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You should start your own thread for your own questions. I don't have an answer, sorry.   Shaedy, what's the update on this? Any word?

Found some shrimplets late last night. Tried my best to count them, but they are SOO hard to find! I know there's at least 5, but I can only see properly from one side of the breeder box at the moment. There's gotta be more than that, wouldn't even a young female have at least a dozen or so eggs? 

Wait. Or start asking around if your friends, colleagues, neighbors or anyone at all has a tank and are able/willing to part with a pad/sponge snipping from their filter.

Some territorial behaviour is starting with some of the Cardinals. Several of them seem to have 'claimed' various areas of the tank as their own, chasing away other Cardinals who come too close. Yet they ignore the Endlers who wander through the same space.   They still all school together if...

Sp about a week and a half in on my first ever tank, and everything seems to be going my way. but I've noticed something a bit odd.   I've got 8 endlers of varying ages from small juveniles to adult females, and 16 Cardinal Tetras. When I feed them, it's usually a small pinch of flakes, and wait...

If you've been using that bottle for a while, it would be a good idea to replace it with a new one. You've used much more liquid in it, than the crystal/powder that needs to dissolve, so it's still not accurate.

Does your local shop offer water testing? If the ammonia is dropping, it's possible it's being processed through, and the test results are wrong. See if you can get it tested and compare your results.

The LED+ was something of an impulse buy (so was the aquarium, but we won't get into THAT!), possibly one of the best I've ever made. When I first started looking into things, I was somewhat alarmed that decent low energy/low heat light was going to cost more than what I paid for the tank...

So it's been about a week with fish in the tank. I couldn't resist adding some color in there, so I did head out to find some cardinals. Asked the kid at the store to bag up 10 of them, and he couldn't be bothered to be too exact, so I ended up with 16! Just today I've noticed, that instead of...

There be fish!   After only a 3 week fishless cycle period, yesterday's water tests came up pH 7.4, 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, about 10ppm nitrate and 125 GH. I did a little water change to push down the nitrates just a wee bit and I was ready to go.   I spent the afternoon at my sister's place...

More pics to come, but I added some narrow leaf java fern to my driftwood last night, stuffing and tying the roots down into several small holes all the way along it.   My ammonia and nitrite also finally hit the 0/0 mark! Did a big water change to push the nitrates down, but mostly to clear up...

Ahh, I'm out in Montreal, else I'd have offered you a little snip. All you need is a few little microbes to get the process started which for some reason isn't happening for you. I started my tank around the same time, and started seeing nitrites within a week. In my case though, It took me a...

You should mix the water and prime for sure beforehand. It wouldn't take long for the chlorine to kill whatever might already be growing in the filter before you can get it treated. I see you're in Canada! Where abouts? Maybe someone on here can nip off a piece of filter for you to kick start...

I actually added to my lighting this week, having a 'cheap' LED (Beamswork LED400), and noticing my plants weren't doing so well, I scavenged some household lighting as a stop-gap to test the results. I used an old under shelf 15W fluorescent, as well as little halogen desk lamp. After seeing my...

Almost there, my nitrite test today came back around .5 or 1ppm, down from 2 days ago when it was too purple to tell even diluted to 25%! With a little luck I'll read 0 tomorrow night, dose ammonia and see how it looks Friday. I might have fish this weekend! :D

Thanks for the input! My brother in law is going to be giving me a few shrimp and some java moss from his established tank, so that particular bit of carnage isn't likely to happen.

More plants are coming, once I figure out how to keep the two I have alive. Right now I'm failing miserably at that. 

Working a little more to eliminate species off my short list, it seems the White Cloud Mountain Minnow prefers slightly lower temperatures, as well as pH, than my tank is rigged for. Tolerant of a wide range of parameters, but more active and likely to breed in lower conditions. I'll strike them...

Once you know the actual number you can decide. 7.6 is an Ok number, and it's about what I get as well. I tried using something called pH Down, and noticed that my pH gradually climbs back up again over 2-3 days, despite doing nothing to the tank. so I've decided not to fight it, and adapt a few...

  That mostly depends on what you plan to have living in the tank going forward. Most people seem to think that it's a better idea to choose fish based on your natural pH, rather than fight the chemistry, and risk making things unstable. Your pH is primarily defined by your chosen water source...

I think I may have changed the balance of things with at least one plant. The problem may be lighting. This morning I decided to place a small halogen desk lamp on the corner of the tank where the valisneria is, and this afternoon as I was cleaning the counter where the tank is, I noticed the...

I'm by no means an expert at this, being new myself, but what test kit are you using? I've read that the API test kit can be tricky with the nitrate test if you don't really shake and abuse bottle number 2. The solution in that bottle tends to crystallize and you really have to knock it around...

More plants is a problem, I'm having trouble keeping the two I have alive!   I've been adding a few (1-2) ml of fertilizer each day, but can't help wonder if the carbon in the filter is pulling them out of the water before the plants get it. I've sliced open the cartridge and dumped the carbon...

I have a brand new tank that's been running a fishless cycle for about 2 weeks. I'm still in the nitrite peak, so there's a while to go before I start adding fish. I have, however, started adding a couple of plants. And they're not doing well at all. They've been there for a week, and the fern...

  My brother in law will be giving me some Red Cherry shrimp. I've started a tank journal over in this thread.

Pity, I really like the look of the Zebras. I might go rasbora instead. I don't know. But being a 20 gallon long, it's already 30 inches.   Awesome suggestion for the ammonia, I decided to check a little mom and pop hardware store down the road, and found myself exactly the bottle of ammonia...

Just getting started, about 2 weeks in on a fishless cycle.   Right now there's not much in there aside from bacteria, a little struggling Bolbitis baby leaf fern, a moss ball and some valisneria (jungle val) in one corner. Both seem to be dying off, but I'm hoping it's just an adjustment period...

I missed your comment on the Zebras earlier. 3-4 feet in length I assume you mean. This is the first reference I've seen to such small fish needing such a large tank! I've been relying on the stats from liveaquaria.com when researching species and compatibility. Are they no good?

  Short answer is, I couldn't find any! I gave up looking, but never checked Home Hardware. I'll have a look, thanks!

Greetings from Montreal, Canada.   During the holidays I mentioned the idea of starting an aquarium to my brother in law when they were over for lunch one day, and he talked me into it. I'm currently a little over 2 weeks into a fishless cycle using flakes, and things are progressing nicely...