Two startup questions

[Davidb6]

After 6 weeks my tank has finished cycling (Ammonia and Nitrite have spiked and dropped to zero and the nitrate has spiked and dropped to 5.0) and I’m ready to do a major water change.

I have absolutely no algae buildup in the tank. The coralline algae died back but is still on every rock.

Questions
â€"œ
1, Is the lack of an algae bloom a reason for concern or rejoice?

2, For my first crew introduction I was looking at http://www.ipsf.com/index.html for - 12 Strombus grazers, 12 micro hermits, 6 mini stars, 6 sandbed clams.
Any comments with my selection or any feedback on IPSF?


Thanks

 

[demonsp]

What type of lighting you useing ?

How much LR do you have ?

And i think you should add just a few at first increasing weekly untill limit reached. Not really enough food to feed them all upfront.

Not sure what a sandbed clam is.

 

[Davidb6]

65 gal tank (36x18x22h), 90 lbs of live rock, 65 lbs of sand (40 & 25 live), no lighting during cycling except an occasional couple of hours of (4@96w) actinic every few days. I also have 2 150mh I haven’t used yet.

 

[poppin_fresh]

A few snails and mabey some crabs would be OK. You will still want to sink a little food for the crabs to eat in such a young tank. I doubt the stars will find anything to eat in such a young sandbed.

 

[drummereef]

Consider yourself lucky. You still might go through an algae bloom now that you are running your lights full time (or are starting to). I would do a variety of snails instead of a pre-packed cleanup crew. I like nassarius, cerith, astrea, and turbo snails for my cleanup crew.