cuteios Posted June 23, 2003 Share Posted June 23, 2003 Hi guys, Asside from my little heat problem my tank seems to be doing well...quite a bit of die off on the coraline algae but that was expected. Now I'm nearly at the one week mark...how much longer do I have to wait before I add a suitable cleanup crew? For that matter what would be a could roster of cleanup crew members for a 5 gallon tank with minimal lighting? Link to comment
Physh1 Posted June 23, 2003 Share Posted June 23, 2003 I'd wait until the tank has completed cycling, you have some algae, and some rock dieoff before you add any clean up crew. Cameron Link to comment
Crakeur Posted June 23, 2003 Share Posted June 23, 2003 yes, wait. I'm in my third week of cycling now and the algae is starting to bloom. Now there is something for the clean up crew to eat. If you put in algae eaters and there's no algae, they will die. Also, large swings in temperature are very rough on a lot of the clean up critters. It is finally hitting the 90's today and should remain africa hot for about two months so cooling the tank is a major issue. Link to comment
Billdemart Posted June 23, 2003 Share Posted June 23, 2003 I have been cycled for over a week and was growing some SERIOUS hair algae. I just added 2 scarlet hermits, 2 blue legs, and 2 bumblebee snails. I had to wait until I could get my nitrates under control first with a series of big water changes. My Nitrates were 25 after my cycle finished.... Link to comment
cuteios Posted June 23, 2003 Author Share Posted June 23, 2003 Crakeur: You don't know the half of it with the temp issue. You only have to deal with the near 90F weather for short time...around here it's pretty normal to see the temp near that level. The single fan is just not cuttingit for cooling the tank...I had another 92F water day today...my poor tank. Link to comment
Billdemart Posted June 23, 2003 Share Posted June 23, 2003 92 Degrees in your tank!!!!!!??????????? Holy cow. Do you have air conditioning? Link to comment
cuteios Posted June 23, 2003 Author Share Posted June 23, 2003 that's the problem I don't have AC and when I forget the fan the temp goes sky high. I drop it down to as low as 80-82 witht he big fan on the tank but sometimes when I leave for class I forget to turn it on. Link to comment
TiGs Posted June 23, 2003 Share Posted June 23, 2003 Get the air con going in your house. The fans will only help cool the tank down to room temperature. So if you room temp is 86 degrees your tank temp will be at 86 degrees w/lights off. Get the air con going or you can purchase a chiller like the IceProbe. You can even try floating zip-locked bags of ice. Ice in a bag thing didn't work for me. My tank temp was at 85 and the bag of ice melted in less than 8 minutes and saw no significant decline in temp. good luck. Link to comment
fishbabies Posted June 23, 2003 Share Posted June 23, 2003 has anyone ever added a fish first (after cycling)? i did that cuz i wanted to have the second mini ammonia spike before i added inverts-cleanup crews. it worked ok for me in my 10 gallon....but is that usually bad? i've heard that inverts are less hardy than fish...true? Link to comment
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