New member, New scape

[Lesgrandepotato]

Hi there, greetings from Cumbria. After a few years building a house we have started getting the tank ready for action again.

It’s a fluval 850, which is 85cm wide, 60cm deep. The plan is something iwagumi’esq with five big stones salvaged from the garden. We have a fluval 406 on filtering duty. Left full for 9mths to try and keep some beneficial bacteria.

I’ve got a few questions.... coming up

 

[Lesgrandepotato]

So, we’ve got some dwarf hairgrass and java fern. We’ll get the CO2 working soon when I get some new o-rings. How do I best regulate this? E.g how much.
We have a pair of fluval 16watt aqua sky leds. Are these enough light? They seem to kick out more than the 4 old t5’s.

 

[Lesgrandepotato]

Finally, we dosed with some pure ammonia balls to kick off. Ammonia is dropping off but nitrite and nitrate haven’t really registered. When can we add fish?

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

Left full for 9mths to try and keep some beneficial bacteria.

Has it been full of water since it was last used?

Finally, we dosed with some pure ammonia balls to kick off. Ammonia is dropping off but nitrite and nitrate haven’t really registered. When can we add fish?

You need to have no measureable ammonia, or nitrite, before you can add fish. At the moment I'd stop adding the ammonia, it won't do anything useful now you have the tank planted.

In the <"traditional view of cycling">

you have to wait until you have no measurable nitrite (NO2-) or ammonia (NH3/NH4+), and nitrate (NO3) levels have climbed.

There are some problems with water testing, and a better approach is just to let the tank grow in. Have a look at <"Filter cycling?">, it covers the options fairly fully.

Because neither your Java Fern (are they planted in the substrate?, they <"can be glued to a rock">) or Hair-grass will grow very quickly, so you could do with some quicker growing plants, ideally ones with access to aerial CO2 (floating plants). I always have spare floating plants, if you want to go down that route.

cheers Darrel

 

[Lesgrandepotato]

The filter was full of water. So I assume something survived. It certainly smelt foul enough

So I just need to monitor the levels for the next few days / weeks.

Plan then is 9 or so cardinals and maybe 6 dwarf corys so the filter shouldn’t be overly stressed

 

[tam]

Just to clarify, what's your filter been doing for 9 months? Just sat not running but with water in?

 

[Matt @ ScapeEasy]

If that's the case I very much doubt any bacteria have survived. That smell cannot have been a healthy thing to inhale!...

 

[Lesgrandepotato]

If that's the case I very much doubt any bacteria have survived. That smell cannot have been a healthy thing to inhale!...

It was pretty unholy...

 

[Lesgrandepotato]

So we are now 20 days in and we haven’t got any nitrate or nitrite registering. We’ve got CO2 injection working and the dwarf hairgrass is starting to spread out.

Should I just leave it another week or two? Water change? Obvs I can bring the ammonia down by water change but is that the best thing to do?

 

[Matt @ ScapeEasy]

Ammonia is dropping off but nitrite and nitrate haven’t really registered.

I thought the ammonia had dropped off?

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

So we are now 20 days in and we haven’t got any nitrate or nitrite registering

That is an issue with the test kit, you may or may not have any ammonia (NH3) or nitrite (NO2-), but you will definitely have some nitrate (NO3-).

Should I just leave it another week or two?

Waiting never hurts.

Water change? Obvs I can bring the ammonia down by water change but is that the best thing to do?

Water changes are always a good idea.

Do you have a picture of the tank how it looks now?

cheers Darrel

 

[Lesgrandepotato]

As it looks now, I’ve not got the test sheets to hand but ammonia is the only thing I’ve been seeing.
We’ve had a light dusting of algae on the glass just green dust stuff. Lights in about 10 hrs a day.

 

[Lesgrandepotato]

Ok readings from the test kit are
10th 1.00ppm
12th 1.00ppm
15th. 0.25ppm
18th. 1.00ppm
21st. 0.5ppm
27th. 0.5ppm

 

[Lesgrandepotato]

Today’s batch