Hello All,

So my tank is nine days old, and so far I haven't seen any spike in Ammonia, Nitrite, or Nitrate. I got some beautiful rock (80% cured) from my LFS when I set up the tank. I hand picked it from the bottom of the pile and all sorts of hitchhikers have popped out of it in the last week: tons of purple and pink coralline, a couple feather dusters (one about a cm across), a stomatella varia snail, some red flame macro algea, tons of zooplankton, and a decent patch of GSP. The rock with the GSP also has a bunch of green hair algae on it. When I got to my tank this morning after the weekend (tank is at work), it was all over the glass.
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Also, the LFS is very close to my lab, so the rock was out of the water for 30 minutes tops and never dried out. Is it possible that I already have plenty of good bacteria built up that can take care of the current nitrogen.
With all the algae growth, would it be appropriate to introduce a couple snails to the mix?
Any thoughts on water change?

Thanks!

Hi,

My cycle is about the same age...I have several snails already grazing through the same type of alage plus diatoms and such. I would introduce them as soon as possible. Chances are with a cured live rock cycle you won't see much of a spike due to the existence of the nitrifying bacteria already--this is what I have experienced...

todd

Add snails, I say!

I'm about day 9 too. My rock wasn't cured though so your ahead of me. I can't wait to get my inverts.

Thanks for the encouragement. I'm thinking about adding two astrea or one astrea and one cerith. I know they are both herbavors, but I'm not sure if they have different habits. Any opinions?

They do have different habits. But both aren't known to touch the hair algae too much. Depending on the size of your tank you could try a mexican turbo snail. Some report some success with emerald crabs as well.

Edit: I just saw your tank size in your sig. You can forget about the turbo and the crab.

Wasn't planning on any crabs. Don't want to risk it with corals. What kind of snails do eat algea well aside from turbo?

Also, what are the habits of astrea and cerith?

They will eat mostly the same types of algea. My ceriths like the sand bed mostly with a mixture of glass and rock. My astreas like the rock and glass mostly but hardly ever go on the sand. Astreas aren't made for traveling over sand so they tend to stay away from it. If they fall and land upside down you must right them or they will die. They will both destroy diatoms and also do nicely against the film algea that starts on your glass. Very rare will they touch hair algea, and if they do it will be very very short hair algea. Nothing that you would be able to see easily. Ceriths are known to sometimes snack on cyano, but I have never seen it. Astreas are not known to touch that stuff.

You may want to consider Nerites as another type of snail to give you tank a bit of variety. Visit our sponsor www.reefcleaners.org and check out all the snails John has. He gives some very nice descriptions on what to expect from all the different kinds of snails. His prices are also insanely low.

Thanks! That's great to know.

Yea, before I purchased my 1st cuc I spent a bit of time on John's site researching what all the different inverts ate. I also spent a little bit of time on www.liveaquaria.com as well. After doing alot of research you come to realize that most snails pretty much eat the same stuff. Only a few have other foods on their menu. So by getting a diverse cuc you can sleep well at night knowing most common algae are taken care of.

My cuc consists of nerites, astraes, dwarf ceriths, nassarius's, blue legged hermits, scarlet reef hermits, and a brittle starfish. A bunch of stomatela snails as hitchhikers as well. If I have to scrape my glass once a week that is alot.

Okay,
It's day 12 and still no spikes. So, I'm going to do a 30% water change tonight and add a CUC this weekend. Any objections/thoughts?