According to them virtually everything would be great for your particular tank. Maybe you lucked out, maybe your so-called Margarita snails are actually Nerite snails instead of what most vendors call Margarita snails. You see, different vendors pass off different snails as Margarita snails and often then are not even in the same genus. Too bad they don't have a clue.

I was thinking about the Tunze TS24 Kit. Know anything about this?

I believe that's a Tunze controller with two Turbelle powerheads. Tunze has a good reputation. I have a Tunze Stream 6060 but so far I haven't been able to keep it in my little 120-gal tank for more than a couple of days. It kicks up my fine grain sand bed too much. You need to check around to find someone who is actually using that setup.

Also, I am looking into upgrading my protein skimmer. Thinking about the Precision Marine Bullet 2 with a Iwaki 40 RLT. Do you know anything about this particular brand? Thanks in advance!

The only thing I know is that Steve Weast (board name: steveweast http://www.reefland.com/forum/member.php?userid=2308 ) was running four of those skimmers on his little 500-gal tank, the one he had up before he replaced it with the new 850-gal tank. He seems to like them. Don't read anything into the fact that he was running four of them, he does everything in a really BIG way. He's a member of this board and a member of Reef Central. He has two threads on RC, one for the first tank and a new one for the 850-gal tank.

Check with him for his opinion. Use the link I gave you to send him an email or a PM through the board.

[Ninong]

Looks like Penguin and I were thinking the same thing at the same time. Must have been telepathy!

The Latin phrase caveat emptor was never more appropriate than when one is browsing through a typical LFS. Don't worry, in no time at all you will know more than the typical LFS employee -- probably by this time next week or shortly thereafter.