Post-Cycle Sequence

[CatsandClowns]

Hey y'all, glad to be here, this is my first post here, and my first tank is a 20-gallon AIO prospective soft coral and clownfish tank.

I began the fishless cycle with a seeded sponge from an established tank from work(Clown nursery), as well as a few rocks and water from said tank(No ammonia dosing). I have been cycling for a bit over a week now, and I have only recently begun seeing nitrite drop to zero(ammonia has been consistently at zero for a few days now). Just now, I have also begun seeing diatoms forming a little bit on the sand and glass(I imagine tomorrow I'll wake to them being all over the tank). After doing a roughly 20 percent water change today, tomorrow morning I will go to my local LFS and buy CUC and copepods to hopefully get a head start on the cleaning of said diatoms. My question is, at the same time, would it be beneficial to introduce some live rock with coralline and/or introduce crushed coralline from an established tank into mine? What would be the correct order to do this, and if now, would my tank have sufficient calcium levels needed to feed corraline algae growth this early, since there are no corals in the tank that would otherwise deplete the water of calcium? Thanks in advance for the advise!

 

[Fish Fan]

Welcome to Reef2Reef!

If you started your tank with established, cycled media from another tank, you are more or less already cycled

I'm not sure why you're seeing nitrites at all, except for test kit error, which is common with hobby-grade test kits. Please know that nitrites are non-toxic in marine aquaria, and most here at R2R don't test for them, or worry about them.

Coralline algae tends to need the same conditions as stoney corals, and may do better a few months in, when the tank has had a chance to stabilize. As you mentioned, coralline needs alk, calc, and mag, and it does best at a pH over 8.0.

I'm sure others will have further/better advice. Good luck!

 

[CatsandClowns]

Welcome to Reef2Reef!

If you started your tank with established, cycled media from another tank, you are more or less already cycled

I'm not sure why you're seeing nitrites at all, except for test kit error, which is common with hobby-grade test kits. Please know that nitrites are non-toxic in marine aquaria, and most here at R2R don't test for them, or worry about them.

Coralline algae tends to need the same conditions as stoney corals, and may do better a few months in, when the tank has had a chance to stabilize. As you mentioned, coralline needs alk, calc, and mag, and it does best at a pH over 8.0.

I'm sure others will have further/better advice. Good luck!

Ive been told as much in terms of already cycled media, but I figured, as my first tank, I might as well get used to cycling and learn as much about it. Additionally, I think the nitrite levels may be due to the dry rock I also have in the tank(which is a majority of the rock), though I very well may be mistaken. I plan on a weekly water change schedule, which, with testing the three parameters you've mentioned, should allow me to reach my target calc, alk, and mag. At which point would it not be best to introduce corraline already so that I may provide competition to the nuisance algae earlier on? Edit, thanks for the quick reply!

 

[Fish Fan]

Ive been told as much in terms of already cycled media, but I figured, as my first tank, I might as well get used to cycling and learn as much about it. Additionally, I think the nitrite levels may be due to the dry rock I also have in the tank(which is a majority of the rock), though I very well may be mistaken. I plan on a weekly water change schedule, which, with testing the three parameters you've mentioned, should allow me to reach my target calc, alk, and mag. At which point would it not be best to introduce corraline already so that I may provide competition to the nuisance algae earlier on? Edit, thanks for the quick reply!

Yes, in theory coralline would out compete the ugly algae, but I believe the reality is that the coralline grows too slowly to outcompete the other algae. Ugly algae is often just a phase in a new tank, and will go away in time. You can absolutely seed your tank with coralline algae, either from scraping a little off a rock from a more established tank, or by adding things like coral frags where there's coralline on the frag plugs. I've never used it, but you could try this product that is supposed to contain coralline algae spores:

Coralline Algae in a Bottle Purple Helix - Live Spores

ARC Reef's Purple Helix Coralline Algae in a bottle contains 8 different species of live algae spores. Seed your aquarium with vibrant hues of purple coralline.

arcreef.com

If you are using a decent salt mix, you will likely have the necessary levels of alk, calc, and mag to grow coralline algae

 

[exnisstech]

You may avoid much of the ugly phase because you added live media at start up, I know I have.
Personally I've never added coraline or pods. They always appear on their own over time.