Clean up crew after cycle questions

[arw547]

I just finished my cycle on my 10 gallon QT and 40 breeder display. I'm going to get my first 2 fish to put in quarantine but had a few questions regarding the clean-up crew:

1. Does a clean-up crew need to be quarantined, or can I add them directly to the display?

2. I used bacteria in a bottle and dosed ammonia for my cycle. It still took 6 weeks to get to the point where the bacteria could get rid of the ammonia I added all the way to nitrates in 24 hours. Since I don't have a light on my tank yet and it's still a few weeks out, I didn't see a diatom bloom or any algae growth in either tank. Should I add a clean-up crew or just wait until I get my light and start seeing algae? If I don't add a clean-up crew, should I continue dosing ammonia in the main tank to keep the bacteria alive?

3. If I do add a clean up crea, what can I feed them to keep them alive? What can I do to keep the bacteria alive with the clean up crew since I wouldn't want to continue to dose ammonia? I'd like to add something to the display so I have something to look at while the two fish are in quarantine.

4. What range of nitrates is acceptable for a clean-up crew? I've read that inverts are more sensitive to nitrates than fish. I want to add some snail, crabs, and shrimp to start.

 

[thegrun]

1. While everything should in theory be quarantined, there is minimal risk with a clean-up crew. At minimum I would after acclimating them wash them off thoroughly with water form your tank in a separate container before adding them to your tank.
2. I would wait on introducing them to the tank until there is something for them to eat. A small pinch of dry fish flake food daily would provide nourishment for the CUC and keep your bacteria population healthy.
3. See #2
4. I would try to keep your nitrates below 20 ppm, lower is better.

 

[chrisfont23]

I might be old school here, but I am convinced a tank doesn't cycle in a month... while it may provide stability enough to harbor life, I believe there is more to cycling than that, including stable params and having filtration that can sufficiently handle the bioload. Having said that, I would hold off on adding anything to the tank until you are sure it cycled.

1. Does a clean-up crew need to be quarantined, or can I add them directly to the display?

As thegrun stated, there is minimal risk IMO. I usually drip acclimate my CUC though for a minimum of an hour.

2. I used bacteria in a bottle and dosed ammonia for my cycle. It still took 6 weeks to get to the point where the bacteria could get rid of the ammonia I added all the way to nitrates in 24 hours. Since I don't have a light on my tank yet and it's still a few weeks out, I didn't see a diatom bloom or any algae growth in either tank. Should I add a clean-up crew or just wait until I get my light and start seeing algae? If I don't add a clean-up crew, should I continue dosing ammonia in the main tank to keep the bacteria alive?

If there's no algae, then chances are there is little to eat. Why risk starving them?

3. If I do add a clean up crea, what can I feed them to keep them alive? What can I do to keep the bacteria alive with the clean up crew since I wouldn't want to continue to dose ammonia? I'd like to add something to the display so I have something to look at while the two fish are in quarantine.

I think u might be rushing this. I have never fed CUC after a cycle, rather put them in when the bloom or readily available nutrients were present.

4. What range of nitrates is acceptable for a clean-up crew? I've read that inverts are more sensitive to nitrates than fish. I want to add some snail, crabs, and shrimp to start.

My CUC and CBS are in water w/ Nitrates of 40 ppm and no problems I can tell. The shrimp actively molts too which is a good sign.

 

[Dr. Reef]

1. cuc is not that much of a risk so after temp acclimation and slow drip a nice rinse in tank water and then transfer is a good approach.
2. to keep bacteria alive in a lifeless tank just ghost feed a pinch of food every 3 days till u add life.
3. after introducing cuc there is no need to ghost feed or do anything except regular water changes. a pinch of food every few days is enough to keep cuc fed and bacteria cycled.
4. inverts are very sensitive of nitrates. i say closer to 0 but a wider accepted range is under 20 for inverts and under 100 on fish.

 

[swine]

So here is my question...

If nitrates are the desired zero then how is the algae going to grow for the cuc to eat? Do the snails also just eat the detritus?

Currently my clean up crew is
3x golf ball sized mexican turbo snails
3x small astreas
2x quarter sized emerald crabs.


There is a ball of macro algae (cheato sp?) in my DT (and sump) where I will be trying to get copepods to grow. The emerald crabs really like to snack on that. But I'm going to move it all to my sump soon because they cut off a huge piece, eat a tiny bit, it goes flying around and becomes lots of little streamers in my powerheads.

As of yesterday my Nitrates were around 10 and I will be doing another water change shortly. Depending on if I should be trying to starve this other algae bloom or feed it for the CUC.

Advice on the ratios of CUC to gallons would be nice too. I have a 55gallon tank. The bloom is all over the ground and glass so to keep it clean more snails would be great, but I don't want to "waste" my bioload on snails instead of pretty fish.

 

[pwoody]

So here is my question...

If nitrates are the desired zero then how is the algae going to grow for the cuc to eat? Do the snails also just eat the detritus?

Currently my clean up crew is
3x golf ball sized mexican turbo snails
3x small astreas
2x quarter sized emerald crabs.


There is a ball of macro algae (cheato sp?) in my DT (and sump) where I will be trying to get copepods to grow. The emerald crabs really like to snack on that. But I'm going to move it all to my sump soon because they cut off a huge piece, eat a tiny bit, it goes flying around and becomes lots of little streamers in my powerheads.

As of yesterday my Nitrates were around 10 and I will be doing another water change shortly. Depending on if I should be trying to starve this other algae bloom or feed it for the CUC.

Advice on the ratios of CUC to gallons would be nice too. I have a 55gallon tank. The bloom is all over the ground and glass so to keep it clean more snails would be great, but I don't want to "waste" my bioload on snails instead of pretty fish.

I believe this is because algae grow through photosynthesis (light) and excess phosphates not nitrates. Also diatoms will thrive with excess sillica.

 

[StrangeDejavu]

I waited until I started to see food sources for snails and hermits in my tank. In my case, that was the 6 week mark after cycle. I recently added 5x Trochus, 1x Nassarius and 2x Scarlet Hermits and plan on seeing how that goes, may add some Astrea later.