water conditions for inverts?

[thor]

are inverts able to tolerate high water conditions? because i was going to add my cleanup crew while my tank is still cycling, is this ok?

 

[mlm]

What part of the cycle is your tank at? I would wait until your tank has a diatom bloom.

 

[thor]

my tank is starting to see a steady increase of ammonia and what are diatoms?

 

[mlm]

Diatoms are brown spots that you will soon see all over the rock, substrate and glass. I would not put anything in the tank with ammonia on the rise wait until you get the diatom breakout. This will be in about a month or so depending if you leave the lights on a lot.

 

[fshhub]

you won't be able to miss the diatom bloom, you'll have brown algae start ot grow( very rapidly, all over everyting, in days)
definitely wait until you see this, besides, then you will have food for your inverts(esp. the snails and algae eating crabs)

 

[thor]

i have just started to see diatoms yesterday (probably because i leave my lights on alot) also are diatoms good? im leaving for memphis for about a week tommorrow and im doing a water change then and when i get back so the diatoms will be everywhere
so your saying that the cleanup crew will help control the diatoms and have food so i wont have to help them too much?
also will two skunk shrimp die if they have no fish to clean?

 

[fshhub]

the shrimp will clean and eat many things, they love brine shrimp too, so tehy cna be fed, just in a 58, no more than 2
and an adequate crew will help alot, 58 gal, maybe a half a dozen turbo or trochus snails and an algae eater too(algae blenny), you may have to help some, because some of them will only eat algae under a certain length, but they will do much of the work
diatoms, aren't really a bad thing(or good), just part of the cycle which you wish to complete, so it really is a good sign that you are heading the right direction
jsut make sure your water parameters are in line before adding them
HTH

 

[goofieones]

Some inverts are hardy, but most are very sensitive to bad water. Do the inverts a favor and don't add them till after your cycle. Another thing, don't do a water change if you are trying to cycle the tank....that would defeat the purpose of the cycle.