Aclamating the snails and sea cucumbers…

Adding the snails and sea cucumbers…, originally uploaded by tyrsdomain.

Here’s a fun shot of my son and myself adding the Reef Tank Tuneup to our tank.

A Candy Cane Coral?

Our Reef Tank Tuneup arrived today around 11am (I wonder why the company emphasized it was a PM shipment? I must have misunderstood what the “PM” stood for…)

It was both a little more and a little less than expected.

First the “less”. They didn’t ship any crabs and we were suppose to get 12 microhermits. We definitely have a problem with the hair algae starting to take over in some areas and I was looking forward to the crabs helping out with this problem…   We also didn’t get the Hawaiian Turbo Grazer.   It is definitely a disappointment that the Indo-Pacific Sea Farms (IPSF) didn’t ship everything they said they would…

The little bit “more” is that they added a Candy Cane Coral (Caulastrea sp.) to the package. This required a bit more research than I had anticipated because I wanted to get him into our tank quickly. For the time being, I found a relatively empty place in our tank and glued him down. However, I’m a little concerned that it might be a little bit too much light for him. I’ll do some more research with the hope that I won’t have to move him again any time soon…

So far the snails they sent have been uninspiring in their adventurousness (i.e. most of them have not moved more than an inch seven hours after being put in the tank!). However, I’ll give them a full day to recover as some of them are likely night-eaters before I pass judgment on their health.

Overall, I’m a little disappointed, but that could change if the Caulastrea opens up and is able to light up a part of our tank…

Photos to come soon…

Clean Up Crew…

Looking around at some of the options I have for clean up crews on the tank, I’m really liking the captive bred options available from Indo-Pacific Sea Farms and their Reef Tank Tuneup in particular.  I may even go with an extra Pink Cuke because I really like the idea of at least a few cucumbers in the tank to stir up the sand…