I then put in straight ammonia into the tank to feed the bacteria until it was fully cycled.  You will know it's fully cycled if you add some ammonia and within 24 hours ammonia, and nitrites are 0.  It took probably almost 2 months for my nitrates to be at 0.  They hovered around 5 or 10 during that time.

 

I read up in the thread that you added a cube of mysis; but you also added a small CUC.  Thus, the mysis was likely consumed by your CUC instead of assisting in your cycling efforts. 

 

If it were me, I'd start increasing the lighting time and see what happens.

 

IMO you were never going to see much of a cycle 'spike' because you already had all that live stuff - which is a good thing (that's how I start my tanks)

 

If you had used all dry (dead) rock and sand then you would see that traditional old school cycle

 

I think you are ready for fish - provided your other parameters (SG, Alk, Ca) are all within range

 

Since you only have 16g to work with, I would advise adding fish 1 at a time, with a 2 - week adjustment period between additions

 

Coral, you can add almost as quickly as you want - but don't go crazy with softies (unless you are doing an all - softy tank) because many soft corals add toxins to the water as a form of 'coral warfare' that are detrimental to the more finicky LPS and SPS types...

 

 

And I know you said 'toxic soup' but unless your nano parameters are really bad, I'd transfer maybe a half gallon of live water from the nano as well

 

 

 

To get rid if the algaes you don't want, what I would do is take 1 rock at a time, and a tupperware bowl of tank water

 

Keep the rock submerged in the bowl and use a scrub brush to remove the unwanted stuff. If you have attached corals just be careful not to scrub those areas. You can also use a new toothbrush to do the scrubbing in those tight spots

 

And I'd probably run down to WalMart and get a brand new little scrub brush to use (so you don't accidently use one that had soap in it). Look in the kitchenware section; you can get one for less than $2

 

Return the rock to the tank. Gently shake the rock underwater to release any possible air bubbles trapped inside.

 

Repeat the process for each rock in the tank. That tupperware bowl water is going to get pretty dirty, so throw that water out when you are finished.

 

To keep the rock looking good, normally I'd recommend an algae grazing fish like a tang or dwarf angel, but your tank is too small for that.

 

You'll need to up your snail & crab count significantly. I'd do a total of 20 snails and 15 small hermits for your 16g tank. While the CUC can be effective, they really do not eat alot individually. A CUC of 35 creatures won't starve in your tank.

 

Do all that, then go pick out your first fish

 

 

 

 

Yes, you likely did bring some of it into the new tank.  I don't think its possible to avoid all algae.  Just try to have very good circulation, a sufficient cleanup crew and phosphate free water for top offs and water changes.  One thing I have found helpful is to use a small powerhead now and then to blow your rocks clean - you could glue a piece of PVC to the powerhead to use as a handle while you are cleaning your rocks.  Your tank is going to show you where your low circulation areas are as that is likely where you might see algage growing and where you will see a lot of stuff blowing off your rocks if you chose to blow them clean now and then.  I'd also get that skimmer set up ASAP.  Some may recommend that you use some chemicals in a mesh bag in your filtration area.

 

There are algal spores in your salt mix

 

There are algal spores in the air

 

There are algal spores in live rock that has long since been dried out

 

That's why you can set up a perfectly 'sterile' tank (dry rock, dry sand, RO/DI water,commercial salt mix, etc) and, with a little light and if you wait long enough...

 

Algae!

 

When you say "Chem bags" - what specifically were you running?

 

Unfortunately, you may need to invest in one more circ pump -- its difficult even for a small tank to have one circ pump have enough flow, especially with the kind of rock work you have (which I think looks really cool by the way).  I'd suggest one pump down very very low pointing at an angle upward and the other pump up higher pointing at an angle downward.  But you will just need to play with it.  Fortunately for your size tank the circ pumps aren't too expensive.

 

Don't be thinking that Chemi-Pure caused your nuisance algae problem ... I really can't see how it could have. 

You know Chemi-Pure is carbon, right?