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Unread 01/27/2016, 11:29 AM   #1
Sk8r
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Do not expect your CUC to eat your algae. That's not their job.

Their real job is to eat and poo into the sandbed for four weeks while you're quarantining your first fish. You can add coral along with the CUC but coral must be dipped for pests and your phosphate must be low enough that massive growth of hair algae will not overwhelm the coral. Test your phosphate just after cycle if you plan to add corals. If there's not enough food for your CUC to eat in there (you can watch them feed) give them some fish food, and continue testing to be sure the sandbed is handling the result.

Main thing, give that sandbed and rock time to develop while being fed. If you stress it too far too fast, your fish may overpower the toilet system, so to speak, and downgrade living conditions in your new tank faster than the system can handle it.

Nothing good happens fast for new folk on the ice rink---or in marine tanks.


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Salinity 1.024-6; alkalinity 8.3-9.3 on KH scale; calcium 420; magnesium 1300, temp 78-80, nitrate .2. Ammonia 0. No filters: lps tank. Alk and cal won't rise if mg is low.

Current Tank Info: 105g AquaVim wedge, yellow tang, sailfin blenny,royal gramma, ocellaris clown pair, yellow watchman, 100 microceriths, 25 tiny hermits, a 4" conch, 1" nassarius, recovering from 2 year hiatus with daily water change of 10%.

Last edited by Sk8r; 01/27/2016 at 12:57 PM.
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Unread 02/05/2016, 03:40 PM   #2
Squibege
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What kind of fish food do you give them? Some type of pellet?


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Unread 02/05/2016, 05:08 PM   #3
chimmike
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sticky material!


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Unread 02/05/2016, 05:30 PM   #4
Sk8r
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SInking pellet Formula One small does real well: all of it goes down, not into the filter.


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Salinity 1.024-6; alkalinity 8.3-9.3 on KH scale; calcium 420; magnesium 1300, temp 78-80, nitrate .2. Ammonia 0. No filters: lps tank. Alk and cal won't rise if mg is low.

Current Tank Info: 105g AquaVim wedge, yellow tang, sailfin blenny,royal gramma, ocellaris clown pair, yellow watchman, 100 microceriths, 25 tiny hermits, a 4" conch, 1" nassarius, recovering from 2 year hiatus with daily water change of 10%.
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Unread 02/05/2016, 10:14 PM   #5
leviburns89
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Will raw deli shrimp, cut into peices work for the cuc?

This is what I will be using to help cycle my tank.


And after some research, I've answered my own question.

I should be cycling with the same thing I plan on using in my tank as food. So if I feed sinking pellet to future fish, I should be ghost feeding with sinking pellet now.



Last edited by leviburns89; 02/05/2016 at 10:41 PM. Reason: Realization
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Unread 02/06/2016, 10:03 AM   #6
Sk8r
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It'll work just fine. And smell far less. There's no need to turn your tank into a toxic soup of ammonia and rot to get it to cycle. Daily micro-pinches of fishfood do quite nicely (sinking pellet equivalent to 1 fair-sized flake of flake food per ten gallons) and won't upset the household. Once you think it's cycled, just do it a couple more days, then try a snail and a crab and see if they're happy. If they are, add others, and pat yourself on the back: step one achieved.


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Salinity 1.024-6; alkalinity 8.3-9.3 on KH scale; calcium 420; magnesium 1300, temp 78-80, nitrate .2. Ammonia 0. No filters: lps tank. Alk and cal won't rise if mg is low.

Current Tank Info: 105g AquaVim wedge, yellow tang, sailfin blenny,royal gramma, ocellaris clown pair, yellow watchman, 100 microceriths, 25 tiny hermits, a 4" conch, 1" nassarius, recovering from 2 year hiatus with daily water change of 10%.
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