New to the hobby

Ohhhh... Sexy reef. Love those clowns.

I'm so out of my element with freshwater, but I agree that the ammonia test results are strange. To get an ammonia reading prior to fish being added in a brand new system, with brand new filters and rocks is strange unless the safestart product added ammonia as part of starting the cycle?

I would snag a water sample and take it to the fish store for them to confirm results.

I am not 100% on this but I have been told that the Saltwater tests will not work on freshwater. You might want to check with the experts on that.

I've gotta api fw master test kit with only maybe six tests run, if you wanna trade me I'm down, i don't have any fw fish anymore

JamesB wrote:I am not 100% on this but I have been told that the Saltwater tests will not work on freshwater. You might want to check with the experts on that.

From what i'm reading, the colors are slightly different when testing water without salt using a saltwater kit. So a trade is the way I'd prefer to solve this issue instead of buying a whole new kit.

As dumb as this sounds, I was super excited to figure out that I could use my gravel vac as a hose to clean out my sponge filter with tank water from a water change. Forgive me for my "noobness" but I don't know all of those secrets yet and it's fun to learn them!

I hadn't thought of doing it that way, I have always firstly rinsed the ceramics in the old water, then squeezed and squeezed the sponge out in the same water. Interesting idea, to use the syphon as a hose, will try that, thanks for the idea.

Lady from LSA told me that the ammonia readings typically end up barely green even though the number is 0, and the rest of the numbers are working as expected, so I decided that it's all well and good.

Yeti, I cleaned things your way this time (squeeze sponge in water instead of just trying to push water through it) and WOW was that sponge filthy. With a 20ppm nitrate reading this week after only 1 week since last 20% water change on 3 platys and 1 molly, I expect that the removal of all that extra waste will DEFINITELY keep my nitrate numbers lower, especially since I only have 4 fish in the water.

Couple general questions for anyone who reads this:
After a water change, my molly gets VERY energetic. Is this just related to my molly's personality or am I stressing out the fish? My molly is the obvious leader of the group, and is always amusing to watch, but seems more energetic than normal. The platys are all exactly the same before the change as after.

Is the advice about 4+ corys in a tank accurate? I'd like to get some nice bottom feeder fish, but I honestly don't have the room for 4 corys.

It's been 3 months since I last posted, so I figured I'd update y'all on the tank these days. At the end of the school year, another teacher gave me her shoal of neon tetras who have been doing well in my tank. Man they are fast compared to the platys and molly! It's a lot of fun watching them at feeding time as they dart after the food. Despite having livebearers, I haven't had a new group of fry, but I'm sure that day will come since there's 1 male for the 3 females.

I also picked up a mystery snail which my son LOVED. I say "loved" because he found his way to the filter intake which is apparently too open, even with the plastic grating on it. I replaced it with 2 mystery snails and my son loves them too.

At 6 weeks I ran into the brown algae problem and seriously cut back on food. I should have done that at the beginning, but this is my first tank so I claim shelter as a noob... I did a 50% water change and cleaned the plants as best I could and the problem hasn't been as bad since. What I didn't clean, my molly and platys are doing a good job cleaning. My snails do a decent job of keeping my glass and substrate clean, but they really just entertain my son.

I guess that's all there is in the news about my tank at home. I'm planning to set up a system for my classroom wherein I have fish and fiddler crabs. The problem I come across is how to give the crabs enough dry land while having a substantial amount of space for some fish. I'd love to do an underwater dry area, but I worry about it failing. Anyway, thanks for reading.

For live bearers you need some type of hiding area for the fry, this is normally a dense area of plants, or as I have done before, you buy some of the artificial plastic grass, and sink that into the gravel. This creates an area into which the adults cannot penetrate, but allows the fry to grow and feed. I even have such an area at one end of my Peacock Cichlid tank, under a broad leaf silk plant, which allows the fry to survive ... well until they become to confident, and before they learn that "holey rock" is a hiding place.
As for algae break outs, also look at your lighting, too much or not enough can also lead to issues. Yeah welcome to the black art of fish tanks.

As for your fish and fiddlers. I've never seen it done, or considered it. My understanding is that Fiddlers stay dry.
My only suggestion, other than building a volcanic mount in the middle of a tank, upon which the Fiddlers live (and I'm thinking for open square feet you would need to look at at least a 55G tank), would be to look at creating a shelf in the top 1/4 or 1/2 of the tank upon which the Fiddlers live, with an edge to prevent them falling in. An Acrylic/Plexiglass shelf, and barrier silicon glued in the tank may work?
Then you would need to keep the water level a few inches under the Fiddler shelf, to keep your water surface area, which oxygenates your fish water. I would also put a power head in the water under the "Fiddler shelf", to ensure water movement. Air bubblers don't do a lot for adding to the oxygenation of the water, rather the move the water, so don't rely upon them to oxygenate the water in still areas.

If you do go with a 55G tank, consider a good, not cheap, canister filter, they really are worth the extra. The other thing is that I don't know about the excrement from a Fiddler, and it's toxicity to fish water, so again, be prepared to design the "Fiddler shelf" so you can clean it out, and no detritus falls into the fish water.

As I said, I've never looked into Fiddlers, so I have no experience, but with fish, it's about surface area of open water to the number of fish you can keep.

OK I was totally wrong.

I found this.

Keeping Fiddler Crabs
The fiddler crabs found in pet stores are most likely semi-terrestrial brackish crabs, which means they need some salt in their water as well as access to air and dry land. Unfortunately, many pet stores keep fiddlers in a freshwater aquatic set up, and recommend the same to new owners. They may do fine in a fresh water and fully aquatic set up for weeks, but will eventually become weak and die. If possible, find a store that keeps them in brackish water, or wait for a new shipment so their time spent in fresh water is minimal. Look for crabs that are active and have all their legs and claws.

Providing Brackish Water
Because most of these crabs are naturally from brackish waters, most experts recommend putting salt (get aquarium salt from the pet store; never use table salt) in the water. The ideal amount of salt to add is controversial, but it is probably best to get a hydrometer and add enough salt to the water to attain a specific gravity of around 1.005 - 1.010. Hydrometers are not all that expensive and can be found at pet stores and also home brewing shops. Alternatively, your package of aquarium salt may have instructions for producing brackish water conditions. It is okay to vary the salt concentration/specific gravity slightly as these crabs would naturally experience some variations in salinity.

Temperature
Fiddler crabs do well at a range of temperatures between about 75-85 F (24-29 C).

Fiddler Crabs Need Land Too
Some provision should be made to provide the crabs with access to land/air. Owners that do not do this often find their crabs crawling up the filter intake and into or on top the filter in an attempt to find land. Providing a sloped bottom to the tank with part of the gravel or sand out of the water works well. Alternatively, use a partly filled tank with large rocks on which the crabs can climb out of the water.

....
Brackish water changes everything, especially the fish you would keep, now some of the guys have kept salt water Mollies, but I have no idea of how you acclimatise them to the water, but I know some on the forum have done this.

Thanks Yeti. I forgot to mention that I've been trying to do better about keeping the lights on for strictly 12 hours a day, but I really need to get a timer to make sure I don't mess up.

I had looked into crabs a bit before deciding I wanted to try them out, but your idea about using an acrylic shelf for the crabs is something I had looked into. I worry about the lack of light under it, but I suppose it makes it easier to become a hiding place.

For the fish, several online posts talk about tetras being good tankmates with a fiddler, but tetras aren't supposed to be exposed to brackish water iirc. I expect mollies or platies will be the likely fish. And yes, I already know that spotted puffers are bad tankmates.

I also am debating making this a planted tank or just taking the hobby lobby plants and making it look nice that way. The benefits of planted sound great, but it would be my first attempt.

So the way I imagine the acrylic shelf looking is this way. There'll be 4 support posts under it and it will be sealed with DAP aquarium silicone. To get in and out of the shelf, I'll have some method of allowing the crabs to climb up and into the shelf and then a way to get from the sandy area inside the shelf back to the water. I figure I'll use driftwood or rocks with a netting tied to them to maintain traction.

I've heard that glass and acrylic don't seal well, so I worry that the shelf will not stay sealed, and I'm open to alternate ideas if there are any out there.



Substrate on the bottom will be a mix of PFS and crushed coral. In the shelf, I'll have PFS and some calcium crab sand.

Ditching the shelf idea, using hard sandstone for natural stone caves, building up an area in a corner for fiddler haven, and stocking it with 4 fiddler crabs, several mollies, and 4 bumblebee gobies (Found at petco Longview). I will do hobby lobby plants for the large greenery, and java moss. Excited to try a brackish tank with such interesting characters (which internet research has said over and over again will coexist happily)!

That sounds as though it will look more naturally appealing, I look forward to seeing a pic of it when it's set up.

SciOps wrote:Ditching the shelf idea, using hard sandstone for natural stone caves, building up an area in a corner for fiddler haven, and stocking it with 4 fiddler crabs, several mollies, and 4 bumblebee gobies (Found at petco Longview). I will do hobby lobby plants for the large greenery, and java moss. Excited to try a brackish tank with such interesting characters (which internet research has said over and over again will coexist happily)!

Use only the plastic plants made for aquaria. A lot of fake plants contain chemicals and dyes that could be poisonous to fish and inverts.