New Inverts - How Active?

[sunlightcitadel]

First livestock in my first saltwater tank. After talking about my setup with LFS and a week's worth of water tests we decided the tank should be ready for inverts (ammonia & nitrates now undetectable after a small spike early last week). I added some small hermits and snails (10 each) last PM after acclimation and they seemed very 'busy' for several hours. I also started skimming and added some buffer (alk) per LFS recommendations. Temp is up .5 degree this AM

This AM they seem to be alive but much less active. There was no light from the time I went to sleep until this AM when they get whatever sunlight comes in the room. Last night before going to sleep I ran my 2X T5HO for a while - just so they were visible. Not sure but I thought these guys worked pretty much 24/7 light or no light but IDK.

Tank is a 75G reef with live rock / 20g refugium. I did not have time to test the water this AM. Any thoughts as to why the activity level change, or is this just normal?

Thanks and sorry for newb questions :)

[snorvich]

I hope nitrites were undetectable. How did you acclimate and did you test SG?

[Mr.Tan]

make sure to test nitrites, those are more of a killer then nitrates are. inverts will be the first to go if something is wrong, so if they become less active and die it could be a sign

[sunlightcitadel]

IIRC LFS guy said yes (nitrites OK). He's known as one of the old hats of the area and has a really good rep thusfar. I also told him 100% of what was going on with the tank - so... IDK we'll see. Another test is pending.

Would the .5 deg impact them? Tank hovers right about 78F. Also does their activity have anything to do with lighting conditions or do they stay as active day or night?

[snorvich]

Would the .5 deg impact them? Tank hovers right about 78F. Also does their activity have anything to do with lighting conditions or do they stay as active day or night?

That degree (sorry, could not help myself) of temperature fluctuation is no problem.

[sunlightcitadel]

Could be I'm just too worried - guess only time will tell, like so many other things. If I really think about it - the inverts were nowhere near where they were last PM - at snail speeds some of them made pretty good time to get where they are, so obviously they were active for a while. Also I only got a minute or two to watch them. Perhaps I'm just a worried parent. Perhaps my tank is a marine life death trap. lol. Fun - in a 'fall of Troy' kind of way.

I'm picking up some additional test kits today - I only had the basics.

btw - salinity was 1.024 and has been nailed there for several days.

[snorvich]

btw - salinity was 1.024 and has been nailed there for several days.

I recommend a bit higher on SG. NSW is 1.0624 and tank water tends to creep downward. Nothing wrong with being a "good parent" :spin3:

[kduen]

I recommend a bit higher on SG. NSW is 1.0264 and tank water tends to creep downward. Nothing wrong with being a "good parent" :spin3:

Fixed it for ya.

[deneed4spd]

I had just snails, shrimp, and crab the last couple weeks in my newly cycled 75g tank which cycled for approx 8 wks. It seems like the snails tend to be very slow and burrow into the sand in the morning and then around 4 to 5 pm, they start popping out of the sand and venturing out.

[sunlightcitadel]

deneed did you start with cured LR or..?

[sunlightcitadel]

Update - just got home, snapped the light on (more on that in a sec) and the CUC is up and running.

I think I figured out what's going on. They're not motionless. They're eating...

When I first put them in the tank - hermits went everyplace while snails kinda held tight and didn't move much. Guess this is normal.

Anyhow - they're all moving around. The hermits appear to be eating in place for a few minutes, then moving on. Since I only got a snapshot this AM I didn't notice how 'busy' they really were.

Thanks for all the replies :)