Feed pods etc while cycling/curing new tank?
 

My tank is 2 days old now and I've got a few pods crawling around in my Chaeto ball and a couple feather dusters, a bristle worm and a brittle star at the very least on the small piece of live rock. All of this is in the fuge and 2 additional pieces of rock are in the display but I've yet to see anything on them (pretty high flow up there!)

Should I shut flow to the fuge off for a few hours and add a few drops of phytoplankton or something to help the pods multiply/thrive? I don't imagine there is anything at all in the water column/on the rocks to support the little life I have in there. I'm new to this seeding a giant pile of dead rock thing and need advice. Ammonia levels are <0.25 as of last night but of course they will climb. Maybe the pods won't even survive the spike?

Any and all advice regarding this would be great thx.

Anytime I have ever fed my tanks phyto, the pod populations explode a few days to weeks later, so I would imagine it couldn't be a bad thing for a new tank.

Awesome because I'm dying to feed ANYTHING to my tank lol.

How much would you toss in a 10 gallon fuge? And would you kill flow through it for a bit while doing so?

Hmmm, someone else may give you a better dosing amount because I haven't used it in a long time but I remember in my old 24G nano, I used to dump in a ridiculous amount all at once lol. I don't think it can really harm anything at this point.

May as well kill the flow to the fuge for a bit...your skimmer will just take a lot of it out if not.

If I *really* strain and look between the lines you're basically saying I'm ready for tangs and sps aren't you? Hmmm...

Well yes but I didn't want to just come right out and say it. But only if you pour the entire bottle of phyto into the tank and then wait at least a day.

Your tank isn't big enough for tangs... You'll have to upgrade before you can keep tangs... Someone should have told you that to begin with I guess.. :razz:


As for feeding phyto, I can see how it would hinder the cycle... If they survive the spike, you should have a nice population when you start stocking. If they die during the spike I would assume it would just feed the cycle process, No:question: