is no light okay?

[Sweetpea]

My new tank has finished cycling - woohoo! It already has a nice collection of diatoms and hair algae (well, I *think* it's hair algae; I've never actually seen it before.)

I would like to throw some of the crabs and snails from the 10g in there to start cleaning up, but I have no light on the tank. Just like the 10g, the new tank is in my kitchen, so it gets plenty of natural light. Is this acceptable?

[davejnz]

I've kept coral alive in tubs with no light at all for 10days.During the hurricanes,I had 2 tanks that didn't recieve any light for 8 days.Since your cleanup crew has algae to eat,i think you'll be just fine.

[harmanrk]

Crab and Snails will be just as happy in the dark, as with a light.

With Fish, the light is only for your enjoyment, of their coloration. Only the Corals and Plants require quality lighting.

Robert

[Reptoreef]

Throw in the cleaners... all should be good as long as it's not a staghorn hermit.

[Sweetpea]

Thanks guys! I figured it would be all right, but I wanted to check and make sure!

The crabs are regular blue and red leg hermits. I'm gonna toss in the turbo snail along with a handful of the baby ceriths.

Below are some pics...
1) the rock 2 weeks ago
2) the rock this morning
3) is that hair algae?
4) any idea what this is? (there's a little aptasia nearby )
5) another aptasia and a couple of cute little worms

[dsfdbutterfly]

Your tank looks like it's getting ready! I had the same stuff start growing on my rocks when I first started. Given time some of it may grow out and you will see the hair quality that it gets it's name from. This happened to me once I turned my lights on so it may be a positive thing that you don't have lights now until your crew can "clean up". Most of it looks like your typical start up tank algae. My astrea snails did the best with the large stuff while the ceriths came in and cleaned up what was left over. I don't know if the crabs like this stuff or not.

Looks great though and keep us all posted.

[JustDavidP]

Your "whatzit" is either a standard brown colony polyp, or a mojano anemone... worse (IMO) than aptasia because nothing will eat them.

D

[reefgeek]

looks like Majano, and Aptasia in a couple of those pics... A little kalkwasser paste, or joes juice and your good to go.

[Sweetpea]

Thanks guys!

My "whatzit" (lol) has moved about 1 1/2 away from where it was when I took the pic above...

Majano, huh? Yikes. I did a quick search for pics to help me i.d. this bugger. The coloration and tentacle shape seems the same as the majano pic I found, but the tentacle layout is different. My critter only has tentacles in a single ring around the perimeter (that I can see... it IS a tiny little thing).

Do majano nems grow quickly? Maybe I can wait a little bit and see if any more tentacles appear? What do you think?

[Sweetpea]

My goodness... I went to click submit, and I think my mouse freaked out... 3 posts??? :p