Cycling

I would start with a limited amount of snails depending on the amount of available food source, basically algae.

IMO you should be able to run the skimmer now and give it a couple days to break in.

Just keep testing for a couple more weeks.

 

Agree !! You can start skimming now.

But I want to add, don't JUST add snails for a CUC. They lay their role just like others....

If you want to start adding shrimp and crabs you can, and IMO they both play vital roles in a reef environment. Shrimp can help clean fish and some coral or disease and detritus, and crabs are great are picking off all the algae that will eventually pop up, even if it in small amounts...but maybe throw a few pellets in with your flake food for now to try and get some type of build up going. Again, not much, but a diatom bloom would not be a bad thing lol !!

 

I'm going to turn the skimmer on today. I'll test for two more weeks. I will add a skunk shrimp and some scarlet hermits to the cuc. Thanks for all the help!