Week 4 of tank start up

[squid row]

I decided to set up a 20 gallon tank as an experiment and eventually use it for a QT.

I bought water from the LFS, dead rock and sand from marco rocks and set it up.

I added some old freeze dried brine shrimp and flake food that I had to kick off the cycle.

After week 1 I saw ammonia levels of near 0, nitrite and nitrate at 0
Week 2, ammonia of 0.5 PMM , nitrite and nitrate 0
Week 3, ammonia 1.0 PPM, zero nitrite and nitrate
Week 4, ammonia 1.0PPM, zero nitrite and nitrate

BUT.. now in week 4 I am seeing some algae growth. Small patches of bright green and brown patches on rock closest to the lighting (compact fluorescent 50/50 bulbs, 65 watts)

Is this a good sign?

I am going to add some fish and snails next week to help further the cycle. The fish and snails will be those that I catch in my small bait trap.

Sound like a good plan?

 

[A1t2o]

This is normal, but you do want to have a clean up crew and nutrient export system in place. I would start with 1 fish for cycle, then all hermits and snails, then follow up with additional fish. Buy fish one at a time unless they are mated so you don't stress your system.

For the nutrient export, plan on frequent water changes until you have a skimmer or macro algae growing. For a 20 gallon tank you can do 2-5 gallon water changes weekly to keep things in check and you would be fine. Macro algae can look great in the tank, but can also take over so plan ahead on what to use if at all. Make sure to remove some macro regularly to get the excess nutrients out. Just don't put any algae into your display tank that can grow everywhere. Something that roots in the sand is good, or leafy ones, but not anything stringy or you will never get rid of it.

Your plan looks good though, just wait for the ammonia to hit 0 before you add a fish.

 

[thegrun]

Please do not add any fish or livestock to the tank until the cycle is complete! It is cruel and completely unnecessary to subject anything alive to ammonia poisoning and doing so will do absolutely nothing to speed up the cycle. Wait for the ammonia and nitrites to drop to zero, than add livestock.

 

[squid row]

I will hold off on adding livestock until the ammonia comes down to zero...

I am going to bring home some livestock and keep them in a tub until that time, since I plan to catch some hermit crabs before the leave for the winter, snails and small killifish

Anyway.. here is a photo of the algae that just appeared today. Does it look normal?

Ammonia shot up to 2.0 PPM from 1.0 PPM yesterday

 

[squid row]

At what point should I start doing water changes?

 

[dowjones1221]

no need to do a water change until the cycle is complete (like grun said definitely nothing before amm and nitrite are 0 and nitrate are reasonable). At that point is when i like to do my first water change. I'm not sure if it is even necessary, but it gives me peace of mind.

 

[A1t2o]

The water change when nitrites and ammonia are 0 is recommended since there will still be nitrates and what's the point of starting with unwanted nutrients already in the tank. As close to a 100% water change as is reasonable is recommended to prevent algae problems.

BTW, the algae you are seeing now is perfectly normal. Don't worry about it.