Ricks' Oceanic 14G Biocube - my first salt water tank

[djbacon]

I've read that they are social if there are more than one kind in a tank. THe LFS had about 40 inthe same tank and all were very active. Considering adding a skunk cleaner shrimp so they can party together. No rush though. Don't want to stock up too quickly. Need to find out more about the bioload of these little guys on a new (and small) tank.

[lcstorc]

Well mine always stayed together and I never saw any agression but one of them would just disappear. Mine don't seem to hang out with my peppermint shrimp but who knows what they do at night.

[djbacon]

HOLY CRAP - I must have bought a pregnant fire shrimp. I was inspecting the back wall of my tank after seeing a bunch of little white dots on the back wall after a water change. It's been a weird day of weird water parameters..

See the following:

TETRA KITS SUCK - Did I screw up my tank?

I notice they started moving and I started to freak out. Are they pods...Ich? WTF?

Then the more I watched I started seeing a few really small things swimming in the water column...Looked like little brooms or something.

Then suddenly, my shy little fire shrimp whom I have had all of 24 hours crawls out from (HER) rock and spews about a THOUSAND MORE into the water column !!!

What the hell do I do with this ????!!!! Will they all die and cause a massive spike in my tank?!!!

[leahski]

oh, wow. that's soo cool! it'd be sweet if some survived, since there's really no one to eat them in the tank yet (unless mommy dearest has a snack!)

[djbacon]

Should I take out the filter floss and try to save them????

Dang...my LFS is closed Wednesday too!!

[djbacon]

They are all getting caught up in the filter floss and skimmer.....damn... If I had fish they would be stoked right now

[djbacon]

photo of the after birth - all those squiggly things are baby shrimp. (oh and thats my wife behind the glass).

Just a few left today. The rest were in the filter this morning, which I clenaned out.

[leahski]

that must have been so cool to watch! sad that most got filtered up, though. maybe one will survive and you'll get a surprise of a juvinille shrimp crawling out of one of your rocks!
that'd be sweet.

[djbacon]

On to the little white bugs....Its been suggested these are just pods....must be really hard to tell being so small? Is this normal? Not sure where the hell they came from but it seems to have happened post water change and after the addition of the CUC.

Hoping these are not some kind of parasite. Any ideas?

[djbacon]

Fire shrimp molted last night. Guess the birth loosend up those jeans eh

[leahski]

haha, the first time my peppermint molted, i was all freaked out! i had to search every hole before i found him and made sure he wasn't just eaten from the inside out!!

and about the little white bugs, i'm pretty sure they're just copeopods. i have the same thing, they're really tiny and kind of spring when they move. from what i've heard they're not only harmless but are really beneficial for a tank.

[djbacon]

Yeah, I wish I could have seen the molting in progress. Feel luky to have witnessed the birth event...

Thanks for the reply on the pods, got the same feedback from a few other guys here who have been helping me out. Think you are right. Just weird how they appeared in such high numbers practically overnight!

[jnohs]

how does that skimmer work I have the bio 29 and 14 connected but I have also just started a 55 gallon reef and would like to use the hob skimmer I have now on the 55. then through out my 29 and keep the 14 but I wanted a skimmmer for the 14. I see that it is only around 40 dollars that is cheap. But the tank is very small and I will have a 55 gallon for endless clean water. I would say that if it pulls out any amount of gunk on a consistent basis I would like to get it.what do you thimk about the skimmer you have?

[jnohs]

Also 1 thing that is nice about the 14 gallon is the lighting is pretty good .It is only 2 small pc's but the maximum distence of most corals after sand and rock is 9 inches.

[djbacon]

Funny you posted just now...I just reviewed the skimmer in the products review column. So far so good. It doesnt make a great seal between the reaction chamber and the colloection cup but if I skim kinda wet i get a good 1/3 cup of tea colored water every 2 days. For 14-29g it probably does fine but i would consult someone with experience than me.

Regarding the lighting. Yeah, it has more watts per gallon than most cubes out there including the nano and bio twenty+series.

I am seriously considering gettting the 3.24 nanotuners upgrade which adds the 3rd bulb for 72 watts.

nanotuners

Not sure how much benefit the extra 50/50 bulb will really have though, they also sell a 70w HQI upgrade but its as much as the cube ($269 or something)