My new nano, livestock question+first water change question!

[Funkymonkey]

My tank has been up for 11 days, and my ammonia is at zero and my nitrites are down to .2ppm. Temp is stable at 79, PH at 8.2 a few hours into my photo period, and my SG is steady at 1.023.

 

I was wondering when I could put in my cleanup crew and when I should perform my first water change?

[MGXsport]

wait some more till the trites go down and the trates go up some to show a cycle has been completed. Then you can add a clean-up crew then do a water change.

[Funkymonkey]

Originally posted by MGXsport

wait some more till the trites go down and the trates go up some to show a cycle has been completed. Then you can add a clean-up crew then do a water change.

 

Okay, so cleanup crew BEFORE first water change, gotcha. How low should my nitrites be before I think of adding my snails? I'm hoping to have something to look at FINALLY by the end of the weekend :

[MGXsport]

Do you have anything for a clean-up crey to eat?

[Funkymonkey]

Originally posted by MGXsport

Do you have anything for a clean-up crey to eat?

 

Brown algae out of the wazoo.

[MGXsport]

Brown is a stage mine dissappeared in about a week or less.

 

You want to add them at the end of the cycle plus a few days so it is stable and when there are some green algaes growing

[Funkymonkey]

Originally posted by MGXsport

Brown is a stage mine dissappeared in about a week or less.  

 

You want to add them at the end of the cycle plus a few days so it is stable and when there are some green algaes growing

 

I have some red and greens growing, but surely not enough to keep a snail population fed. I'll wait for the brown to die off then I guess.

 

Thanks!

[MGXsport]

yeah I was worried about the brown bloom also. It covered the tank and I thought I did something terribly wrong. It was later replaced by a load of hair algae. Now my clean up crew is finally winning the battle of algae.