[Edwid]

Nice tankgreat setup! What kind of rock is that?

Thanks for the compliment :) took some effort to plan, source and do up the aquascape for this tank as I wanted to create lots more hiding spots for my opaes to breed. These rocks are known as dragon rocks or OHKO stones :)

Though I got a feeling all I'll be seeing in this tank is these rocks after I introduce the opaes as they all go into hiding :p

[Edwid]

The Opae ula will breed in PH levels lower then 8, we have members who have breeding going on and they don't even have anything buffering their water but I always advise to have something because you don't want a PH crash in the tank because it will kill everything in the tank due to very unhealthy water parameters. The crushed coral you have is enough but it does need to be accessible to the water to actually buffer the water, it breaks down in the acidic water and causes it to lower the acidity so if its hidden under your substrate it may not give you the effect you are wanting. All you can do is monitor the PH levels and keep an eye on the condition of your snails shells, if you find white spots or holes then you will have to make some changes.

That's a good advice. Thanks Odin. I assumed the water will somehow make its way through the substrate to access the hidden corals oh wells, I'll just have to observe more carefully then. Or I'll rack my head on how to incorporate more crushed corals as part of the aquascape

[opae ula related]

Cool. Hiding is normal, it is like dumping me in the middle if a jungle... need to be sure of no predators and such.... a very stressful event for a new environment.

[Edwid]

Decided to dump in crushed corals behind my centerpiece and it totally can't be seen from the front :) yay!!

But still it looks cool looking at it from the side. The white provides such a contrast!

[Edwid]

Just curious, will there be a situation where the nerites are eating up algae faster than they can grow on the surface that I would never see algae even if the ammonia hits zero?

I heard from my friend who passed me all the marimo in this tank that the marimo sucks up nitrate and nitrite so fast that algae growth will also be minimal. Is that the case?

Cos I'm just worried that algae will not grow and I'll be kinda waiting in vain. I'm more than willing to feed my opae if needed, even without the algae and biofilm growth in the tank. Can't wait to start my tank actually but I still want to make sure the tank is ready to receive the opaes

[opae ula related]

Feed and/or leave the light on longer?

[Edwid]

Feed and/or leave the light on longer?

Do you mean throw in feed for it to rot to produce ammonia?

[Edwid]

On a side note, how big or old should the opae ulas be before they begin to breed? It's been nearly a month plus for my smaller tank of about 2 liters but no berried female yet. I'm hoping it's due to the fact that the 8 of them are still young though 2 or 3 of them looks 1.5X bigger than the smallest 2 of them

[opae ula related]

Feed and/or leave the light on longer?

Do you mean throw in feed for it to rot to produce ammonia?

Like you mentioned to feed them if you think there is no algae growth or wait a little longer before introducing Opae Ula until there is enough algae growth. Also you can give more light time so there would be more algae growth.

[opae ula related]

On a side note, how big or old should the opae ulas be before they begin to breed? It's been nearly a month plus for my smaller tank of about 2 liters but no berried female yet. I'm hoping it's due to the fact that the 8 of them are still young though 2 or 3 of them looks 1.5X bigger than the smallest 2 of them

You have a pic of tank? Everyone has different experiences depending on a lot of factors. My opinion is that it is too soon if you started the tank from scratch and have only a few Opae Ula.

At least 8 months old from my experience/ tank.