What to do with an empty tank?

[Siberwulf]

So I've stood up and cycled my new tank, I've got a couple small inverts in there cleaning any nuisance algae that might form, lights are on a reduced time, and I've got my sump going with the Chaeto.

Unfortunately, I'm not going to be able to have fish in here until August. (Events in July/QT requirements.)

What should I be doing with this beast until the fish get in there? I've been ghost feeding the inverts a little bit, and allowing a bit of trace algae to grow as a food source. Should I be kicking up Alk to help coraline start to grow faster? Is this going to crash if I don't get fish in here sooner than that?

 

[lapin]

You be will fine with what you are doing. The main issue could be algae growth because of light.

 

[davidcalgary29]

I'd spend the time getting your aquascape right. You have a great opportunity now to pinpoint possible flow issues before the livestock arrives. If you have trouble visualizing corals in the tank (if you want them), you can get some macroalgae and use them as coral placeholders, and their growth will also help you determine any potential lighting issues. Macro should also be quarantined (I've had quite an assortment of hitchhikers ride in on mine), so this is a great time to do that in your display itself.

Macro will also help you soak up any excess nutrients you might have from your cycle. I would not buy any varieties of caulerpa or ulva; they're invasive and hard to eradicate. I actually have caulerpa that have started to sprout from a rock of blue clove polyps that I put in my pest jar, and it's going to be a pain getting it out of there now. The halymenia species commonly available in the trade are a much better choice.

 

[mdb_talon]

Nothing at all wrong with letting tank sit running for awhile. If anything it just helps.

 

[Siberwulf]

I'd spend the time getting your aquascape right. You have a great opportunity now to pinpoint possible flow issues before the livestock arrives. If you have trouble visualizing corals in the tank (if you want them), you can get some macroalgae and use them as coral placeholders, and their growth will also help you determine any potential lighting issues. Macro should also be quarantined (I've had quite an assortment of hitchhikers ride in on mine), so this is a great time to do that in your display itself.

Macro will also help you soak up any excess nutrients you might have from your cycle. I would not buy any varieties of caulerpa or ulva; they're invasive and hard to eradicate. I actually have caulerpa that have started to sprout from a rock of blue clove polyps that I put in my pest jar, and it's going to be a pain getting it out of there now. The halymenia species commonly available in the trade are a much better choice.

I'm running Chaeto in my Sump and he's growing like a weed, which is good. He's gonna be helpful.

He's not doing enough, though, it seems. Have the brown sludge in the DT right now, slowly forming on the sand. Getting a little green film on the glass, but keep that cleaned. I'm not getting over-zealous on it, as I don't want to starve out my CUC. I did throw a dose of Phosphate-E in there to drop phosphates from .12 to .07 and plan on doing another round next week to get things more under control.

I'm hoping to also use this phase to boost up my coraline growth. It's pretty slow. I'm not dosing any Alk booster, but I'm wondering if I should. Should I kick the alk up over time to help speed it up? I'm assuming I won't wreck anything if alk is around 10-12 (it's slowly creeping up right now... 8.5 -> 8.8 in a week.