Si's Fishless Cycle

[PDSimon]

Ah I see now. Cheers for the updates lol no TV near me...

Good luck with the planting, i'm sure it'll be fine.

When I have fish...assuming that they will produce much much less than 5ppm of ammonia, which will make the pH drop slower..but what if it doesn't? what if it drops to 6 quickly.. even with fish it'll still 'crash' which causes a stall...

 

[Twinklecaz]

Ahhhhhh same tank Joshua (did we know that before?)Do you find the feeding flap has buckled a little so it doesn't close properly without weights on it?

sorry Simon, butting in again.

Lol and the same backdrop just you use the other side of it!

 

[JoshuaA]

Ahhhhhh same tank Joshua (did we know that before?)Do you find the feeding flap has buckled a little so it doesn't close properly without weights on it?

sorry Simon, butting in again.

Lol and the same backdrop just you use the other side of it!

From the day we bought it.

 

[JoshuaA]

Ah I see now. Cheers for the updates lol no TV near me...

Good luck with the planting, i'm sure it'll be fine.

When I have fish...assuming that they will produce much much less than 5ppm of ammonia, which will make the pH drop slower..but what if it doesn't? what if it drops to 6 quickly.. even with fish it'll still 'crash' which causes a stall...

below 7 the reproduction slows down not the processing amirite? I believe your bacteria will continuously process the Ammonia/Nitrite when its below 7 just it will take longer to be able to establish a bigger colony to cope with another bioload.

I'm just afraid planting might of screwed up our bacteria now! I've done it but haven't got a good camera to take pictures with. I'm ready to rip them all out if I start seeing Ammonia or Nitrite.

 

[Twinklecaz]

How can the plants make A and Ni show up again? I thought they used it aswell as the bacteria not created it?

 

[JoshuaA]

How can the plants make A and Ni show up again? I thought they used it aswell as the bacteria not created it?

If they start rotting it will release Ammonia. If the A-Bacs process it all and the N-Bacs can't keep up with it a Nitrite reading will appear. So it seems that would be the case.

 

[Twinklecaz]

Did any of you guys get into this coz you thought it would be a nice stress relieving hobby?

 

[JoshuaA]

Did any of you guys get into this coz you thought it would be a nice stress relieving hobby?

Nope, because I thought it would be a great birthday present for my girlfriend.

After all the crap we had to go through I decided to make my own tank setup lol.

 

[Twinklecaz]

I did, I always liked fish and thought I'd get a nice tank to chill out and watch in the evenings *ahem*

 

[JoshuaA]

I did, I always liked fish and thought I'd get a nice tank to chill out and watch in the evenings *ahem*

Instead you need a double whiskey to calm the nerves whilst watching the evening go by.

 

[PDSimon]

hahahaha... so true... I'm drinking wine as we speak...

Tbh I think what has happened is all the nitrites caused the pH crash and its just processing it really slowly... I don't think it has anything to do with the plants, most are doing well although one (difformis) has messed up a lot, gone very brittle... some plants just don't favour the water so you can't help it but most are OK so far (note: so far - they'll all die in the next few days if my bad luck continues)

this'll be relaxing one day!

I'm just glad we don't have a water meter hah

 

[JoshuaA]

Haha funny you mention that... my girlfriend does! Must of wasted 1000L plus on this tank already.

Well I've crudely planted my tank as well with the left over plants from the selection, the rest are probably going to be on a compost heap! My Betta tank is now Nitrite spiking at 5ppm+...

I expect my plants to die but I don't mind I was going to throw them out, I couldn't really fit more than 3 Amazon Swords in my gf's tank at the time, the Black molly kept harassing my arm haha. Although I might rejig them in a day or so to make more room/swap the plants. I did want the entire tank full of Amazon Swords because they make excellent swimming courses! It was funny to watch the fish trying to swim through the plant leaves as I was placing them in the water.

Those V Spirallis ones, or whatever you call it the thin green leaf ones die very quick in our water, it's too soft. We had one last maybe 2 days before it's leaves just went brown and dropped off.

 

[PDSimon]

yeah my vallis is doing ok, few dead leaves but that is normal, infact i've read with the swords you should pull of any leaves around the side as they'll die and any leaves that reach the surface...

LOL at the molly harrassing your arm..

 

[JoshuaA]

I also hear any damaged or slightly yellow'd leaf needs to be removed as it won't recover. I think out of the 6 swords I had there was only about 3 total leaf removals. It was hard to trim the roots though so I just gave the tips a little trimming.

With all the weeds I literally just cut them in half and only used the top half.

 

[PDSimon]

yeah I've removed any yellow/transparent ones...

I imagine you'll have to remove some more of the sword leaves in the next few days although they may have done it for you