Big Tex
Aquarium Advice Addict
Just ran a test on my water and everything is fine, nitrates are about 0-10ppm that's my only fluctuation as of now. Everything else is stable.
It depends on the amount of rock you add and the size of your tank. I can add a 3 lb rock to the 75 g display and be ok with that since if with total die off the amount of ammonia I will be adding is minimal. Adding 10lbs of uncured rock to a 29 g cube could end up bad because the critters that have died since it was cultivated will relase ammonia into your tank at a faster rate than the bb will be able to consume it and convert it to Nitrate.
Dry rock has not had anything living on/in it so there is no die off and it will become "alive" from the organisms in the tank currently. Not sure why buy I add dry rock and it never fails I get an algae bloom...
As for your CUC I would start out with 2 turbo snails, 5 ceriths, 5 nassarius, 10 bule legged hermits. Make sure you drip acclimate the snails (how I would recommend you acclimate everything), in my experience they are more sensitive.
This should really all be on a different thread...Do you have a tank thread?
You could probably get away w adding LR just test the water and change it if ammonia goes up. Most fish stores will carry dry rock too mine has a box of it they sell for $2/lb I go look through it occasionally for cool shapes/structures.
if you keep floating make sure you slowly add your tank water into the bag like a 1/4 cup every 15 minutes for 1-1.5 hrs and net the critter an put in your tank. NEVER dump the bag water back in your tank! Drip acclimation is super easy get some airline tubing and a pack of little ball valves from home depot cut the tube and stick on the valve and you're ready to go.
I have a couple in case I have a few critters at once lol.
So are just the diatoms gone or both the diatoms and the snails? The snails eat diatoms so that makes sense, and you won't be able to see the nassarius out during the day unless there is food, they burrow in the sand and just stick out their syphon. You should definitely see the turbos they will usually be cruising around the glass or on the rocks. That really isn't that many and sometimes they go into the crevices of the rock work. Do you see empty shells on the SB?
One thing about turbos (astrea) if they fall or flip over they cannot turn back over so you need to help them if you see them. PVC pipes or drumsticks work great for this..
Expect to see more diatoms as the day goes on. And then it's night time dining for the snails.