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praisethesun

New Member
Hello
thanks in advance for helping. I have red sea max 130c I'm into week 4 with the cycle ammonia 0 nitrite 0 nitrate 5. now have diatoms and want to buy cuc from liveaquaria they have minimum for purchase because of shipping. I'd like to get 1 fighting conch, 2 zebra hermit crabs, and 3 banded trochus snails also extra shells. that doesn't add up to there minimum but if I buy a "Aquacultured Colony Polyps, Assorted" it would. My question is could I do this? this coral is 1"to 2". I'm trying to go slow with introducing animals to tank. side note had power outage last night and used inverter on car battery had to keep tank heater going I was a little worriedIMG_5041.JPG
 
nanoreefing4fun

nanoreefing4fun

Well-Known Member
RS STAFF
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Start a new tank thread & share your tank with us so we can follow along - we love pics :)

I think you could :dance: me personally, I like snails for cuc...
Asterea, Trochus, Cerith, Nerites,Margarita, Nassarius and Mexican Turbos

RS Sponsor reefcleaners has free shipping in quick crews
http://www.reefcleaners.org/aquarium-store/quick-crew-30-breeder

once you tank has cycled... you can add 1st coral, 1st fish (or pair)
 
reefer gladness

reefer gladness

Well-Known Member
I would skip on the polyps and increase the size of the CUC if trying to meet a minimum order. Trochus snails are my favorite algae eating snails because they reproduce easily in the reef tank and are able to right themselves (usually) which astrea and turbo snails have a hard time doing. You can do 8-10 trochus snails in a tank that size.

The crabs and conch will be good detritus eaters, you'll have to decide over time if you want to join the 'crabs are evil' society depending on how many snails they kill for shells. Whether you keep the crabs or not you could safely add a couple nassarius snails as detritus eaters. The super Tongan nassarius are especially cool IMO.

PS - the reason I say skip the polyps is you stand a chance of getting some drab brown zoas that nobody else wanted. Many corals come in wild variety of color combos and only appear on the market briefly, patience is a virtue when it comes to waiting for the 'right' corals to fill your tank.
 
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praisethesun

New Member
Thanks for help I'll just increase the trochus snails for CUC. Still can't exactly tell the difference between nitrate 5.0 ppm or 10 ppm on color chart. When I hold the vial away from color chart it looks to be 5.0 ppm. Shadows and other lighting makes it look like 10 ppm. should it be near 0 for CUC?
 
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nanoreefing4fun

nanoreefing4fun

Well-Known Member
RS STAFF
nitrates unlike ammonia & nitrites are not near as toxic, after 4 weeks cycling with just those nitrates you should be fine, a small amount is even desired by many, just start your weekly water changes 10-15% is I would do. You could also start running some chemical filtration if desired.
 
Pat24601

Pat24601

Well-Known Member
reefer gladness said:
PS - the reason I say skip the polyps is you stand a chance of getting some drab brown zoas that nobody else wanted. Many corals come in wild variety of color combos and only appear on the market briefly, patience is a virtue when it comes to waiting for the 'right' corals to fill your tank.
Click to expand...

This is truly excellent advice that would be really nice if it was repeated more often. I figured it out the hard way in my first 10 months in th hobby. I paid a lot for corals that were truly less than spectacular versions of their kind. Some I got to kind of get bigger and better and some I didnt.

With even my slightly more experience I'm now able to see that my LFS mostly has picked over leftover corals with an occasional great few they just got in. Waiting for those great ones is key.

I also learned don't order online unless it's WYSIWYG. It seems like I end up with the second or third class corals every time I do that. Even divers den isn't always as good as it looks in the picture.
 
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DaveK

Well-Known Member
For the size and type of CUC you want, at this point, I'd try to get them from your LFS.

This time of year with temps down and possible delays due to bad weather, you run a lot more risk of loosing the shipment.

I agree with the others about adding polyps right now. In a reef system, especially smaller ones, you want everything you add to be a real gem.
 
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