Cycle and clean up crew

[hardparts2]

Well my 55g with 60 lbs of live rock has been running for 3 weeks. I tested this morning and this is what I got.

SG 1.0265
PH 7.8
Ammonia 0
Nitrites 3 Where off the scale but droped to this in 2 days
Nitrates 30
Phospate 0
Alk 300
Cal 400

I think my cycle is almost done and I am thinking of a clean up crew. This is the one I am looking at http://www.saltwaterfish.com/site_1...oot_parent_id=4

I am also thinking on getting a lawnmower blenny because I cycled with my lights on and I have quite a bit of hair alge and slime alge. I was going to order this for friday do you think I shoud wait my nitrites may be 0 buy then? Do you think this crew would work?

Thanks Bob

 

[tecwzrd]

I think you meant to link to this clean up crew.

If so then it’s worth the money imo if your lfs doesn’t carry the same stock.

Once your nh3/no2 reach 0 I’d perform a 50% pwc a day to two before adding the clean up crew.

I would also drip acclimate them for about 3 hours before adding to the tank to adjust to your ph/sg.

Your no2 will likely drop to 0 within the next couple of days but personally I’d wait until it was closer to .25 ppm or undetectable before ordering your stock to make sure.

Also I’d hold off on the lawnmower blenny for about 4+ months for your tank to stabilize a little more since their survival rate in a newly established aquarium is pretty poor.

The clean up crew will take care of the brown algae but will more then likely do little to the slime algae you mention. Manual removal using a used toothbrush/siphon vacuum is the easiest way.

Do you use tap water and if so have you tested the tap for no3/po4? Your excessive algae could be the result of it. Lighting during the cycle certainly didn’t help but it should be fairly minimal.