Got a nice surprise when I woke up this morning...

[STiTCH87]

Got a nice surprise when I woke up this morning... (Tank is finally cycled)

So I have been waiting for 7 weeks yesterday for my tank to complete it's natural fishless cycling. It seemed to be taking a long time so I told myself i'd wait last weekend to test again. I did and the nitrite did lower a little bit so I said i'd wait til April 1st to check again. Welp, woke up today and looked at my tank and had the biggest urge to test again anyways. I did, and this is what it came up with:

Don't ask my how my ammonia and nitrite both had spikes off the charts, and yet somehow my nitrates aren't at a dangerous level... Though then again I have been topping off about 1 gallon per week with RO/DI so maybe that diluted it a bit. That or maybe some of this rainbow colored algae ate it? Don't know, don't care.

All I know is my tank is cycled and i'm freakin' stoked!
Gonna do a 20% waterchange today (was gonna do 50% but it's not too bad of nitrate) and clean some of this algae off the rocks and sand and siphon it out in the waterchange then this weekend i'm gonna add a pajama cardinalfish and some snails. How long til I should add a cleaner shrimp?

 

[APISTOBORELLI]

Take everything in baby steps. Add something and wait at least a week before adding something else. It's easy to get ahead of yourself in this hobby.

FWIW, the Aquarium Pharmaceuticals tests you're using aren't always accurate. If you can, go with Salifert tests and/or have your water tested at your local LFS.

Good luck with the new tank!!!

 

[molsen187]

i would add your clean up crew first and then wait a week then you could add the fish and the shrimp at the same time imo. the shrimp won't really have an impact on your bioload one way or the other.

 

[tigerslacrosse4]

Congrats! Take it slow. I made the mistake of going to fast and I regret it every day.

 

[Jocko]

+1 on adding small cleanup crew first. Resist the urge to dump a ton of snails in there. You won't always have as much algae as you do now.

Also please keep in mind that no tank is ever "cycled." The cycle is a perpetually ongoing thing. At this stage of the game just that removal of a bunch of algae and a water change, could potentially alter your tank's balance for a short time.

But seriously, props on waiting 7 weeks already. You can definitely get some cleanup dudes in there. Cerith, Nassarius and Trochus snails are quite nice. A few of each would be nice.

 

[STiTCH87]

So would you say, 2 nassarius, 2 cerith, and a waterchange this weekend.

Then next weekend one fish and a cleaner shrimp.

Then the following weekend a blue legged hermit and another fish.

Then get started slowly on my corals?

Or is that a bad order? I wanna make sure I do everything slow, and correctly. Should I not get a hermit? I eventually want an algae blenny but IDK how long I should wait before I could get one? There's one at my LFS that eats flake, pellet, and vegetable matter. It's not picky at all so I am considering getting it at some point. Also, I have heard True Perc is more difficult to take care of than a False Perc? Is this true? Because I really want a True Perc.

 

[TomD]

+1 on adding small cleanup crew first. Resist the urge to dump a ton of snails in there. You won't always have as much algae as you do now.

Also please keep in mind that no tank is ever "cycled." The cycle is a perpetually ongoing thing. At this stage of the game just that removal of a bunch of algae and a water change, could potentially alter your tank's balance for a short time.

But seriously, props on waiting 7 weeks already. You can definitely get some cleanup dudes in there. Cerith, Nassarius and Trochus snails are quite nice. A few of each would be nice.

Also agreed on the cleanup crew. After a couple weeks or so when you are ready for fish, I have had 100% success for 4 tanks now adding my clowns first, if you plan on keeping any. I am not sure if it is because they are so hardy, or if I have just been lucky. On the contrary, I have had bad luck adding a tank too fast

 

[STiTCH87]

Well I would like to wait 2 weeks minimum between each fish I add. Which conveniently works well with my pay.

 

[dcforester1]

Bad news Dude.......Todays not the 1st

 

[STiTCH87]

Will a clean up crew really get rid of all this algae?
I am so extremely tempted to clean it up a bit while siphoning the waterchange.
Here's some pictures of how bad the algae has gotten from it cycling and not having any livestock in there to clean it up:

IDK, it's just so bad that IDK how a few snails could possibly make it clean again...

Bad news Dude.......Todays not the 1st

Well I didn't want an April Fools Day joke so I figured i'd check today. Lol.

Doesn't matter anyways because I can't even add livestock until after the 1st anyways since I will be working 1-9 everyday til Sunday so I won't be around to tinker with my tank. -_-

 

[dcforester1]

Will a clean up crew really get rid of all this algae?
I am so extremely tempted to clean it up a bit while siphoning the waterchange.
Here's some pictures of how bad the algae has gotten from it cycling and not having any livestock in there to clean it up:

IDK, it's just so bad that IDK how a few snails could possibly make it clean again...




Well I didn't want an April Fools Day joke so I figured i'd check today. Lol.

Doesn't matter anyways because I can't even add livestock until after the 1st anyways since I will be working 1-9 everyday til Sunday so I won't be around to tinker with my tank. -_-

Thats what I figured you woundnt hear the end of it. Does take along time to cycle. Thats the sucky part, now you get to enjoy the expensive part.

 

[STiTCH87]

Well for me the initial setup and purchase of equipment was the expensive part.

I can get livestock for cheap in comparison. I don't plan on investing more than $100 in livestock and if I hit that point i'll start fragging corals and trading/sell them for ones I don't have. Eventually... Lol.

Anyone have an answer to my question about a clean up crew ridding of all this algae? Sure seems to be a lot...

Would an algae blenny clean it up? Don't know if they sift sand at all or can pick off of rocks?

Open to suggestions. =]

 

[mak3mydae]

You might want to get a rough idea of what kind of fish you want to keep. Its supposedly a good idea to put in fish from least aggressive first, to most aggresive. Blenny's are rather aggresive imo. Also, most blenny's shouldnt be very picky. Theyre pretty easy to train over to pellets and such

Nassarius arnt very good algae eaters irrc. They're good scavengers. i would stick with a couple more cerith's.

 

[frank180reef]

I would try really bumping up your flow.................I dont think a cc will clean that up

 

[willray]

Your off to a good start i.e. enjoying your tank and nothings in it yet.
An algea blenny won't touch it but hermits and snails will eat some of it mostly the snails.I would siphoon out that cyno too.And as Frank said.....increase your flow!

 

[STiTCH87]

K, gonna look into some stronger powerheads today. Maybe aim them slightly more toward the sand. Just had a problem with severe sand drifts before but maybe I will be able to get it under control. Gonna go with mainly cerith and astrea snails. Then i'll probably get just one hermit for now to see what he likes to pick at.

I want a true perc, pj cardinal, fire goby, and an algae blenny.

So maybe I should go PJ Cardinal, True Perc, Fire Goby, then Algae Blenny?

 

[jayman10134]

a dragon goby or a diamond goby would clean up the sand in no time.

 

[STiTCH87]

I do like diamond gobys, but the thing is, if I get one I can't get an algae blenny and vica versa because they fight fish that appear similar to them so IDK. =\ Guess i'll wait and if the sand gets nasty again even with snails i'll get the diamond and if not the algae blenny. I like the algae blenny more.

Unless... Do yellow watchmen gobys sift sand too?

If only I could get my protein skimmer working correctly. Shut it off to do a water change today and now I can't get it to stop overflowing. That, or it doesn't produce any bubbles and the waterline in the chamber stays just below the cone. (Eshopps PSK-75H) but I email them today so hopefully they'll help me out. With how much work keeping a protein skimmer operating correctly can be, I often get tempted to trade it for an RO/DI and just do weekly water changes.