question on cycling

[paul wh]

hi all back from my 3 days away from my tank and everythink seems ok
my ammonium is 0.01
nitrite 0.01
nitrate 0.01
ok so thing are starting to settle down the readings im getting are about as low as my testing kits will go i also have some green grass like a algie growing on my live rock as well as small white like shimp things swimming around

ok so now long do i wait till get any live stock and which is better snails or hermit crabs
also when doing my water change does it matter if i uncover some of my live rock did anothere change today 60lt and one of my top rocks pops out

[godnok]

3 days? Id wait longer! Do you measure after big water changes?

[paul wh]

ha no its been running for a lot longer than that i was away at work for 3 days its the first time ive left the tank since i set it up

[Reefing Madness]

Your not going to want to put anything in there until your Ammonia and Nitrites are 0. Those are the crucial parameters that will kill inverts, fish and corals.

[paul wh]

then i have a problem as my testing kit only measures down to 0.01

[Reefing Madness]

What test kit are you using? .01 has got to be pretty good then. How long has the tank been running?

[paul wh]

jbl its pretty good i thought just check every thing again but i recon it might go clear if nothink in there will leave it or might take some water down to my lfs for testing at some point the rock i have is well curd and i have loads of green algie groth now but there no hurry with the snails i dont mind sitting and watch the rocks
when look at the rocks i have now noticed that i have some white fluffy thing growing as well as what looks like sea weed to me some of my rocks have green algie growing on them ( which is producing air bubble after the lights have been on for a time) also i have small dark red clumps of some thing growing
im pretty happy with it at the moment

[paul wh]

thought i would add some pics of my rock what do you think

[paul wh]

what do you think the little fan like algie is and how cool is it

[paul wh]

tried to zoom in for you

[Reefing Madness]

Yup, looks like Hair Algae, and maybe some Caulerpa Algae.

[paul wh]

well since i took these pics the algie has contiued to grow as has the small corals im taking some water to the lfs on friday for tests with my laptop results to see what they think
then i might get a couple of turbo snails think the water is pretty stable