Hi all, Rebe here. A few of you might recognise me or my tank from previous threads, I'm afraid I'm here to ask loads of questions again!
My set up:
Tank: Aquael Leddy 75 (105 L, 75x35x40 cm)
Filter: Aquael ASAP 500 (with homemade prefilter and sponge redirecting the flow from the surface)
Heater (with guard): Bonlux 100W
Air pump: Zacro dual outlet
Lighting: Retrofit Day & Night
Substrate: 5L lava gravel at the back, layer of Rotala Malflora Light Aquarium Soil and Ada La Plata sand covering the gravel and soil.
Hardscape: Seiryu stone and mangle wood
Aquarium plants:
PH tests from today and GH/KH on test strip (07/09/23)
Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate today (07/09/23)
Ammonia: 0ppm
Nitrite: 5ppm
Nitrate: 20-30ppm
50% tank water, 50% tap water (not out-gassed) Nitrite: 1ppm
Approx 75% tap (not out-gassed), 25% tank Nitrite: 0.25 ppm
Quarantine tank today (pretty much ignored so far)
Ammonia: 1ppm
Nitrite: 0ppm
Nitrate: 5-10ppm
PH (API liquid): 7.6 or slightly lower
High Range API PH Test: lowest reading/7.4
Tracked water parameters in my main tank so far (apart from today's reading which is above)
Day 1:
Day 10/11:
Day 26:
My Homemade Ammona Solution:
(Ps. From here onwards I can't change bold font to not bold or vice versa, I think because my chromebook is struggling with this long complex post.)
Doctor Tim's, other aquarium purposed ammonia products, household ammonia without additives/soap and powdered ammonia chloride are not available to me in Ireland. The only option (other than large tax and shipping fees making a €10 product at least €60) was to create my own solution.
Pure ammonium bicarbonate (a cooking/ baking product) dissolved and brought to a boil will convert to ammonia, water vapour and small amounts of carbon dioxide. I used 16 grams in 50 mls water.
Test 1:
At 23:44 yesterday I added 8mls of my solution, which measured as 2ppm Ammonia at 07:47 this morning. At 14:49 the ammonia had gone down to 1ppm.
Test 2:
Maximum tank volume without fish, hardscape, equipment, sand etc: 105L
-> somewhere less than 100L water in the tank (100L used for calculations)
10mls solution per 100 L -> 0.5ml solution per 5000 mls
Mixed 0.5 ml of my homemade ammonia solution in a 5L/5000ml bottle filled with un-dechlorinated water (due to seachem prime's effect on ammonia). Result was approx. 4ppm Ammonia
This would suggest that 10mls of solution added to my tank would add at least 4ppm Ammonia
My Quarantine tank:
- Thin layer of aquarium sand
- Plastic aquarium plants
- some cuttings from my hornwort (Ceratophyllum demersum)
- Aquael ASAP 300 filter with homemade prefilter
- Non-adjustable heater by Aquael (came with my tank) that heats to 25 degrees Celsius
- Semi-transparent plastic tub with lid, currently holding around 32 litres of water
(water parameters for the QT can be found in the information above, with the parameters of my main tank)
My Questions:
1. What should I be doing with my main tank? I've gotten muddled between following aspects of the fishless cycle and aspects of the planted cycle, and the fact that I don't know exactly how much of my solution will create however many ppms of ammonia in the tank.
2. What should I be doing with my QT? I know ideally it would be fully cycled too but its a little confusing to keep track of both tanks, and I don't really know what i'm doing with the QT (or the main tank really).
3. I ordered some floating plants (salvania auriculata), what should I do when I receive them? I already have aquarium salt, some (unused) medications for paracites, bacteria, fungus, and some No Planaria at my disposal.
4. When I do eventually order my fish, am I getting the full stock or adding fish in rounds over time? I think I read that with fishless you add them all at once but with a planted cycle you add them in stages.
5. How important is the airstone in my main tank? I managed to redirect the flow of my internal fliter away from the surface to reduce surface flow in order to make my tank better for floating plants (ie slow or still water), but when I turn on the airstone it creates quite a lot of surface flow and agitation.
That's all I can think of for now, but there'll probably be more questions in the near future! Hopefully there aren't too many grammar/spelling errors and the formats I can't change near the end aren't too annoying. Thanks again to everyone that has been helping and guiding me, it means the world!
My set up:
Tank: Aquael Leddy 75 (105 L, 75x35x40 cm)
Filter: Aquael ASAP 500 (with homemade prefilter and sponge redirecting the flow from the surface)
Heater (with guard): Bonlux 100W
Air pump: Zacro dual outlet
Lighting: Retrofit Day & Night
Substrate: 5L lava gravel at the back, layer of Rotala Malflora Light Aquarium Soil and Ada La Plata sand covering the gravel and soil.
Hardscape: Seiryu stone and mangle wood
Aquarium plants:
- Ludwigia repens 'Rubin'
- Cryptocoryne wendti ‘Broad Leaf’
- Lobelia cardinalis 'Mini'
- Ceratophyllum demersum
- Rotala rotundifolia
- Sagittaria subulata
- Microsorum pteropus
- Bacopa australis
- Echinodorus bleheri
- Cryptocoryne wendtii ‘Green
- Hydrocotyle leucocephala
- helanthium tenellum ‘broad leaf’
- cryptocoryne parva
- helanthium tenellum ‘red’
- Eleocharis vivipara
- Dechlorinated with Seachem Prime
PH tests from today and GH/KH on test strip (07/09/23)
Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate today (07/09/23)
Ammonia: 0ppm
Nitrite: 5ppm
Nitrate: 20-30ppm
50% tank water, 50% tap water (not out-gassed) Nitrite: 1ppm
Approx 75% tap (not out-gassed), 25% tank Nitrite: 0.25 ppm
Quarantine tank today (pretty much ignored so far)
Ammonia: 1ppm
Nitrite: 0ppm
Nitrate: 5-10ppm
PH (API liquid): 7.6 or slightly lower
High Range API PH Test: lowest reading/7.4
Tracked water parameters in my main tank so far (apart from today's reading which is above)
Day 1:
Day 10/11:
Day 26:
My Homemade Ammona Solution:
(Ps. From here onwards I can't change bold font to not bold or vice versa, I think because my chromebook is struggling with this long complex post.)
Doctor Tim's, other aquarium purposed ammonia products, household ammonia without additives/soap and powdered ammonia chloride are not available to me in Ireland. The only option (other than large tax and shipping fees making a €10 product at least €60) was to create my own solution.
Pure ammonium bicarbonate (a cooking/ baking product) dissolved and brought to a boil will convert to ammonia, water vapour and small amounts of carbon dioxide. I used 16 grams in 50 mls water.
Test 1:
At 23:44 yesterday I added 8mls of my solution, which measured as 2ppm Ammonia at 07:47 this morning. At 14:49 the ammonia had gone down to 1ppm.
Test 2:
Maximum tank volume without fish, hardscape, equipment, sand etc: 105L
-> somewhere less than 100L water in the tank (100L used for calculations)
10mls solution per 100 L -> 0.5ml solution per 5000 mls
Mixed 0.5 ml of my homemade ammonia solution in a 5L/5000ml bottle filled with un-dechlorinated water (due to seachem prime's effect on ammonia). Result was approx. 4ppm Ammonia
This would suggest that 10mls of solution added to my tank would add at least 4ppm Ammonia
My Quarantine tank:
- Thin layer of aquarium sand
- Plastic aquarium plants
- some cuttings from my hornwort (Ceratophyllum demersum)
- Aquael ASAP 300 filter with homemade prefilter
- Non-adjustable heater by Aquael (came with my tank) that heats to 25 degrees Celsius
- Semi-transparent plastic tub with lid, currently holding around 32 litres of water
(water parameters for the QT can be found in the information above, with the parameters of my main tank)
My Questions:
1. What should I be doing with my main tank? I've gotten muddled between following aspects of the fishless cycle and aspects of the planted cycle, and the fact that I don't know exactly how much of my solution will create however many ppms of ammonia in the tank.
2. What should I be doing with my QT? I know ideally it would be fully cycled too but its a little confusing to keep track of both tanks, and I don't really know what i'm doing with the QT (or the main tank really).
3. I ordered some floating plants (salvania auriculata), what should I do when I receive them? I already have aquarium salt, some (unused) medications for paracites, bacteria, fungus, and some No Planaria at my disposal.
4. When I do eventually order my fish, am I getting the full stock or adding fish in rounds over time? I think I read that with fishless you add them all at once but with a planted cycle you add them in stages.
5. How important is the airstone in my main tank? I managed to redirect the flow of my internal fliter away from the surface to reduce surface flow in order to make my tank better for floating plants (ie slow or still water), but when I turn on the airstone it creates quite a lot of surface flow and agitation.
That's all I can think of for now, but there'll probably be more questions in the near future! Hopefully there aren't too many grammar/spelling errors and the formats I can't change near the end aren't too annoying. Thanks again to everyone that has been helping and guiding me, it means the world!
