daniomom

A relative "surprised" me with live rock & 2 hermit crabs blue & red legged for my new saltwater JBJ 24 G nanocube. The tank had been sitting with nothing in it but saltwater for 2 mos. It has had live rock & crabs in it for 2 weeks. There is also a tiny brittle starfish that came with the rock. Brown algae is starting to form on rock & walls. (The Tunze Nano skimmer doesn't seem to fit cause of enclosed hood. Don't know what to do about that.)
Relatives are nice but I sure wish I had not gotten surprised because I don't know whether or not the crabs will survive the cycle.

Are the hermit crabs going to die from the cycle from the cured live rock?

My stocking plan after 4 wks once fully cycled-(I plan to go slow):
1 Clownfish
1 Red eye spotted/ Pajama Cardinal
1 Royal Gramma
1 Purple firefish

CLEAN UP CREW-still learning about these & now find that hermits may kill them?
2 Skunk shrimp=2?
8 Trochus (Banded) Snails
4 Cerith Snails
12-24 Nerite snails

beachcomber

You should test your water. What is the amonia level? .25 or less might be ok. Make sure the crabs have something to eat and check your calcium level. Natural sea water has about 400 to 410 PPM calcium. I use Tropic-Marine powder. By the way, Red Sea makes a tiny little nano skimmer that mounts on the glass inside with suction cups, you just run an air line to the bottom of it.

almostthere002

Well, it depends. What are all your water parameters at right now? Was the tank cycled before you added the LR and crabs? How come the tank sat for 2 months with just water? Just curious because that seems like a long time.

beachcomber

When you say sitting, do you mean static? Or was the filtration system running?