new 10 gallon tank!

If you can't find these cleaners at your LFS, liveaquaria.com has good prices and a good selection.

If you do get any star fish make sure you drip acclimate them for at least 3 hours.

If you get hermits make sure they have larger empty shells for them to change into. After they molt they will need larger shells, make sure you are dosing with iodine too, they need it to molt.

If you have astrea snails in the tank hermits will attack if they can't find a shell.

I've had the best experience with turbo snails. They mowed through my hair algae in days.

 

Don't scrape!

Whatever you scrape inside the tank will spread.

Hard multi-colored growth on tank walls is coralline algae, beneficial. It will cover your rocks eventually. Small green spots (maybe brown - I'm red/green colorblind) are diatoms, and some snails eat them. Those you can scrape. Don't touch the red carpet unless you do it after removing it from the tank. That is cyano bacteria. A product called Chemi-Clean kills it, follow the directions carefully. If you scrape it in the tank it will spread.

Eliminate as much phosphate and silicates from your water as you can and keep your tank slightly underfed and underlit. Some algal problems last a lifetime!

 

This is an important question that I don't believe has been answered. Are you using tap water or r.o. water in the tank? No amount of cleaners or chemical treatment can take the place of water quality when it comes to algae. If you do not have an r.o. unit, you will continue to have algae and other water quality problems. I apologize if the question has been answered and I just missed it when skimming through this thread

 

Ok... so the other night I had the light off in my tank for a while. I went back in and flipped the light on and looked around. On the back wall of the tank I saw this creature, like slug, or snail without a shell crawling around on the glass. I was surprised. I immediately grabbed the camera and started shooting. I have no idea what it is. Any ideas???

The first picture is the best upclose view of the creature I could get with my
cam at the time.


The second is what the creature looks like from underneath when he's stuck to the glass.


The 3rd picture is just a view of what it looks like from a distance.

 

Today I went back to my LFS today to ask a few questions, and to pick up some live sand. I bought about 5 pounds of live sand to mix in with my crushed coral that I've got. I also bought a turbo snail and 2 hermit crabs. I don't have pictures of these guys yet but I'll get some soon and show you guys. I asked the guy about RO (reverse osmosis) water. He said that it's certainly better to use than regular tap water. But he's not sure how it compares to regular distilled. I've used distilled water on my SW tank to fill it up as it evaporates. I actually added some last night and then next morning I got up I found my anemone just moving around the tank all lively, he was stuck to yet another coral that I have in the tank. To add the new sand I took the rocks out and put them aside in a saltwater container. Then I scooped out the read algae that I had growing on the crushed coral that was near the back of the tank.... here is a photo...



Then I used a magnet cleaner to get rid of the algae that was on the walls of the tank. Mostly the back wall. You can see it was pretty bad.

 

Distilled is much better than RO, but you do have to make sure there is no copper in it. Some processing plants will use copper piping. Just pick up a test and test for copper, or bring it to your LFS and have them check it for you.

Most people recommend RO/DI because you can get a unit and make all the water yourself, usually cheaper than buying it by the gallon. In your case I'd stick with the distilled.

 

I commend you for sticking with this.. reading the initial post was like watching a car wreck.. I cant stress enough how important research is and not moving too fast.. There is a lot of knowledge on this forum so do your research and keep asking questions.. Good luck.

 

Looking at your tank I don't see coraline. Is there any in the tank at all?

If not you may want to find something to seed it. You could add a cured rock with lots on it, making sure the rock has been in water and that it doesn't touch air when you move it to your tank. Another thing you could do is buy a turbo snail that has coraline on it.

It will be very important that you have it in your tank. A little will seed the whole tank, eventually it will cover all your rock, and some glass. This will prevent bad algae from growing on your rocks. And it looks nice too.

 

What is coraline?? I could go to my LFS and see if they have rocks or something with coraline on it. I do have a turbo snail now but I have no idea if it has coraline on it.

 

Coraline is a purple aglae that will eventually cover all the rocks in your tank. It's not like other algaes which are bad.

You'll know the purple when you see it.