Aquarium Madness

Well, it’s been about 2 weeks now and the Electric Blue Hermit Crab seems to have permanently disappeared. The Halloween Hermit Crab did resurface, and he’s runnin’ around in the tank. I don’t know what happened the Electric Blue Hermit Crab though.

The Electric Blue Hermit Crab still might show up?

I still have a feeling he might show up. But I think he may have died. He molted twice in the tank before he disappeared, it was the third molt where he disappeared. I saw his exoskeleton one day, so I knew he molted. That was 2 weeks ago. Haven’t seen the little guy since.

I kinda wish he would show up again. I really like Electric Blue Hermit Crabs. They crawl all over everything in the tank, hang upside down from live rock, and are overall very interesting fellas to watch.

If another week goes by and he doesn’t show, I might get another. I like having one of these guys in my tank. As much as I like the Halloween Hermit Crab that still inhabits my aquarium, he isn’t nearly as entertaining to observe.

Well, I am now on day two of my most recent aquarium water change project.

I decided last night to do a 40 percent water change on the tank. I wanted to do a large water swap. The reason for wanting the large water swap was that I wanted to use the gravel vacuum to pull all kinds of junk out of the tank. It was about time for a large maintenance maneuver such as that.

At the same time I also shuffled some of the live rock around in the tank to remove a cave that was hidden towards the back of the tank. After moving live rock, there was some gravel that I wanted to clean.

Algae Removal

I am hoping that sucking some of the red algae out of the tank will promote less algae growth. I have the algae growth under control pretty well, but I want to continue to attack anything that could cause algae overgrowth in the tank.

The cleanup crew that consists of a few hermit crabs and a few snails keeps most of the aquarium debris collection at bay, but I need to attack aquarium debris with my own methods at times as well.

The Continuation

I had pulled about 20 gallons of water out of the tank yesterday, added 10 and then let it sit overnight. I didn’t have enough water on hand to fill the tank up fully. I use an RO/DI water filtration system to purify the tank water, and it runs very slow. It takes about 3 hrs to get a full 5 gallons of water from my faucet.

Because of the slow water filtration, if I don’t have any water on hand I have to wait for it. Tonight I have the remaining 10 gallons ready to go into the tank.

My water change project will then be complete.

In the middle of my aquarium is a live rock structure. The live rock structure is made out of a few different chunks of live rock, so I have options as far as how I want to arrange this live rock structure.

Territorial Fish

I’ve been having some issues with some territorial and aggressive clown fish. I’ve always noticed that rearranging my live rock in the tank helps to make the fish less territorial. It seems to shake things up and keep the fish from getting too comfortable with a particular part of the tank.

I do like it when the fish have their spots that they like to inhabit, I just don’t like it when they become overly territorial and disrupt the tank.

A Hidden Cave

I also have noticed that I have a cave that some of the fish like to hang out in that is nicely hidden on the back side of the tank. I wanted to make sure that I can easily see around the rock structures in the tank. I don’t like it when there is a popular fish hangout that is completely out of my site.

Moving the live rock on the right side of the tank helped to make the structure look nicer and also remove the fish cave.

I am pretty happy with the results so far. I’m wondering which fish will hang out in that area first.

I work in an office environment that has the perfect spot for me to set up a 20 gallon saltwater aquarium just a few feet from my desk. I am heavily contemplating making this move and setting up this aquarium.

Taking on more responsibility

I will need to consider that instead of just having my 75 gallon saltwater aquarium at home, I’ll also now have a 20 gallon saltwater aquarium at the office to take care of. More fish to feed, more aquarium hardware to clean, more aquarium interior space to maintain and clean. And so on.

Regardless of the extra responsibility, I think it would be worth it. Plus, the added benefit is that I could move the two aggressive Clown fish from the 75 gallon aquarium at home to a new home at the office. They could have the whole tank to themselves.

Finding equipment

I’ll need to find a tank, stand, filters and probably a protein skimmer. I’ll also want to make sure I have some good substrate for the bottom of the tank. I may or may not use live rock, depending on what the tank looks like.

Aquarium inhabitants

As I mentioned earlier, I would put my two clown fish in this new tank. I would also probably pick up a hermit crab and couple snails. I wouldn’t stock the tank too heavily, I want to keep it simple. Plus, if it’s only going to be a 20 gallon tank, there will not be much room for lots of fish. The two aggressive clown fish will probably be the only two fish in the tank.

I wouldn’t mind trying to find another Electric Blue hermit crab, they are pretty cool and entertaining to watch.

Now I just gotta do it and get this tank set up. Good times.