Time to send in the cleaning crew methinks

[msduncan]

Ok guys... day 8 and no spike of any kind. There is now faint brown streaks on the rocks and glass presumably indicating the beginning of the diatom bloom stage.

So my question now is should you add the cleaning crew just as slowly as you add the other stuff?

LFS prices are expensive. I found that Indo-Pacific Sea Farms sells a kit called 'Reef Tune Up' that has a nice selection of:


6 Hawaiian Trocus Grazers
1 Free Hawaiian Turbo Grazer
12 Nerite Grazers
12 MicroHermits
12 Strombus Grazers

Much less expensive to buy from these guys than the lfs.

Now -- my concern is that this might be too much to add at once when there's nothing else in the tank. Or will these be ok? Any feedback?

Should I just pick up a couple of guys at the LFS or something?

[sir_dudeguy]

Imo, you wouldnt need those guys...to be honest, i've never heard of most of them lol..but all i have are 5 hermits (the small ones w/red/purple legs) 2 cerith snails, 6 nassarius snails, and a turbo snail..so far they've done a great job on my 55..you dont wanna overdo it when adding these guys at first, so depending on the tank size i'd say to start off w/what i've got..

[MJAnderson]

They are just fancy names for typical cleanup-crew. I added my first stage of my cleanup crew at about day 15.

What size tank?

[msduncan]

Hawaiian Trocus Grazers tm (Trochus intextus)
Hawaiian Turbo Grazer tm (Turbo sandwicensis)
Nerite Grazers tm (Nerita sp.)
MicroHermits tm (Calcinus sp.)

[msduncan]

55 gallons

But like I said I'm only in day 8, but there has been zero spike of any of the big three (ammonia, nitrite, or Nitrate)

I bought some Nitrobacter and Nitrosomonas bacteria from them and added them to the tank to make sure I had the right kinds of bacteria in my system too.

[outy]

id wait ,, in this hobby patients is key

you havnt stated how you broke your tank in other then chemical bacteria.

if it was me id wait 2 months for inverts if you think your ready and i dought it, throw 2 damsels in and keep an eye on them and your water.[nitite nitrate amm] if you have no fish and no bio load then you wont see a spike in anything. doesnt mean you have finished cycling. better then harming fish throw a small piece of shrimp in your water wait 2 days and then test away.

wait dont kill inverts

[Rijinals]

Patience is a vurtue

[msduncan]

Sorry I didn't state it before: 75 lbs of live rock, 2 full bags of live sand

[msduncan]

what kind of shrimp? feeder shrimp?

[MJAnderson]

I wouldn't sacrifice damsels either as my test fish.

Where did you get your LR from? Mine was fresh from another reefer's tank so I wasn't really as concerned with it cycling and I waited 2 weeks. A RC mod told me 3 weeks after the end of the cycle it's ok to put the cleaning crew in but I had several hitchikers from my LR so I guessed it was ok.

[msduncan]

Combination of LFS that I bought after figuring out that the stuff I ordered from Saltwaterfish.com was not enough.

The stuff from the lfs had been there for a while. It was the last before he reordered.