mrsjoannh13
Fishaholic
I am cycling my first planted tank. It's a 20 gallon currently fishless with 3 amazon swords, 2 scarlet temples, 7 java ferns, 4 anubias nanas and a smattering of nana petites. So it's pretty heavily planted. I am dosing with Easy Green fertilizer and have some of the Easy Root Tabs around the stem plants. Week 1 I changed 50% water daily. Week 2, I changed 50% every other day. This week I am going to change about 50% 2 or 3 times. After that I'll be doing weekly changes.
I planted the tank on January 16th. I have seen anywhere from 0 - .25 ammonia, currently holding at 0. No idea where the ammonia came from as I'm not dosing any. Maybe from a couple of rotting leaves? Nitrates have been holding steady at 5, I'm assuming primarily from the fertilizer. Nitrites started at 0, rose to .5 then 1 then possibly a 2, then back down to .5 and as of today suddenly reading 0 nitrites.
I have seen very small amounts of algae on a couple of leaves - 1 leaf on a sword plant and 2 leaves on the scarlet temple plants. It came off easily with a light rub during the water change process. I am going out of town in a couple of weeks for 12 days and won't be able to do any maintenance to the tank. I really don't want to come home to an explosion of algae. So far I think the lighting and fertilizer levels are working well, but I'm leery of what could happen while I'm on vacation.
I was thinking of getting a couple of amano shrimp to help tidy up any small bits of algae while I'm gone. Is the tank possibly ready for amano shrimp at this stage given my readings? I do also have some established filter media I could add when adding the shrimp.
Would the shrimp have enough to feed on over the 12 days?
Thanks!
I planted the tank on January 16th. I have seen anywhere from 0 - .25 ammonia, currently holding at 0. No idea where the ammonia came from as I'm not dosing any. Maybe from a couple of rotting leaves? Nitrates have been holding steady at 5, I'm assuming primarily from the fertilizer. Nitrites started at 0, rose to .5 then 1 then possibly a 2, then back down to .5 and as of today suddenly reading 0 nitrites.
I have seen very small amounts of algae on a couple of leaves - 1 leaf on a sword plant and 2 leaves on the scarlet temple plants. It came off easily with a light rub during the water change process. I am going out of town in a couple of weeks for 12 days and won't be able to do any maintenance to the tank. I really don't want to come home to an explosion of algae. So far I think the lighting and fertilizer levels are working well, but I'm leery of what could happen while I'm on vacation.
I was thinking of getting a couple of amano shrimp to help tidy up any small bits of algae while I'm gone. Is the tank possibly ready for amano shrimp at this stage given my readings? I do also have some established filter media I could add when adding the shrimp.
Would the shrimp have enough to feed on over the 12 days?
Thanks!
Last edited:
