5 gallon opae ulas journal

[Ca Nguyen]

quick update, did a 50% water change today, quick counted 24, i imagine i missed the rest.

ammonia 0

nitrite before water change 5.0+, an hour after water change about 2-3

nitrate 0

added more live rocks.

observations
after water change, all shrimps came out and swam around. i see 3+ with saddles. they appear to have 2 strains, very red ones and clear ones. color are uniform between males and females. they are extremely active after a water change, lots of swimming. i now feed them 3 times a week. 2x spirulina powder, 1x tiny piece of hikari tripical algae wafer.

[eklikewhoa]

How often are you doing water changes?
Do you have water pre-made/aged?

[Ca Nguyen]

this is my second water change ever. i don't have a schedule for this tank yet. what do you recommend? i figure once a month should do the trick since they don't eat much.

the new water is a mixture of 50% water from my nano reef, and 50% treated tap water. so i guess it's semi aged?

[eklikewhoa]

So you aren't mixing new salt mix?

I would probably mix your own dilution of saltwater and avoid using old dirty water.

With your water change frequency, Seeing that your tank hasn't fully cycled I would probably do a few times a week.

[Ca Nguyen]

oh wait, i do have new salt mix in. i forgot. the ratio is 25% reef water, 25% new salt mix (that've been sitting in a large container all week waiting to go in reef tank), and 50% treated tap water.

last water change i did was 2 gallons. i think i'll switch to two 1 gallon water change a week. i figure i should let the nitrite get as high as possible to tip over the bacteria bloom. but to be honest, i'm not even sure which method would make it cycle faster. i don't think the live rock help much as there is little water movement from the sponge filter.

[eklikewhoa]

Stop using the old dirty water.

I would do a gallon or two every other day or so.

Yes, letting the nitrites spike would be best but that's what you usually do before you put the livestock in the tank. Now that you have them in there already letting it raise up too high would be harmful to the shrimp.

doing small water changes to keep it from spiking would be best, it would prolong the cycle but it would also allow for livestock be in there while it's cycling.

[Taigitsune]

Quite fascinated by this thread. I've been considering donating a 4L wine bottle to the cause of raising these little guys, and have already contacted the purveyors of hawaii-opaeula.com regarding their free Opae'ula program.

I've noticed that most of the ecosystem kits come with a gorgonian. Does this serve a purpose other than decoration, and has anyone here tried adding one to their tank?

[eklikewhoa]

I think those gorgs are just skeletons for the shrimp to hold onto.

Naturally Gorgs are filter feeders and are quite difficult to maintain in an established proprietary tank being target fed so I don't think they would do well in the shrimp tank and in only brackish water.

[Taigitsune]

I figured as much. One came with my shrimp habitat but it didn't seem to be of much use.

As for the rest of the thread, I'm considering setting up a tank of my own and rotating groups in and out of the smaller habitat I was gifted for Christmas so I can have some at work.

This is definitely good reading!

[Ca Nguyen]

the fan coral is there for enclosed habitat to have more surface area for bacteria and algae to grow on. you can see shrimps trying to feed off them. i have plenty of surface area and food, so there is no need for it.

[Taigitsune]

So I finally got 5 Opae'ula from Globus to go with the biosphere I got for Christmas. I went ahead and cleaned and boiled the 4L wine bottle I had, added about 2-2.5lbs of black sand, and about 2 lbs of lava rock small enough to fit through the neck of the bottle.

I've added water to 1.012SG and am aerating it overnight. Come tomorrow, barring any rapid changes in water chemistry, I'll transfer my gang into their new home.

With any luck, they'll breed and I can begin rotating some in and out of the biosphere for a week or so at a time to ensure optimum health.

Is there anything I missed?