End of cycle no algae...Add cleanup?

[FishMaster1000]

Whats up guys, I purchased fully cured rock from my LFS that was sitting in tanks after being cured. The rock was in the tank within a short amount of time ~1-2 hrs...Now the readings have been stable. It has only been about 2 weeks! There is no algae outbread. Do I go ahead and add a cleanup crew even though there is nothing for them to clean up?? Can I add a fish and the cleanup to give them something to eat within a few days? Sorry, I am just not sure what to do in this situation. Thanks!

 

[artful-dodger]

The algae bloom will probably come whenever there is some bio-load on the tank. It sounds like you didn't have much/any die-off, which is great...but you probably don't have a source of ammonia to process either.

I'd suggest feeding the tank (fish food, dead shrimp, piece of fish--whatever will breakdown) and monitoring for a small cycle. If the rock handles that extra load without spiking, I'd say that you're cleared for takeoff!

 

[hookdonreefs]

Once you put some fish in you will get algae. I always add the cleanup crew right away. There probably is some algae in now but you cant see it and snails and hermits dont need much to survive.

 

[gsxrguru2]

thats pretty much what I had going on with my tank. Never saw much of a cycle.... I never tested positive for ammonia or nitrites, only nitrates which cleared up after adding macro to the fuge. I think artful dodger is right, add something to the tank to decompose and if you don't see a spike you know you're good to start adding fish. As far as the cleanup crew I'd wait at least a couple weeks so they have something to feed on.