3 questions.

[Fastlight]

first question. Octo 150 It doesnt seem to be constantly making skimmate. It goes in spurts. Is it because My live rock is been established in a tank for 2 yrs and there for there isnt alot for the skimmer to pull out? And when it does pull it out its not that dark filth i see some of you have. I assume its because i really dont have a big load on it yet?? Also I have to tube pulled up most of the way just to get out what i get is that normal?

2nd question. Right now I have 1 emerald crab 2 turbo snails and 5 blue legged hermits and 5 pea size blue legged hermits. I see various tiny snail coming out of the rock and a ton of pods!! Now that i have sand and if all goes well today i would like to get a clown fish and a skunk shrimp. What are the snails that live in the sand? I think its the nassaur(not sure how to spell) snail. How many should I get? I know the rule around here is 1 fish every three weeks. But the lfs has 2 small clown(like an 1in long) I cant imagine that being much of a problem?
I guess that the 3rd question. What to feed my clowns I hear frozen is better. The lfs says brine shrimp but not very nutrition and then he said flake but i hear flake food can lead to problems.?

1st ..Is my skimmer working right?
2nd..Is my cleaner crew good for not but also how many and what kind of snails should i get for the sand?
3rd.. What to feed my clowns?

 

[ccCapt]

1- How long has the skimmer been running? It can take up to 3 weeks to really break in. Make sure the airline isn't getting clogged with salt creep where the airline hooks up to the pump venturi. Pull the airline off and clean it with a paper clip or something similar. The color of the skimmate depends on how it's set up. Lighter colored/greenish is skimming wet (tube higher up). Darker thick skimmate is from skimming drier (tube farther down).

2- Sounds OK. My sand bed is only like 1" deep so I don't have any sand dwelling snails, but you can get nassarius snails to roam around in the sand.

3- Frozen is best, when it's rinsed after it thaws. You should be OK to get the clowns now.

 

[Fastlight]

1. The skimmer has been running for 3 weeks but only 2 weeks with rock in it. I would I think im gonna pull the air tube quit thing on the end of to see if that allows more air.
2. Yea I got 80lbs of sand and its roughly 1.5 2in deep.

3. Frozen food...soooo what about brine? or what do you recomend?

 

[ccCapt]

My LFS makes their own and I use that, but something like Ocean Nutrition Prime Reef or Forumla One are good ones. Rods Food is good too, but somewhat expensive. Brine isn't very nutritious.

 

[dustin_P74]

you can go ahead and get the pair of clown fish since your rock has been established and can handle that, also you can do nassarius snails to keep the bed stirred. and also emerald entree and marine cuisine are also good frozen foods. and you can use brine shrimp every once in a while as a treat since it has no nutritional value