When to add clean up crew?

Vilas

Active member
Google isn't telling me much on this topic. I have the luxury of being able to add snails and things one at a time, if need be, I just walk down and pick them off the rocks. I am day ten into the cycle, ammonia and nitrites 0, nitrates came down to 5, brown algae starting up. Would you put in a few small snails and limpets? Maybe one a day? I want to bring the bioload up slooooooowly. Not planning on fish for a while.
 
You need to wait until the cycle is complete. You most likely haven't started the cycle yet. Once the ammonia and nitrites rise and then fall to zero you can add the CUC.
 
Can you add amonia and have it drop in 24 hrs? Once you're sure your biological organisms are at work then you can go ahead and start adding the cleanup crew.
 
I had an ammonia spike, only to 1.0 - only after a week did it go to zero. Have live rock, and have been ghost feeding.
As far as getting from the beach, my whole tank will be from the beach. I live by an unpolluted beach on the Indian ocean. Local reefkeepers drive hours to come get water and stock from my neighborhood. Lfs's don't bother selling snails, knowing that we all have permits to collect.
 
If you had an ammonia spike and both your ammonia and nitrites are now at zero, I would wait at least three days and if they stay at zero add your CUC.
 
Ok. I'll start with one small snail at a time. I already have 5-6 hh snails, look like strombus. They are all happy looking. I'll add a similarly tiny snail at a time. I want to add my cuc over the course of a month to let bioload grow slowly. Ok, and also to have fun at tide pools. I could spend a week at tide pools.
 
Just a concern. I had an ammonia spike, but no nitrites at all, yet nitrates went to ten then down to five. I have about 1lb/gal live rock, ghost feeding, lots of life on the rock, and had about twenty dead bristle worms floating when I first added the rock. So presumably, they've decomposed, and the food has been eaten or has decomposed. I hope that is enough ammonia. A few tiny brittle stars have survived, and i know echinoderms are sensitive. I worry that I didn't have enough of a cycle, which is why I want to add a snail ever two days to slowly build it up. I worry that my cycle wasn't strong enough for the bacteria to cope, so I must go extremely slowly.
 
As long as you proceed slowly with adding livestock you will be fine. Keep us posted with your progress. Good luck!
 
The inverts aren't going to add much of a bioload. I think your test kit is to blame on your nitrates going down. You might not have detected nitrites because you had good live rock. But that's still optimistic. If you're only at 10 days into the cycle, I'd wait a while.
 
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