Hello all I'm fairly new to the saltwater aquarium hobby. I started my tank about 3 months ago using a commercial product to get the cycle going. I have some dead live rock and base rock in my aquarium. I did have spikes of ammonia, nitrate and nitrite should I be worried that I never grew any algae inside the aquarium. Yesterday I checked my level for all three and they registered zero should I be worried that they might spike again?
No Algae
- Thread starter PapaRubz04
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cjd
Well-Known Member
What test kits are you using?? 3 months is a long time and if it has been wet for that long you are cycled. Typical cycle completes in 30 days without any help from additives. You should have some nitrates unless you did a large water change to remove them or running some carbon dosing or refugium . You wont get algae growing unless you run the lights . I would start by running your lights on a set schedule and add a few hermits and snails ( not too many snails as there is not much to feed on ) . Feed the hermits a couple of sinking pellets a day and watch the diatoms and algae come !!! After a couple of weeks you can add a small hardier fish and take it slow from there as you biological filter will be young and weak. You don't wont to overload it . It has to be built up over time . TAKE IT SLOW!!!! Adding things in 2 week intervals is a safe window.
Thank You, I do have a bit of carbon from the biological filter. The test kit I'm using is api master saltwater aquarium test kit. Also I have been running my lights for the past couple of weeks. Ill go ahead and look to add some hermits and snails. I was just wondering about that so I could start to introduce my cleanup crew. I know since there isn't a lot of food for them I won't be adding my whole crew just enough. I have a 55 gallon aquarium any idea how many I should introduce for now.
cjd
Well-Known Member
depends on the size of the critters !!! Normal available size of hermits I would get like 5 . snails depends on the size and type .... A Mexican turbo I would get just one and he still may starve because they are so large and a ravenous appetite. If the snail is the size of a quarter or bigger I would get 1 or 2 . If its the size of a nickel 2 or 3 . Of course this is all dependent of how much rock you have for the algae to start to grow on . Its a good start and you can adjust from there .
I have about 60 lbs of rock in the aquarium. I'm running the protein skimmer should I shut it off for now until there actual fish in the tank and not just some cleanup crew. The protein skimmer was off for about a week when I first started the tank and added the commercial product to start the cycle I included a picture of my aquarium setup
