Time for a cleaner crew?

[gwhite314]

30g w/ 45# of live rock. I got the rock from an established tank 5 days ago. There is coraline everywhere, some puffy flowing algae and all sort of creppy crawlies moving around. Ammonia held around .25 for a few days and is down a little.

I threw a raw shrimp in when I put the rock it and it look like a translucent blob at this point. I am going to do a pwc tomorrow.

Should I think about adding some snails and shrimp in a few days or keep monitoring the water before adding anything?

 

[amkelly]

keep monitoring

 

[pat8you]

Don't want to add anything (even the crew) before the cycle is finished. Both ammonia and nitrites have to be 0

 

[roka64]

Agreed, make sure your ammonia and nitrItes are at 0 and then do a PWC to reduce nitrAtes. You are almost there, just wait it out. The inverts won't tolerate the ammonia.

 

[gwhite314]

Ammonia was 0, or at least pretty close as best i can tell with the color. Nitrites were somewhere between .25 and .5.

 

[gwhite314]

Sorry, I hit the post before I finished. These readings were pre-pwc. I am going to change approx 20% and take a reading tomorrow. Stuff is growing everywhere. I have see 2 bristleworms and some other multi-leg thing i am trying ID from the link on here. So far so good, I hope.

 

[austinsdad]

Well, you're in it now.Chances are with rock from an established tank and critters everywhere, you didn't need to introduce another ammonia source and cycle again.Oh well, I'd wait until the ammonia and nitrite are zero before adding anything new. Could be that the critters already in there were able to withstand gradual increase of ammonia. Nothing new likely would.

 

[Ziggy953]

I agree. Well on your way. Make sure to test for Ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. You will also want to start monitoring your PH.

What kind of filtration do you have on the tank?

 

[gwhite314]

Filtration on 30g tank: aquac protein skimmer, hydor 2, penguin mini, 45# lr. I also have a fluval 205 that I could hook up.