need some help with a CUC.

[adrian_0775]

well tank is cycling fine (tp left pic 6 days ago). I added some shrimp (2 days ago top right pic) to build up some ammonia. I got a lot of brown algea in the past 3 days as you can see (btm right pic).now Im looking into getting some help from a clean up crew and was wondering what I should invest in? its an allglass 180 gallon tank and i still have some live rock im waiting for (50 lbs of fiji premium) havent aquascape yet. Tank has been up for 2 weeks, any sugestions. alot has happend in the last 4 days as you can see from the pictures. thinking of maybe 3 or 4 clown fish as the first purchase maybe a week or 2 after I add the CCU.
13mar
ammonia .25
s.g. 1.021
temp 77.9
nitrite .25

12 mar
ammonia 0
s.g. 1.022
temp 77.5

11 mar
ammonia 0
s.g 1.024
temp 78.2
added the shrimp

10 mar
ammonia 0
s.g. 1.023
ph 8.0
nitrate .20
nitrite 1.0
phosphate .5

09 mar
ammonia .50
ph 8.2
temp 81.9
nitrate .20
phosphate .5
s.g 1.021
nitrite 1.0
brown algea started bloming

 

[Ziggy953]

CUC - margarita snails, cerith snails, nassarius snails, astrea snails, blue leg hermits, scarlet hermits. Those are the basics.

I would not suggest adding 3 or 4 clowns to the tank. You will end up with only to in the end most likely. A pair of clowns is all you need.

I would not add the cuc until you have all the rock in the tank and have tested your parameters for at least another week. When you get 0 ammonia and 0 nitrite and see the nitrate spike it will be time for a large PWC.

The brown algae looks like diatoms to me and are perfectly normal at this stage.