live rock and inverts

pescao

When my tank was cycling i used to see things coming out of the live rock, also a lot of algae star to come out, that's when i bought a few crabs thinking that they will eat the algae, and that's when i didn't see the stuff in the rocks anymore...
was it a bad move to put the crabs in the tank?

usmc121581

How long as the alive rock been in there? It could that they died off. How long has the tank been setup? Now for the crabs, what type were they? The best ones for algea is the emarold crab. I have 3 in my reef and they seem to do a good job.

pescao

The rock was cycling for 5 weeks before i put in the crabs.
I bought 4-scarlet hermit crabs and 1 larger one that i dont know the name.
It's a 90 gallon tank

usmc121581

With that time I would go with die off, but then with the crabs I think all they do is scavage the tank for food. If there wasnt any food for them to eat they might have ate whatever they could find. I would go with the emarold crabs for the algea.

pescao

So you think the rock is no good anymore?
By the way, the rock is getting pink and green... what do you think? should i buy more rock and put the inverts away for a while?

usmc121581

Live rock is never know good, if your getting the pink and green thats a good sign. What it is is coralline algea, not a bad type of algea. It encrusts everything that it can get a hold of. When it forms on the rocks, power filters, etc. the bad algea wont be able to grow on the spot that the coralline algea is growing on. You can never go wrong with buying more live rock. Live rock will filter your water for you, the more you have the better. They say you should have 1-1 1/2lbs of live rock per gallon. You can keep the inverts in. I was never a fan of the hermit crabs for the reason is that they would eat my snails. So to clean up the tank and extra food or what ever would be in the tank, I have 2-serpaent stars to do the job.

pescao

ok...
thanks for the info.
I think ill buy more rock later on when all levels come down a little more.
what do you feed your inverts with? i mean, something like calcium?

usmc121581

No calcuims for corals and coralline algea, my inverts like my snails eat the algea off the glass, and my 2 sandshifting stars eat detris.