Is it best to add a clean up crew prior to adding fish?

[dp5968]

Hi Everyone,

I'm brand new to this hobby so I have a few questions regarding a FOWLR setup. What I have:

90 Gallon glass tank
Fluval 505 filter
1 800 GPH power head
80 lbs live sand
40 lbs live rock
No skimmer yet
1 400w heater

I just put in the sand & rock and I was curious how long I should cycle the tank before I add any thing else. Is it best to add a clean up crew prior to adding fish? Any info would be much appreciated

Thanks,
David

[thominil]

Do you have an amonia source in the tank to cycle it yet? If not, go grab a few raw, unseasoned shrimp from your local grocery store, stick them in a zip-loc (or different brand) bag, poke holes in the bag, and toss the bag into the tank. Guideline is one shrimp per 30 gallons of water. The amount of time all depends on the tank, could be a week, or it could be a month, maybe even longer. Grab a liquid test kit containing amonia, nitrAte, and nitrIte tests. Test the water until you see the amonia rise, fall, then nitrite rise and fall, then see nitrates rise with amonia and nitrite at 0. After this you would want to do a water change of 25%-50%, then wait a day or two for things to stabilize, then you can add fish. I would wait about a month before adding any clean up crew members to avoid them starving to death, add them slowly. Welcome to AA! I hope this helps. Any confusion, feel free to ask, I probably did a poor job wording this post.

[melosu58]

We have a good article in our SW articles section on cycling.