The Opae ula shrimp Forum and online store

Coral is porous and you may of just seen air bubbles coming off of it to be honest, you could put a snail in and see how it gets along?

Can I put live moss balls in the jar for the opea ulas?

sure, they may not grow very fast if at all but they will sit there looking nice and provide a place for the shrimp to graze. Like with any plants though, if they start going bad.. throw them out.

So is the moss like food for the opea or more just for decoration?

It will just grow algae and bio film on it for the shrimp to eat from.

So I have been reading up on an opea ula jar or tank needing cycling. I had no idea of this and was told by seller to wait 2 weeks after setting up the jar and the shrimps will then be okay to purchase and go in.
I have the jar placed at a north face window sill to get some daylight but not direct sunlight (mind you it is autumn so not much sunlight anyway) and yesterday added a led light which I kept on for 6 hours to the jar.
The seller said he would hold the shrimps for me till I am ready for them so i have not yet purchased and added them to the jar.
There is no algae growth on the jar yet which was set up on the 4th of October.
My son has some pet sea monkeys and aqua dragons which come with dried powder algae food even though som say it is spirulina and yeast, can I add some of this to the jar to help promote algae growth?

Do you have a lid on your tank? If so remove that and bring up the tank temp to around 25 degrees, that will get the good bacteria and algae growing

Yes I have a lid, will remove it but worried about dust etc getting into the jar. Would it be a good idea to remove the lid and replace it with some cling film or foil with holes in?
Another question if I remove the lid and add no algae powder to the jar would it not take longer for algae to grow?

That’s the plan! Aslong as you don’t get perfume etc in the tank area you will be fine without a lid.

Okay, thank you will do just that and what about the algae powder shall I add some of that in there also?