CUC for coral only tank

[razorskiss]

I'm starting to see visible spots of green algae and something that looks like diatoms on my highest rockwork (closest to light, kessil A360x still in acclimation mode around 25% peak intensity currently and set to ramp up over the next 3 weeks). I introduced copepods early on, dosed neonitro and neophos to bring levels up (nitrates 10, phosphates between 0.03 and 0.1 based on salifert) which have been completely stable at those levels, and dose phyto daily (to feed the pods, although I can't see any yet). I'm thinking it may be time to introduce some snails but I have no idea what kind of numbers. Since I don't have fish to feed my guess is I don't need any dedicated detritovores, so I was thinking of adding ~10 dwarf Cerith, ~10 dwarf Trochus snails and maybe a pair of astrea snails or nerites (this is in a 25 gallon cube). Does that seem like a reasonable number to start with? I don't get visible growth on the acrylic yet, but I imagine that will change as the light levels continue to increase.

 

[Zach B]

I would just get 5 or so trochus for a tank this size & maybe 5 or so cerith. Best of luck

 

[Rick's Reviews]

Following, when did your cycle finish?
If you can not see pods it may not be ready

 

[Hooz]

In my 30g, my CuC consists of... 12 Dwarf Ceriths, 6 Ceriths, 6 Nassarius, 3 Asterae, 1 Mexican Turbo and a handful of Scarlet Reef Hermits.

Some of those may be less important in a fishless tank and, of course, you want to add them slowly as they will starve if there isn't enough for them to feed on.

 

[razorskiss]

The tank was started with live sand and PNS substrate sauce from Algae Barn, I have never detected any ammonia (salifert and Seachem's free/total ammonia test using the little circular gas exchange sensors) or nitrite (salifert). The pods were introduced after the tank had been wet but empty and unlit for about a month along with the first coral (a pair of ricordea florida). It's been about two weeks since then.

Edit: I've been dosing ocean magik phyto daily (~5 - 10 mL by eye) since adding the pods two weeks ago

 

[razorskiss]

I thought I'd follow up on this, got 2 small Trochus and 2 small astrea snails from LFS. Trochus snails grabbed onto the rockwork hard and are moving slowly but leaving behind sparkling clear surfaces. Astreas meanwhile have fallen onto their backs no fewer than 8 times in the last 24 hours and needed to be rescued.