High Tide Aquatics

Brandie's 210 Upgrade

goldielocke76 said:
Anyone have any recommendations as to what size of CUC to have in a 210?

Currently, I have two (think they are both still in there) fighting conchs, 3 (I've seen two for sure, one may have not made it?) emerald crabs, about 11 nessarius snails, and an unknown number of hermit crabs, some blue legged, maybe a handful of red legs? Oh, also have 4 turbos, and ~10 astrea snails. Just for grins and giggles, let's say I have about 15 hermits. /shrug

Need to know about how many more to add :D any advice would be much appreciated!
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That is about what I like to run in my 240.
I much prefer Trochus snails over Astrae, since I tire of righting Astrea all the time.
Maybe a few more hermits. Depends on size.
But so much depends on nitrate levels, feeding amount, and other herbivores, that it is hard to compare.
 
Haha, I had no idea trochus snails existed until a few weeks ago. I will definitely put a few of those there, I love the pattering on the shells. Astreas are on their own when they are on their backs rofl, they usually use each other to right themselves.

Hermits are all about quarter sized. I have a few larger ones, but for the most part, they've stayed small. And there's tons of additional shells for them to grow into if they needed it. They were smaller than my pinky nail when I first got them though, so I know they have grown haha.

All the other things you mentioned (herbs, nitrate levels, feeding amount, etc) kind of hard to predict at this point. I do plan on running a biopellet reactor if needed, plan on having two autofeeders and most of the fish are herbs? LoL, until I get there, that's the best I can come up with.

Jestersix will be paying me a visit on the 22nd of June!!!! How exciting, the rock work will look stunning after he works his 'scape magic! :D
 
BAYMAC said:
Hermits .+ Astraea = new hermit shell
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That's why you go get bags of shells from Michael's, boil them to sterilize them, then throw them in the tank ;) that's what I did and I've never lost an astraea in the 90. **knock on wood** I learned that lesson in my 60 gallon, when I didn't know hermits would kill snails for their shells... lost a ton of turbos, and astraeas. It got expensive, haha.

Watch, now that I've said that, I'll go look and I'll only see three... LoL.
 
LoL. Do recall how long you've been doing this.... With such green fingers, it's best to listen rather than argue it never happened to you... ;). Astreas are used due to being cheap (stateside cuc normally is), not for bing an awesome snail :lol:
 
BAYMAC said:
LoL. Do recall how long you've been doing this.... With such green fingers, it's best to listen rather than argue it never happened to you... ;). Astreas are used due to being cheap (stateside cuc normally is), not for bing an awesome snail :lol:
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Not arguing by any means :) just stating my experience I had with the astreas and turbos in the 60 gallon, compared to the 90, and what made it different (the added shells).

Haha, and I've definitely branched out snail wise since I've first started, but I just learned about the trochus (sp?) snail a few weeks ago, when I saw one that I liked at Matt's and I had no idea what it was. It was actually the shell that caught my eye because I thought to myself "Gee, my astrea shells don't look like THAT!!!" Hahaha. Was thinking of adding a few to the 90, but decided against it until I get in to the 210. I don't need any more morsels to temp my over zealous male melanurus wrasse. I try to scare him away from my nessarius snails (when I see him pick at them) but I can't watch the tank 24/7. Good thing he seems to be stuck on bristle worm patrol LoL.
 
Time for some pics and updates!

So it's been a really busy month tank wise for us as we are trying to meet the deadline to have water in the 210 by the end of this month :) Last three weekends have been suuuuper busy.

June 1st: Going to Hollister to work with step dad getting the stand finished
June 8th (week of): Packing up the bookshelf, washed the rock that John (jestersix) was going to use for the rock work, make sure the 90 fit in the bedroom, etc. Basically moving furniture for the tanks
June 15: Jim (gimmito) was very nice and came over to help move the 90. He and his son showed up around 1:30 pm and I believe we were done by 4:30pm-5pm. It was great, whereas I was inside my own head freaking out, Jim's calmly catching fish, picking up rock and letting us know what to do next. Something that I had dreaded for months on end (really, this was the worst thing about upgrading to the 210, in my mind, haha) ended up being uneventful and much faster than expected (Thanks Jim!)
June 22nd: John (jestersix) came by around 9am today to work on the rock. It surprisingly went by super fast, and it was a ton of fun! Rock work looks absolutely FANTASTIC!!! I can't wait until my fish get in this new tank, and see all of the sleeping spots they will have ^.^

I'll post pics in a separate post. Hope you enjoy :)
 
Stand is finally in it's new home!

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Going to be posting up some before shots of the stand and some misc shots I thought you guys might like.

Information on the stand: So, originally, the stand had a floating bottom, and because of this, the previous owner had made a cut out of the 40 gallon sump and sat the sump on the floor. This made the bottom of the stand almost useless for me, as I planned on putting the 100 gallon tru vu in it. Problem was, the front supports of the stand attached to the bottom of the stand, so when we removed it, we had to figure out a way to attach the supports without the bottom. My step dad did all of this by using "Plumber" or the plastic wood. Completely water proof and because it's used as decking, completely sturdy. The stand is no longer "floating" per se, but the colors of the stand and the plumber match (closely, not perfectly) so it doesn't look bad at all. Dad also put up beams in the corner of the stand on the back part (for more support) and against the two back braces. Much much more sturdy. In addition, all the hard ware was replaced with stainless steel, so no rusting involved, and the broken proprietary hardware (two different spots where the hard ware was actually broken and no one knew it) was replaced. No more flexing, no more twisting and it's sturdier than it was. It's not perfect by any means, but it will do a good job in holding up the stand. The bottom that was made is also removable, so we had to put the stand where we wanted it in the living room, mark it off with painters tape, move the stand, put the bottom on the floor and then set the sump on it, then put the stand back in place using the tape as a guide. I'll shoot more pictures of the stand as it is later, but here are some before shots.
 
Shot of the interior of the stand after the bottom was ripped out. This was how the broken hard ware was found out. We had to contact the manufacturers (twice!) and get different hard ware sent to us both times. Customer service was good though and they had no problems sending it. :)

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