Liverbird's New Fishless Cycle

[Liverbird36]

Research... there are tiny little cichlids you can fit into 10Gs... you don't want to regret anything. I agree too its so difficult to choose... I don't think you can ever be 100% certain but as long as you enjoy the fish you're going to get you can't complain I have two dwarf cichlid pairs in my tank and your tank is approx half mine. german blue rams probably aren't the best, they're a bit too sensitive but other species are well worth a look at. Apistogramma have some absolutely stunning fish

I know and it's finding an LFS that stocks them though.

 

[PDSimon]

Yup, i know. Make sure you get your fish from the best LFS you can find. You'll certainly pay if they stock any bad fish. I've had a few problems with my kuhli loach lately and I think its definately because the rest of the fish were from another, much better LFS.

 

[Liverbird36]

I sooooooo wish i'd bought a bigger tank lol

 

[Twinklecaz]

I think of Tetras as lovely flashes of colour to make the other fish and tank look pretty so I agree about the personality thing.

Simon, it's just occured to me how nice your tank must look!

 

[Liverbird36]

Yeah , I'm gonna get a couple of main fish like Red Dwarf Gourami's and a couple of groups of Tetras, probably the x-ray and Glowlight as have been reading up on the Cardinals and are a bit concerned at what I have read. Nitrite still 0.25ppm for second day but it took two days for it to drop from 2.0ppm to 0.25ppm so hopefully tomorrow will be back to zero. I should probably do another qually week I know but if all is well by the weekend then i'm going ahead and getting my two centerpiece fish (whatever they may be)

 

[Twinklecaz]

I've had Nitrite and Ammonia readings all week . I don't know why. It seems to happen when I clean my filter but thaty makes no sense and it also hasn't happened this bad before..

Simon is that pic one of your Rams or one of the others?

 

[BethK]

small shrimp, like cherries, are a risk with dwarf cichlids, just witnessed a ram gobbling an adult cherry

get apistogramma cacatuoides, my 3 are lovely, no issues with them and my bettas and the males color up really well.

i'll keep my fingers crossed for you, that your cycle starts looking up asap x

 

[Liverbird36]

I've had Nitrite and Ammonia readings all week . I don't know why. It seems to happen when I clean my filter but thaty makes no sense and it also hasn't happened this bad before..

Simon is that pic one of your Rams or one of the others?

Yeah that's one of his Rams he was trying to get me to drool over...quite successfully to I might add. Caz, how often are you having to clean your filter ?? and what levels are your Ammonia and Nitrites at ??

small shrimp, like cherries, are a risk with dwarf cichlids, just witnessed a ram gobbling an adult cherry

get apistogramma cacatuoides, my 3 are lovely, no issues with them and my bettas and the males color up really well.

i'll keep my fingers crossed for you, that your cycle starts looking up asap x

Thanks for that advice !!could have bee an expensive mistake there with the shrimp lol Wil check out the Apistogramma.

 

[Twinklecaz]

Well I dunno if you saw that I was moaning that every time I put my filter back in the tank after a water change loads of crud came out? Usually I only very lightly sway the media in the water (which still seems to cause minor problems) but someone told me not to be scared of doing it properly and that most of the crud/food was probably caught in the cage that holds the noodles.....I gave it all a good rinse and they were right. This was on Saturday and since then I've had Ammonia and Nitrite readings every day! I don't know why this keeps happening but it's getting annoying and worrying. I know the Ammonia ones can be fake due to my plant ferts but the Nitrite ones aren't. I don't know what I'm doing wrong. There's no dead fish causing it and none of my plant leaves are actually dead, few brown spots but that's it and it's certainly no worse than normal. So I'm stumped really

The only thing I have been doing is slightly over dosing the Easy Carbo and TPN+ (but the TPN was on the recommendation of the plant people) so I don't know if that can be causing it?

 

[Liverbird36]

Wel you can easily rule out the over=dosing of the TPN etc by easing the dosage back a bit for a few days and see if it alters things at all. If it does then you have your answer, if not then it's something else. I have cleaned my filter out once a month (different for me as I have no poop yet) and when I clean it I take out the impelar and give the sponge a good rinse and it hasn't effected my readings at all. I got my huge Nitrite spike before I cleaned out the filter. I wouldn't have thought the brown spots on the plants would cause that much of a problem. Try easing off on the TPN and Carbo and see what happens, and least you can rule that out at the very least if nothing changes with your stats. Realy gutted to hear you are having difficulties.

small shrimp, like cherries, are a risk with dwarf cichlids, just witnessed a ram gobbling an adult cherry

get apistogramma cacatuoides, my 3 are lovely, no issues with them and my bettas and the males color up really well.

i'll keep my fingers crossed for you, that your cycle starts looking up asap x

Those Apistogrammas are sooooooooo nice !!!! just seem some on Ebay !!! they had some beautiful wild Eremnopyge (strawberry) ones too. You are giving me ideas stop it !!!! lol

 

[Twinklecaz]

The only other thing that occured to me is maybe some of my plants have rotten roots. I'm gonna take them all out at the weekend and check. Yeah I dosed less Easy Carbo yesterday. It's almost as if most of my godo bacteria was attached not the crud and not the filter media. I wonder if that could happen?

 

[Liverbird36]

The only other thing that occured to me is maybe some of my plants have rotten roots. I'm gonna take them all out at the weekend and check. Yeah I dosed less Easy Carbo yesterday. It's almost as if most of my godo bacteria was attached not the crud and not the filter media. I wonder if that could happen?

I'd be surprised if your roots are rotten if the leaves only have the odd brown spot are are not getting any worse. I am not great when it comes to planted tanks as mine are all synthetic

Unless you are cleaning the filter very frequently, then that should be fine too surely ?? Have you tried messaging WD ?? maybe he may be able to shed some light on the situation.

 

[Twinklecaz]

Yeah he hasn't been on so much recently has he coz he's been busy with stuff.

I wonder if I got some mature media from somewhere it would help?

I'm this close to getting all silk plants!

 

[Liverbird36]

Yeah he hasn't been on so much recently has he coz he's been busy with stuff.

I wonder if I got some mature media from somewhere it would help?

I'm this close to getting all silk plants!

Hey..if it means a less stressful time for you then silk aren't the end of the world. My tank looks really lovely !! some of the plastic ones can look a bit naff but you have to shop around. I have taken everything out of the tank at the moment whilst it finishes it's cycle again but hopefully wil get it all set back up again on Thursday/Friday and will take some pics to show you. If you don't continue with the real plants then do not feel like you have failed. It's stressful enough just getting a new tank established. you have to do what is best and less stressful for you in the long run. My tank looks lovely and not one of the plants is real (and boy do I have a lot of them lol)

I have decided when I get my new larger tank after xmas that I am going to make that one a planted one. I'm gonna take lots of time to do it slowly and give it time to establish whilst being able to enjoy my smaller one in the process.

 

[Twinklecaz]

Yeah I wouldn't have considered them till Harlequins said her plants were silk.......you wouldn't know!