Feed during cycling?

[jettie1767]

I'm on day 4 of cycling my CAD22 with LR and LS. LR came mostly from monroereef out here (thanks, btw) plus another 5 lbs from Trop. Salinity is at 1.025 with a refractometer. 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites and 0 nitrates. I think pH is low at 7.8 to 7.98? On the back, I have floss, purigen and chemipure elite on chamber 1, chaeto on chamber 2 and chamber 3 just has the pump, heater, pH probe and temp sensor. I've been topping off with RO everyday approximately 1/4 gallon. Will test the water again this weekend.

So, it seems I'm not seeing any cycling occurring? Note that monroereef already had the LR in a tank and Trop is only 15 mins away from my house. Maybe there wasn't any die-off?

I did notice some featherdusters as well as three brown zoos. There's also a couple of bristle worms and some small, greyish/whitish starfish which I think are asterinas (should I remove them?). And there is one white starfish that is about the size of a dime but it isn't irregular in shape, it has 5 legs and looks like a typical starfish (don't know what kind it is). Should I be feeding them anything?

If water tests good again this weekend, I'm thinking of putting some CUC. Any opinions?

Thanks.

 

[Whitebird1]

No Feed. trops rock is cycled and sounds like the other rock was too. Give it a few weeks yet. And take out those stars, general not desirable hitchhikers.

 

[jettie1767]

Ok, I figured I should take them out. I think I saw 4 of them the past few days. Two are avid glass climbers. The other two are just hanging out on the rock. What about the white starfish that is not irregularly shaped? Should I remove him too?

 

[Whitebird1]

Yea, they reproduce by dividing, a full star will be 2 soon then 10 then 100 see my point. They munch on Coraline and some on zoos.

 

[Hawkeye]

i agree the LR has cycled already.

The 3 brown zoas - sorry for the dumb question but you're sure they aren't aiptasia/anemones right?

Asterinas - I remove them here and now but unfortunately the LR I purchased was infested with them. I've seen gorgeous tanks infested with them also - so you could argue they are an extra part of the CUC. Personally i would remove them as I think they are ugly.

As far as the CUC - i like trochus snails for the LR/glass and I like cerith snails for the sand - if you have sand.

 

[jettie1767]

I'm beginning to suspect that 1 out of the 3 that I thought were zoos is actually aiptasia. It definitely does have the pointy tentacles that the other 2 don't. I'll try to squirt some lemon juice on it tonight. Might have to turn the rock over coz it's on the underside of the rock.

 

[Hawkeye]

fyi try to squirt it outside the tank if you can. The anemone will turn white and never appear again.

I've never tried dosing chemicals directly in the tank. Even though it's a tiny amount (relative to the volume of water) - you just never know (even if they say it's reef safe).