When is it time to add "The Cleaning Crew"

[bitmap]

At what point are you ready to add a cleaning crew to your new tank?

Sand and Rock have been added ... Live Sand has been added ... few pieces of Live rock have been added ... both to see the liveness of the other sand and rock ...

At what point am I ready to add some snails/crabs/hermits/etc ?

[bosscrab]

Are you testing your water? ammonia, nitrate,nitrite should all read zero for at least a week.
Usually about 5-6 weeks is how long the cycle takes. You will get a brown dust "diatoms" on the sand. That is usually the end of the cycle.

[glenyboy]

im new to this and 1 week ago added the live sand / live rock and so on been testing every day nitrat spiked and has gone back down now i got brown dust on my sand and brown algea on rock spoke to lfs they said 1--2 more days then add clean up crew not sure if this help

cheers

glen

[bitmap]

Ahh so once the brown algea starts on the rock/sand, etc ..... might be time to add the cleanup crew

[Kevin1000]

Most would argue that you don't add a CUC until the tank has finished cycling - isn't tied to when you see brown algae on the substrate.

[jph]

i'd say it's time to add them when you need them. when there is nothing to clean up, they'll stave.


J.