When can clean up crew go in tank?

[anna8297]

90 gal has been set up for almost 2 weeks. I'm getting the brown algea problem that I think I read on another post is caused by diatoms. Is there anything special that I need to do to get rid of it? I thought maybe I could go ahead and add some snails/hermit crabs/shrimp. The hermit crabs and snails that came along with the LR are doing fine. Amonia is now at 0, Nitrite=.5; Nitrate=7. Could I go ahead and add some cleaners?

 

[RMPD109]

The brown algae is diatoms and caused by silicates. It will burn off on its own once the silicates are used up by the algae. Snails and hermits would help but you need to wait until your cycle completes and parameters stabilize. Once the ammonia and nitrites both hit zero do a water change to reduce nitrates. I would wait a week or so to make sure the tank is stable then start adding a little bit of a cleanup crew at a time.