Do I need to clean live sand in my JBJ Nano Cube

[snails pace]

My 12 gallon JBJ Nano cube is up and running with three clown fish, 3 snails, and three hermit crabs.

The live sand has become dirty with uneaten fish food, fish droppings, loose algae. Does this debris need to be picked up somehow. If so, how do you do it.

 

[JasonRP]

Well, first things first: How long has your tank been? Has it already cycled? Do you test the water frequently to check ammonia levels, nitrate/nitrite? Do you do water changes? The uneaten food and droppings will decompose, and if your tank has not cycled yet (it's new), you'll be seeing a bigtime ammonia spike soon. Try to siphon any uneaten food out of there if you can. Keep testing the water to make sure it is safe for your fish/inhabitants- you may have to transferr them out of there if the tank is going through it's cycling process.

If your tank has been established for a while, and you know that it is cycled, I'd still siphon the uneaten food outta there if there is a lot in a pile on the bottom.. Uneaten food is your enemy and it will decompose directly into ammonia. Here's what I'd do- I'd do a weekly 10% water change, and while removing the old water, I'd vacuum up as much droppings, algae, and uneaten food as I could.

With my tanks, I always feed VERY carefully, so that the fish eat whatever I put in the tank before it can fall to the bottom. It is my believe that your fish will be MUCH healthier if they are slightly hungry all the time then to slightly overfeed. Whatever tiny crumbs fall to the bottom, the crabs will make quick work out of. They should eat the algae too. Also, if your tank has liverock, you probably have some amphipods (they look like little tiny clear lobsters kind of) that come out of hiding when the light of your tank is off, and they munch on leftovers too.

Anyway, I'm no expert or marine biologist, but this strategy of "careful feeding" has kept my tanks in business. Hope this helps you.

Jason

My 12 gallon JBJ Nano cube is up and running with three clown fish, 3 snails, and three hermit crabs.

The live sand has become dirty with uneaten fish food, fish droppings, loose algae. Does this debris need to be picked up somehow. If so, how do you do it.

 

[snails pace]

Thanks for great information.

As you can tell this is my first salt water tank.

The water live rock and live sand have been in place for three weeks. I took water samples to local marine fish store after two weeks and told me the ammonia, nitrate/nitrate levels were appropriate.

I was going to do a 20% water change after 4 weeks.

Has the cycling process been completed?

There was heavy green algae growth on the live rocks, but snails pretty much ate all the green algae.

How do you siphon or vaccum up uneaten food/droppings?

I have not started the water testing process, which I will now start. The local marine fish store said that you would test for me if I brought samples in.

Last, the hermit crabs are not active during the day with the light on. Are they nocturnal? I just do not see alot of movement. The snails are very active.

Do you recommend any type of sand sifting invert or fish?

Thanks for the help.

 

[Anonymous]

snail,

You may have a bit too many fish in your tank. I'd suggest returning at least one, better yet two, to the fish store for now. The first two months the biological filter is really struggling to keep up with the waste produced by your tank. Add a fish, wait three weeks or so, add another, etc.

What species of clownfish are they? Even the smallest clowns, A. ocellaris and A. percula, get to be about 3" long a piece. Two of those and one more small fish would pretty much max out your bioload. AFAIK, ocellaris clowns are the only ones that will tolerate trios. Any other species will form a pair and kill or harass the other fish.

 

[JasonRP]

Thanks for great information.

As you can tell this is my first salt water tank.

No problem.. We all gotta start somewhere. I started around 1990, before liverock was used heavily (as far as I know), and I had a 29 gallon tank with an undergravel filterplate/powerhead, and two aquaclear 200s! My motto in those days was "filter the living crap outta your tank" I used crushed coral for substrate, and that was the whole tank- no rocks! Back then, some people used to laugh at me for even attempting to run that small of a tank! Now, people have run them smaller then 1 gallon!

The water live rock and live sand have been in place for three weeks. I took water samples to local marine fish store after two weeks and told me the ammonia, nitrate/nitrate levels were appropriate.

Since you started out with live sand and live rock, my guess is that the tank has probably cycled by now, or is pretty close.. But as others have said before me, you should still build up the bioload slowly when you're getting started in a new tank.. Each time you add a new fish, think of it as a little mini cycle starting, as the different types of good bacteria are growing in population to meet the new demands of the tank.

I was going to do a 20% water change after 4 weeks.

This is a good idea.. Don't get carried away though- when I was still relatively new to aqauriums, I did a massive water change to make up for some past tank negligence, and ended up with some fish loss. From then on, I personally wouldn't change any more than 25% at one time to be safe.

Has the cycling process been completed?

There was heavy green algae growth on the live rocks, but snails pretty much ate all the green algae.

I thought that algae bloom was the telltale sign of a lot of ammonia, but I could be wrong here. Can anyone else verify this?

How do you siphon or vaccum up uneaten food/droppings?

This is really easy on a nano tank.. Just get one of those gravel vacs from your LFS (I use the one that has the tubing about the diameter of a pencil so the flow isn't too fast), siphon to get it started, and use the tube to get all the large bits of waste outta there..

I have not started the water testing process, which I will now start. The local marine fish store said that you would test for me if I brought samples in.

That may be cost effective if the LFS guys will do it for you.. Test kits are expensive, and once you get up and running, if you stick to your maintenance, you won't notice any change in your readings each time you do the tests, they should all show your tank in good shape.. Of course, the test kits are helpful when you are first starting up a tank so you can monitor the ammonia, nitrate, and nitrite spikes. As a side note, a lot of test kits I see have a test for PH.. I've found that for me, the PH of my saltwater tanks was always on the money. I think this is because the marine seasalts (like Instant Ocean) that most everyone use these days are buffered to put the PH right, and also that aragonite and crushed coral help keep the PH right too. Maybe someone else has more info on this..

Last, the hermit crabs are not active during the day with the light on. Are they nocturnal? I just do not see alot of movement. The snails are very active.

Hmm. The hermit crabs I've had were funny: I had blue legged ones in my 3 gallon that were clowns- active all the time. It was better than watching TV watching these guys! Then, in my 29 gallon tank, I had red legged hermits that were nocternal.. But I used to have an Angel in there that would harass them, so maybe they adapted this behavior? I don't know..

Do you recommend any type of sand sifting invert or fish?

With the last tank I started up, I bought some great live rock, only to be horrified when I found that there were LOTs of bristle worms in it!! They gave me the creeps! I read all about how to try to get rid of them in the newsgroups, but then I talked to a very knowledgable guy at my LFS who said that they are great sand sifters. I did see them moving around and burrowing into the sand alot. I also saw them eating junk off of the sand at the bottom many times. I guess opinions very as to whether they are welcome or not. As for me, I wouldn't buy them, but if I got some great live rock and they were in it, I wouldn't loose sleep over them either.

I hear that a twinspot goby or a banded bullet goby are good sand sifters. I'm sure there are other sand sifters too, but I don't know enough about any of them..

Thanks for the help.

Don't mention it.. I still consider myself a novice compared to some of these other guys!

Jason

 

[Anonymous]

Top notch advice Jason, I'll have to give you some of my paycheck!

Since I forgot to do it earlier, Welcome to Reefs.org!...(both of you)

The only things I wanted to add were these points:

1) An algae bloom doesn't necessarily mean there's ammonia detectable in the water...a couple snails should take care of this problem.

2) I agree that bristleworms are almost always good for your tank.

3) I'm not familiar with the gobies Jason mentioned. There are some gobies that do a great little job of stirring the sand. There are others that require really deep substrates, and will ONLY eat animals in the sand. Thus, they quickly starve to death in tanks this size.

Just research any purchase BEFORE you buy it so you know how to care for it. If you can't find info, PLEASE ask us! Don't rely solely on local fish store information (or anyone's info, for that matter). Get lots of opinions before buying.