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Hello from a new member

Joined
19 Apr 2017
Messages
6
Location
Scotland
Hey all,

Just recently broke down my 55 Gallon Mbuna tank. I went away for a four day long weekend and while away I had a heater malfunction and lost all of my livestock. Very sad day.

So anyway decided to put that horror story behind me and go back to a planted tank. I have been in the hobby for many years and had planted tanks in the past but this is my first tank using dirt.

I have it set up as relatively low tech ( not using pressurised co2) decent T5 and T8 lights. Filter remained cycled as I immediately moved it over to another tank and dosed ammonia.

Does anyone know any breeders of Boesemani Rainbow's as I would love to have them in my new set up.
 
Hi all,
Welcome, you've probably seen it but @Tim Harrison has written a tutorial for the <"dirted tank">.
Filter remained cycled as I immediately moved it over to another tank and dosed ammonia.
You don't actually need to dose any more ammonia, the nitrifying filter organisms aren't going to die without a continual stream of ammonia. It is really oxygen that is important.

Have a look at Dr Tim Hovanec's <"Aquatic plants and the nitrogen cycle">.

One of the advantages of planted tank with an "active" soil substrate is that the biofiltration is a lot more flexible and robust then when you are reliant on microbial filtration in a filter.

cheers Darrel
 
I only dosed small amounts of ammonia because I didn't want to rush my planted tank the process took about 10 days in total with aquascaping and finding and ordering the correct plants. I wanted to keep as many of the bacteria alive as possible so I could add more fish straight away
 
Hi all,
I only dosed small amounts of ammonia because.......I wanted to keep as many of the bacteria alive as possible so I could add more fish straight away
I know this is going to sound funny because this is a forum, but 99% of what you read on forums about "cycling" and the nitrogen cycle is wrong.

Have a look at <"Best way to cycle...."> and <"Will filter bacteria survive....."> (and linked threads).
.... I didn't want to rush my planted tank the process took about 10 days in total with aquascaping and finding and ordering the correct plants
I like a growing in period for the plants (a silent "cycle"), if you can leave it 4 - 6 weeks you end up with a more resilient and stable tank, but as soon as you have plant growth your tank is in a better situation than if it was non-planted.

cheers Darrel
 
Yeh I still haven't added fish to my planted tank it's been about three weeks with my filter running on a much smaller cube aquarium. Going to add a few fish to that this weekend hopefully some boesemani rainbows if my lfs has them
 
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