Now that the tank is cycled and I have a build up of algae, its time to get a couple more fish and a clean up crew.
For the clean up crew, I got 12 Hermit Crabs, 12 Nassarius snails, 12 Astraea snails and a small emerald crab. You will usually have a lot larger of a clean up crew, but since my tank is so new I got a small CUC. As the bacteria and algae builds up more, I will add more.
I also got two small Ocellaris Clownfish. These are my favorite fish and I am very excited to have them. They are the fish I always picture when I think about saltwater tanks. The two I got are very small, about 1.5″ in length. I wanted the small ones so that I could watch them grow with my tank.
For acclimating, I used the drip method. If you don’t know, that is where you put the fish with the water they came in into a small container, then set up a siphon to drip slowly into it from my tank. I used a valve to control the drip rate, which I started at about 1 drop per second until the ratio was about 2 parts tank water, 1 part original water. At that point I sped up the drip rate to a quick drip, almost a stream, but you can still see the break from each drop. Once it was about 5:1 it was time to transfer them to the new tank.
I am not a huge fan of using nets, I feel that it is too stressful on already stressed fish and I don’t like the thought of a fish getting a fin caught in the netting and getting injured. My method is to take a small measuring cup, and scoop them into it. I get as much of the water out as I can, so the fish is just submerged, then transfer into the tank. The also has the benefit that the fish never has to leave water.
It has been a day and a half since putting everyone in and all is looking good. The clowns are swimming and eating and the clean up crew is going nuts on taking care of my brown algae that I had breakout.
Here are the pictures of everyone acclimating, and then some in the tank.
My First Saltwater Tank 