Post cycling questions

[Drew52]

Hello everyone...We've just completed cycling of our 29 gallon BioCube (3 weeks with cured live rock & live sand) and had a few questions. Here are the current params (using Salifert test kits):


Ammonia 0.0
Nitrite 0.0
Nitrate 20
PH Between 7.8 & 8.0
Salinity 1.026
Temp 78-79


Should I be concerned about the PH, shouldn't it a little higher? Should I be using any type of buffer at this time to raise it?


We plan on adding our CUC next weekend, purchasing a snail package & 2 mithrax crabs from Reef Cleaners. We also plan on purchasing a couple of shrimp from our LFS, which deals with my first question. Can a skunk cleaner & fire shrimp be housed safely together in the BioCube? I have read and heard so many conflicting opinions on their compatibility? Would it be better to have 2 of the same type of shrimp instead?


My second question...since it seems nitrates are within a good range, do I need to do a water change before the introduction of the CUC? I've only been using a filter pad during the cycling, but have Purigen & Chemi-Pure Elite media on hand (I purchased the media basket from InTank). I'm also running a Tunze 9002 skimmer as well. Should I use the media now or wait until I'm actually ready to introduce fish to the tank, hopefully a week or 2 after the CUC.


And finally, as far as fish, we were hoping to have 4 total, 2 Ocellaris clowns, a red striped or watchman goby and a royal gramma. In addition to a few soft & LPS corals (the plan right now is to stick with the stock lighting), does this seem like a reasonable bio-load for the tank? And finally, is purchasing a mated pair of clowns worth the additional cost versus just purchasing 2 separate babies?


As always, thanks in advance for your input, my wife and I are very excited to finally add some livestock to the tank next weekend! Happy reefing...

 

[vlangel]

I wouldn't stress too much about the PH. Its only a little low and doing a 3g WC might be a good idea now. That in itself might help your PH come up and your nitrates go down. I'm not experienced with Purigen or Chemi-Pure Elite so I'll let someone else address that. I personally run activated carbon and I know that would be OK but probably not necessary until you get fish. The fish you asked about would be fine and a good choice for your tank. The watchman goby can be a jumper so be aware of that.