Wow will i ever win =(

[-Pixie-]

Ok my sea slug is not a seaslug at all so i have researched.

Is definately a SEA HARE

[Chiefsurfer]

well, from what I understand, you get no warning and possibly a big crash from a sea cucumber. Apparently when they get sick, they basically turn themselves inside out, and their innards are posionous, much like a sea apple. I do not know if they show ANY signs of being ill or not.

I think I have used wetwebmedia.com as my site of reference when I needed to know what a snail was. Also, what does the slug look like? Are you sure it is a slug and not a nudibranche. If it is not a nudi, chances of being safe go waaay up.

I think Sea Hare's are one of the safest nudi's for the reef. Make sure you have plenty of hair algae for it to eat.

[-Pixie-]

Sea hare. supposedly the best type to have. any opinions on him?

[thegrun]

Sea slugs need a lot of algae to keep from starving; many reefers will pass one back and forth between themselves to control hair algae. It will likely starve if left in your tank. Cucumbers scare me because of the toxins they release if they die. I've never kept one for that reason but I know a couple of guys who have had theirs for over two years without a problem. If I could make a suggestion, slow down a little. Take the time to research anything you plan on putting into your tank BEFORE you purchase it. Otherwise you are likely to kill much of what you add to the tank and become frustrated with the hobby. Here are a couple of links that I find helpful:
http://www.peteducation.com/category.cfm?c=16+2145
http://www.peteducation.com/category.cfm?c=16+2157
http://www.peteducation.com/category.cfm?c=16+2158
http://www.chucksaddiction.com/hitchhikers.html

[lordofthereef]

Personally I wouldn't go adding anything I collected in the wild unless I was able to get it identified by someone who knows way more than I do. Judging by the fact hat you are looking up images to figure out what you collected, I would recommend against adding that which you do not know to your tank.

[BethanyM]

Will you ever win? Not if you keep setting yourself up to lose.

I like how you blame the LFS for your linkia purchase and then go collecting wild specimens. Impulse control, get some!! It will pay off for you in the long run.

Let your tank stabilize. It has a few ugly phases to go through. Don't give up!! You can do more research into what you want for your tank in the time being.

[cozzar]

Pixie,

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE stop adding stuff!!!

Especially stuff you find in the wild! As far as I'm concerned some things are better left in their natural habitats, or should only be kept by the MOST experienced reefers; those include Cucumbers and Sea Slugs!

You are, by your own words, a novice - those animals are complicated and need specialist care and if they don't get it they will die and wipe out your whole tank.

For the next 6 weeks don't buy anything, don't go looking for stuff just research what you want and whether or not it will work!!! Watch your tank, look at what happens and observe the animals you already have!

If you do that things can only go better!!

Plus one question : are you acclimating all of this stuff correctly??

Patience, my friend, is the key!
Happy Reefing.

[tspors]

Too much life in the tank if it is only 2 months old. You have also barely cycled let alone the tank is nowhere nere stable. Diatoms yes but slow down. Your CUC should be the first thing in and that should happen about 2 months after start up. SLow down and good luck, before you set yourself up for a big one.

[garzaci]

You need to slow down and stop adding stuff. The most important thing you need to do now is fix your water situation. Look at it likes if you had to live in a smoky asbestos filled room. You want your tank to be as pure as possible. If there is nowhere to get any ro/di water then you need to get your own unit. Until you start putting pure water in you're gonna have algae problems among other things. Research, research, research. You're tank is going to stabilize for the next 6-12 months.

[10001110101]

Originally Posted by -Pixie-

Just got back from a rock pool trip 100m down the road, collected alot of snails different types, a few gobies, spiky black sea cucumber and a nice sized sea slug and a few smaller hermits.

Would these be good additions as a CUC?

Hold off on any fish (vertebrate) additions at this point until you get all the new tank syndrome crap out of the way (diatoms etc..), fish have a heavy bio-load compared to invertebrates...

avoid sea cukes right now, they can crash your whole tank if they are venomous...

most snails should be g2g imo, but don't take my word for it... post EXCELLENT pics of the snails and we can tell you what should go in there.

most sea slugs won't make it in an aquarium, don't even bother trying at this point, many experienced marine life experts have failed at what you are attempting to do...

for right now POST PICS of anything you want to put in the tank, and don't just "throw it in there" to try it out...

get it approved by a few people on the board who are SURE that they've properly ID'd the specimen and that it's safe to put in your tank.

and as far as the water you were getting, if it's just DE-IONIZED (DI) water as you said, then it is not good enough for your tank, that's about the lowest level of purification you can get, or at least as I understand it doesn't remove what all we want out of our tanks.

RO/DI systems... The RO part is the most important and responsible for 97% of the purification... the DI is an ADD-ON which helps mop up a few ions that the RO membrane cannot remove... The DI is really non-essential but most here go ahead and use RO/DI as the RO is the most expensive part anyways, why not have extra pure water for the additional cost of the DI portion... You can find these online for about 75 bucks (RO only units) and you have an unlimited water supply...

I've had a 20g tank for about a year now and I don't have an RO or RO/DI unit, I buy 1 gallon jugs of distilled water from wal-mart and this is all i use, certainly I could have paid for all the water twice with the money and gasoline i've spent driving to get all these jugs of water, plus just the time and hassle of getting it.

but right now it's just hard for me to justify spending 100 bucks on a system...

you need water purified by either Reversis Osmosis or Steam Distillation!

shouldn't be hard to come by... even Wal-Mart here in the states we have a choice of RO/Distilled/DI/etc in various flavours all for about $0.75 USD per US Gallon.

[John Zillmer]

Originally Posted by -Pixie-

I am lost to why, i have done everything by the book and slowly with mass amounts of research.

Does anyone have a definitive answer as to what it is and how to fix it, i am almost at my wits end.

Almost about at the give up stage, thinking of a full rebuild it has devistated me so much.

Not to be too harsh, but picking up unidentified animals at the seashore and adding them to a new tank that is in the middle of a 'give up stage' sort of problem and had its last addition a mere two days ago is not doing things by the book, slowly, or with mass amounts of research. Again: I'm just giving the advice you asked for.

Consider that a reef tank isn't remotely near mature until it is a year old. Consider that a reef hobbyist with 2 years of experience is a newbie -- knowledge comes after decades of succeeding, failing, learning, relearning, seeing how the hobby changes (for better and for worse). Consider that eventually, every animal in our care will die in our care. Consider that some day you may come home to find your power out and every piece of livestock in your care dead in one fell swoop.

Consider making some tea, taking a few deep breaths and enjoying your tank for what it is at this point in its development. Don't add anything for a few months (yes, months) and watch it develop on its own.