Briareum hitch hiker?

[bumbus]

Hello all! I have recently started a 32 gallon biocube and am in the middle of cycling it. (Day 6) I currently have a bit over 23 pounds of LR and 20 lbs of live sand in there. Attached picture, if wanted! (Should I start a CUC soon?)

The question I have is if the Briareum (I think it is?) will survive the rest of the cycling, and if so should I watch out for it taking over my tank? Also, any help on planning my stocking list will be appreciated! Thanks!

 

[mcgyvr]

If you started with "live rock" you may have little to no cycle and toxic ammonia levels will not be an issue.

A cycle is the process of building up the bacterial counts in a tank to allow it to quickly process toxic ammonia into its lesser toxic forms..
"live rock" is "live" because it already populated with bacterial colonies..

As that coral tends to be an invasive weed I hope for your sake it doesn't make it

Are you monitoring ammonia/nitrite/nitrate levels as you should to determine the state/stage of your tanks cycle?

 

[bumbus]

Hey, thanks for the reply! Yeah, I am bringing my water down to the LFS to check parameters, and they said that I should give it a couple more days or so and get it checked again before adding a CUC. (Last checked on Saturday.) I was going to go down tomorrow to get it tested, and I believe if it is on the border I will go ahead and get my CUC as I have a good bloom of algae and diatoms.

As far as my CUC goes I was hoping to get some input. I am unsure of going with a small crew to start with or go larger?

Also with the briareum, should I ditch it altogether, or should I island it and keep it from my main rock structure? I have leaned toward the latter as of now, but am open to suggestions.