[sihaya]

Originally Posted by optical

he said you had an algae problem. haha

lol You guys are dorks

[peachykeen]

ok, i manually removed the red stuff, upped my powerheads, and i havent seen anymore of the red bandit. i did check the "baby snail" and i think the crabs must have got him, cause the shell as pretty as it is, is empty! did water change this morning after testing, everything was cool. brown stuff seems to be disappearing slowly but surely. thankss for the price info, store says if i buy 2 at one time i can get them for 150, they trying to sell, been sitting on shelf too long

as always thanks for the help and encouragement, this newbie needs it,lol

want to add to tank, seems like everytime i get ready to something blooms in my tank

came across a free 55 tank and would love to put just corals in it, boyfriend says too expensive to have 2, i disagree, ill work on him for a few days

[sihaya]

Are you doing a deep sand bed? If so, the crabs gotta go...

[peachykeen]

sandbed only 1 to 2 inches, not deep at all, im trying to get of the buggers, they ate my baby! ( i think), shell there but no snail and nothing else in tank that would eat it to my knowledge

[smidoid]

Crabs will eat anything that's fleshy and can fit into their pincers. As my mate Mike says, "Just say NO to crabs." You need to build a crab trap - I got mine in a LR and exported it to the fuge! ;-)

Somewhere on the board there's a picture of an effective trap made with a pop bottle - you just cut the top off and glue it inside (upside down). Drill some holes in the base, bait it and watch the fun! You may have to adjust the neck so that it's large enough for the crab's carapace to fit through.

[peachykeen]

ive gotten most of them out 2 or 3 left, ive actuall thought about in creasing my bed, should i do that before or after my diatom bloom clears

[sihaya]

I'd do it sooner rather than later. It's not a big deal... just dump the sand in and let it settle (make sure you blow it off the corals and stuff though, and that you don't burry anything that can't dig its way out).

[peachykeen]

what would you add next after the bloom dies, bbrittle star, looking for great bottom feeders for the sandbed, start at bottom work my way up

[sihaya]

I'd go to Inland Aquatics and get either some seeder live sand or a detrivore kit... or both. You could also take some sand from a friend's tank (if they have a proper, established DSB).

You'd be surprised how quickly a good sand bed can populate even just from stuff that comes on the live rock. But that won't likely be enough in the long run. So I'd get some critters from somewhere. Just try to get a good mix of them... the more diversity the better.

Have fun too! These sand bed critters can be great to watch!

[smidoid]

Originally Posted by sihaya

.
You'd be surprised how quickly a good sand bed can populate even just from stuff that comes on the live rock. But that won't likely be enough in the long run. So I'd get some critters from somewhere. Just try to get a good mix of them... the more diversity the better.

Have fun too! These sand bed critters can be great to watch!

If you can get the right sand! <hurumph!>

Mine is so coarse it will cut the poor little sods to pieces!