Newly Cycled Tank CUC questions

[drfu]

Hi,

Newbie on saltwater here, have a few FW, and have a couple of questions about snails.
1st and simple:
Nassarius, since I just cycled my IM Nuvo 8 I have added a clean up crew of the following; 5 Ceriths, 1 Trochus, 4 Nassarius. My question is since it's a newly cycled tank with no fish or coral in if as of yet, do any of these critters need any supplemental food as of yet? My Trochus has mowed down all of the green algae on the rock and I cleaned the glass when I did my 1st 50% water change before adding my CUC.
2nd and more confusing:
My LFS told me that Nerites are brackish snails even though they keep them in FW, how do I acclimate these? My plan is to keep two in my tank and one in the back water column of my AIO tank.
3rd and last question is for advice, are these enough snails for an 8 gallon, and is this too many? Going back to my first question, should I feed these guys before they starve as I don't need a crash on a new tank set up already!
Thanks in advance!

 

[fermentedhiker]

I not an expert but I'll try to answer your questions;

1st; since your tank is new they need supplemental feeding if they have eaten all of the algae. Likely won't be an issue once the tank get established. Also the Nassarius don't eat algae so you'll have to add a bit of fish food for them until you have fish that your feeding for them to clean up after.

2nd; not all Nerites are the same. Most of the ones we see in the regular hobby are probably from brackish/tidal environments. A couple of species that are for sale from places like reefcleaners.org are saltwater. The ones your lfs has could probably be adapted to saltwater by slowing adjusting the SG over a couple of weeks, but I'm not sure it's worth the effort. Cerith, Nassarius, and Trochus will probably serve you well.

3rd; I can't say, Reefcleaners 10gallon package includes, 10 dwarf cerith, 3 nassarius, 6 Florida cerith, and 4 Nerites. So I would say you're good especially for now. You could probably use a couple more, but I'd wait and see how what you have is doing. Then if you think you need some more help add them one or two at a time until it seems to balance out.

 

[sam smith]

hi i need some help on starting my cycle i am new to saltwater ive been trying to start the cycle with fish flakes for 5 days now but my ammonia reading is 0.25ppm, no2 0ppm and no3 2.0ppm its been like that for 5 days. ive been adding 5 to 6 flake every day.
my tank setup is
125L water in tank (fluvel sea m90 135L)
11Kg cured rock from LFS
temps@ 78f
a bag of ceramic media
filter foams
i'll would really appreciate if some can give me some advice

 

[Calappidae]

hi i need some help on starting my cycle i am new to saltwater ive been trying to start the cycle with fish flakes for 5 days now but my ammonia reading is 0.25ppm, no2 0ppm and no3 2.0ppm its been like that for 5 days. ive been adding 5 to 6 flake every day.
my tank setup is
125L water in tank (fluvel sea m90 135L)
11Kg cured rock from LFS
temps@ 78f
a bag of ceramic media
filter foams
i'll would really appreciate if some can give me some advice

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=104

Stop adding flakes.. test weekly until your ammonia and nitrite reads 0.

 

[drfu]

hi i need some help on starting my cycle i am new to saltwater ive been trying to start the cycle with fish flakes for 5 days now but my ammonia reading is 0.25ppm, no2 0ppm and no3 2.0ppm its been like that for 5 days. ive been adding 5 to 6 flake every day.
my tank setup is
125L water in tank (fluvel sea m90 135L)
11Kg cured rock from LFS
temps@ 78f
a bag of ceramic media
filter foams
i'll would really appreciate if some can give me some advice

Your tank will cycle just fine with your set up, no food needed. You will get some dieoff from your lr/substrate, next you will get a nice diatom/algae breakout, once ammonia goes away, nitrites have dropped, both being undetectable you will have nothing left but nitrates. Do a large water change and test for nitrates again, continue wc every 48 hours till they get down below 20ppm and add your cuc!