Cycle is complete, now what?

Ok looks like my initial cycle is complete, ammonia peaked at at 1.0, nitrates peaked at 20' and nitrites peaked at 5. Two days ago ammonia was at 0, while nitrates and nitriates remained 20 & 5.

Today though everything is 0. (ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates). So far I've have no algae, diatoms or anything of the sort. So am I done?

If so what's next?

I don't want to add fish yet as we'll be out of town for Thanksgiving, and I don't the house/FW fish/dog sitter have to contend with a new SW tank as well. Some have mentioned adding a CUC, I'm not sure what they would clean, there's nothing there not visible any way. The tank is 75g, with 80lbs dry rock a refugium. Nothing in the refugium, only 4-5" DSB, skimmer waiting in the wings.

Any ideas?
Cheato, mangroves, Fish, CUC?

DarkHorseMBA

 

I would add one small fish with an auto feeder,to be feed every other day just to keep the bacteria going,i didn't notice,but do you have an ato?

 

Me I would do a 10-20% water change, recheck in a day or two, and if everything still checks out go with a small cuc for now.

 

My advice is to leave it alone until after you get back after Thanksgiving. You are correct, there isn't enough food for a clean up crew unless you can see some algae on the rock and substrate. Keep in mind, in the early stages algae is almost imperceptible to our eye. I have watched my Emerald crabs eating off a rock and thought;"what are they eating?" I couldn't see anything. You could throw a few hermits in there, if one or two were to die it would only aid in the on-going cycle.

 

+1 Corailline gives good advice

 

Nope no ATO. Since there no lights on during the cycle, been topping off about 1gallon RO every 2 days. An ATO is the next purchase.

 

Sounds like a good plan. What would you consider a small cuc? Got a recommendation form reefcleaners.org. Seemed like a lot for my barren tank, but I know reefcleaners is very trusted.


30 Dwarf Ceriths - small effective cleaners
13 Nassarius
15 Florida Ceriths
9 Blue Legs
9 Large Nerite
12 Small to medium Nerites
1 five pack of mangroves
1 chaeto

What do you think?

 

I would still go with a small cheap fish and autofeeder and allow a little extra top off water before you leave to cover your evaporation while gone,but not so much that it leads to major sg swings.

 

I trust whatever Reefcleaners recommends. I have found though that some snails that rely on the film algae and other alges sometimes die back because of lack of food in newer systems.

 

+1 and let John at RC's know about your situation,may make a difference in what he recommends for now.