Fishless cycle - mainting post-cycle ammo input

[Nick_Northern]

Hi all, was hoping for some advice. I'm just coming to the end of my fishless cycle, been following the Dr Tims method dosing to 2ppm ammo etc.

My question is what should my next move be? Ordinarily I would think to just slowly build up a CUC but it occured to me a few crabs and snails might not excrete enough ammo to maintain the current bacterial population. Pure guesswork on my part but a small CUC would seem a much lower bioload than the 2ppm I have been adding. Would I potentially be better off adding fish straight away instead?
I don't have live rock and have only a small amount of algae as yet so would likely need to feed a CUC anyway for a little while so I guess this may keep ammo levels topped up sufficiently?

I'm in no rush to get fish and would rather do things slowly but if holding off is going to be detrimental to the tanks progress then I would consider adding. First fish are likely to be a pair of common clowns, I've ordered a TB Assessor from ORA which was due to be the first in but it'll be a month or two before my LFS gets a shipment from them.

Tank is 48x18x24 with 20g sump, 100lbs caribsea life rock and a handful of live sand.

Thanks

Nick

 

[Shanet]

To keep the bacteria feed you can ghost feed a pinch of flake food, this will keep them happy. Add more CUC and one fish would be OK, just add livestock in dribs and drabs so the tank can build bacteria levels up to accommodate the bio load.

 

[gone fishin]

I would not really worry about the bacteria, they are surprisingly resilient. I would start adding a small CUC and if your not going to Quarintine your fish then add a fish. Good luck just my 2 cents

 

[cougareyes]

I always dosed my tanks with a small dose of Dr Tim's once a week when my tanks were empty. I emailed Dr Tim's and they confirmed it was a good plan. It may not be necessary but it worked for me.

 

[Psychomantix]

Assuming that you already did a large water change to remove all that nitrate, I'd say that you are ready for inverts or your first fish. As far as the bacteria are concerned, you have nothing to worry about.