Finally, getting my 75 gallon started

[reeffreak]

Your choices is fine for the most part.Remember hermit crabs may kill snails for their shells.The dwarf-blue legged are the safest around snails but there's no guarantee though.I would probably go with 2-3 Mexican Turbo snails instead of 5.IME,they make quick work out of hair algae.Once its gone they will starve if diatoms are the only algae left.If thats the case then you may have to supplement with algae sheets.

[Bifferwine]

I only have 4 turbos in my 240. They eat a lot so you only need a couple of them, really.

[Pheeshes]

ok, thanks.
so the clean up will start out like

3 emerald crabs
20 astrea snails
1 or 2 turbo snails
15 blue leg hermits
and 2 peppermint shrimp

that look better?

[reeffreak]

I would wait one more month for the Peppermint Shrimps.They are more sensitive to water quality.

[Bifferwine]

Yeah wait at least a month for any shrimp.

[Pheeshes]

ok, i think we're going to wait a little while yet for anything. we had a little ammonia last night so i think there is going to be a small cycle at least. we'll though. we'll probably test again thursday or friday

[Pheeshes]

well, we havent posted in awhile and it's a slow day at work so i'll fill everyone in. we got our clean up crew at aquarium adventures 50% off all live stock sale so it ended up being really cheap. we got basically enough to take care of the cleaning untill we get fish(we'll probably need more once there are fish) there are 15 blue leg hermits, 10 cerith snails and 4 emerald crabs for now. when we add more i'll probably look into some astrea snails and maybe some other guys to help out as needed.

we had everything set up with rock and sand for about 2 and half weeks with no ammonia or nitrates at all. the day after we added the clean up crew it slowly started climbing and is now at .5 i think and nitrates are coming up now also and the nitrites finally started climbing the last two tests.

right now we are working on setting up an ATO for while we are in france, so my wifes mother doesn't have to come to our house everyday. i'm planing on using an aqualifter pump and some sort of controller (we're looking at them now) and using a rubbermaid that was supposed to be for wrapping paper so it is tall and thin and will easily fit behind the stand.

we're going to start with two clowns when we get back and go from there as far as live stock.
and that's the update.

[ccCapt]

Is the skimmer working like you have it set up? I really don't see how it could possibly work like that with the crappy stock pump. That skimmer isn't really made to be run externally....at least not like that.

[Pheeshes]

it's actually working really well, i'll get a picture when i get home if i can, but i've skimmed about 2-3 inches of pretty dark gross stuff in 4 days of running it with just my clean up crew. i thought since the only things producing waste were the cleaners that was pretty good. i had some trouble at first getting the water level set, but once i figured out i had it way too high it's been running perfectly.

[Bifferwine]

The cleaners aren't producing that much waste, it's probably die off from your live rock. And the fact that you are seeing just a very small cycle shows that the skimmer is doing its job and taking out a lot of the bad gunk.