Should I do a water Change ASAP ?

[Taxus812]

I’m cycling my tank. Last week I got some diatoms algae spotting over the rocks. Looking it up I see it is normal and nothing to worry about. I did my water change on Sunday afterwards. Last night I woke up and it’s all over (a bit of a bloom). I decided I should add my cleaning crew today. I added a few turbo snails and a few blue leg hermets. They started right to work on the algae pretty quick.

I also decided to test my water again and ph 8.0 , ammonia 0, nitrites pegged my test 5.0 and nitrates were just a little elevated 5.0. Should I change my water right away like I would for ammonia or should I leave it until my weekend water change?

Also people said they like pictures so I uploaded a few I just took of the crew. Please note the light was changed for the photos. It is normally much darker and blue.

 

[Mastiffsrule]

I would say let’s not panic.

I just learned myself nitrites are not going to be an issue at that level. If you just did a water change Sunday I would say let is cycle. How long has the tank been up total?

 

[Fourstars]

I would just leave it alone.

 

[Taxus812]

I found this article
https://www.reef2reef.com/ams/ammonia-your-tanks-own-nitrogen-cycle.608/

 

[Boltline]

nothing to panic over- just stick to your schedule. How did you start your cycle? You could benefit from nitifying bacteria like Dr. Tims or bio spira.

 

[Taxus812]

Filled water with bacteria, let run for a week adding “seed” daily. Added two fish. Now it’s been running for about three weeks.

 

[Hillbillyreefer]

I would leave it. Don’t add any more animals for a while. Keep checking parameters and if things start to get out of whack do a WC. With the fish in there I’d keep a batch of water mixed up ready to go in case of an emergency. I lost a couple fish in my first attempt by going too fast and ending up with an ammonia spike, I couldn’t make RO fast enough to deal with the issue. That was in the days long before seed bacteria was readily available.

 

[12gallonsofhex]

It seems you may have jumped the gun a little on adding livestock, but from what I understand nitrites are not detrimental to saltwater fish at that level. I would just keep on your normal maintenance schedule, and as others have suggested, dont add any more fish for a while. You got this!