Smudgers First Tank

[smudger123]

Hm, I've filled my 12l bucket and added 1 drop of ammonia - test shows it at 8ppm. Not sure what to do now because that is my biggest bucket!

How do you know 5ppm anyway on a API master kit - there's 4 and 8 but no 5

Will try and find a dropper at the garden centre today, using an empty 10ml essence dropper bottle at the moment and the drops are pretty big.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

Hm, I've filled my 12l bucket and added 1 drop of ammonia - test shows it at 8ppm. Not sure what to do now because that is my biggest bucket!

How do you know 5ppm anyway on a API master kit - there's 4 and 8 but no 5

Will try and find a dropper at the garden centre today, using an empty 10ml essence dropper bottle at the moment and the drops are pretty big.

finding 5ppm is just a rough guess anyway, go for a touch darker than 4ppm but not as high as 8!

go to a chemists and ask for a 1ml syringe, much easier to measure dosage with

 

[minxfishy]

You can always add the substrate at a later date (you dont need to remove the water to do this) in order to get the cycle started rather than wait

I use a childs medicine spoon to add my ammonia, they have 2.5mls an 5mls either end - reasonably accurate

 

[smudger123]

I set my tank up this evening, hope you like it! ...

SafeStart and Flora Boost has been added to get things going - plan to start ammonia tomorrow. A few questions though; heater is set to 28 degrees, is that ok for the SafeStart and cycling? Also little bubbles now completely cover the glass, is that just because its a new set up? How long for plants to settle and roots begin to work through substrate?

Plan tomorrow is make a few tiny adjustments to plants and change the white pebbles to some of a more natural colour. Also must get rid of the air bubbles in the sand, they look like substrate has seeped into the sand layer and keeps catching my attention. Then..start the fishless cycle! I found a tiny 1ml pipette after as well, came in the flora boost

 

[Miss Wiggle]

brilliant smudger, that looks really nice! Loads better than my first tank

don't worry about the bubbles, they'll go in a few days, happens to everyone!

I'd put a background on there, just a plain black one, the colours of the plants and fish will stand out much better against it.

I'd also slightly shift the two cave and plant groupings, at the moment there's a divide roughly half way down the tank so it's fairly symetric. Nature is not usually symetric so when you do this in a tank it can look a little un natural. There's an asthetic principle which comes in with aquascaping, photography composition, all sorts of arty stuff really, it's the rule of three. If you mentally divide the tank into thirds then try and move stuff around so that instead of the gap falling in the middle of the tank it falls two thirds of the way in.

think that makes sense.... I'm not very good at explaining it!

with the plants it really depends how well they take, you can expect for maybe the first week or two that they'll float up and you have to re-plant them, some time a few weeks in they'll start to root more firmly.

 

[smudger123]

Thanks Miss Wiggle!

Yes I think I understand what you mean about the thirds thing, I wish i'd known that last night because that really does make sense! Hmm, well it should be relatively easy to shift the bog wood a bit to the front and right. The gap will be hard to shift because the right bunch plants only reach the end of the rock cave, a shift that way will mean a smaller gap. I could beef up the plants behind the shifted bogwood and plant a small foreground plant on the left side of the gap. Hopefully then the bulk of the left and slightly right shift of the gap will give an illusion of a better two thirds arrangement? The slight dip in the sand can also shift left for a sweep from just of centre back to the left 2 thirds line.

Black background sounds good, it needed something.

Silly question - can I still fiddle around and replant/plant in there whilst it's cycling or will that upset things?

Keep the aquascaping tips coming..!

 

[Miss Wiggle]

you can fiddle around to your hearts content while you're cycling. TBH that's what most people do to distract themselves from the fact that there's no fish in the tank!

Just have a muck around and see, you'll probably go through a few variations before you settle on a scape that you really like.

Do try and keep the gap, I really like it, it's like a little path going off into a forest or something, looks nice. but maybe stretch things out on one side and squash them up on another.

If you can get some then something like crypto wendetti (think thats the right name anyway) would be a nice foreground plant for you, dead easy to grow and can just have a few bunches coming round infront of the rocks and wood. Again looks a bit more natural to have plants obscuring the rocks etc a little, nature doesn't grow nice and neatly just behind stones!

 

[smudger123]

Ordered some cryptos yesterday along with some reflectors

Not been fiddling too much because I have some more plants arriving next week. I put in 5ppm ammonia yesterday (i think, its hard to tell with that colour chart!). Test just now shows no drop in ammonia yet. There's something is growing on the glass though, whiteish smudges that weren't there yesterday.

Been doing a lot of research on fish - Pandas are a definate but I'm unsure of their tankmates. Leaning seriously towards Lampeyes. I originally wanted sparkling/pygmy gouramis but its really hard to find peoples experiences with them online - when I did find a blog she described them as viscious and attacking another fish to death (guppy). I really don't want any aggression in my tank - nothing is allowed to pick on my pandas! If anyone has any info on keeping lampeyes or pygmy gouramis i'd love some advice. Other contenders are white clouds and various tetras.

Could I get some advice on algae eaters - Otos, snails (that wont eat my plants or multiply alarmingly) and shrimps are all welcome in my tank - if they behave of course!

 

[Miss Wiggle]

well i've kept sparkling gourami's and they weren't agressive at all!

Pretty little fish, pueaceful and fairly hardy IME.

 

[OldMan47]

I have a half dozen sparkling gouramis in a tank right now with platies, a male betta, several corydoras, a couple of otocinclus and even a few shrimp. They are not bothering anybody. I don't know what you saw but it doesn't fit with my experiences.

 

[laurieo33]

I have to add..that it a really pretty tank. My fishies would be jealous.

 

[smudger123]

Thank you Laurieo! It looks a bit different now - a pretty little curled up plant on the left decided to reach for light and is now nearly touching the surface which was a shock lol!

Had some readings today that have confused me a little:

Tap: Ammonia 0 Nitrite 0 Nitrate 10

Day 1 Ammonia Little darker than 4
Day 2 Ammonia 4
Day 3 Ammonia 3.5
Day 4 Ammonia 1.5 Nitrite 0 Nitrate 5

Shouldn't there be nitrite or nitrate to correspond with the drop in ammonia? Why have my nitrates dropped?

Great to hear Sparklings are a peaceful choice, maybe the fish mentioned in the blog was particularly stressed

 

[waterdrop]

Nice tank there smudger,

Relax and don't worry too much about interpreting each reading during fishless cycling. There are many variables. Your plants will be taking up some of the ammonia and nitrates and often the nitrites will pass through to nitrates without you seeing it at first. You may be having a very good first stage with the "A-bacs" (the Ammonia Oxidizing Bacteria) beginning to multiply and eating some of the ammonia, or then again, it may just be your plants using some of it initially as it is only your first few days and often the first stage takes 21 days or so. The important thing is to just keep adding ammonia (at the next 24 hour mark after ammonia has dropped to zero, and add it as MW said, to a shade of green slightly more than the 4ppm on the chart.) And keep making clear recordings of test results and all observations and comments in your daily aquarium logbook. The second stage won't start until ammonia is dropping to zero within 24 hours and nitrites (NO2) are spiking to highest test level.

I totally agree that its fun to play with your aquascape during all this fishless time. Good to get used to sticking your arms in and doing lots in your tank. Good to be working out what fertilizers and other plant-related things you will be trying. Be aware that the high ammonia levels during fishless cycling may promote pretty extreme algae later in the process. This is totally normal but can be discouraging if you are not prepared for it, especially when you have a nice looking setup.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[OldMan47]

If you have a heavy planting, the ammonia will be going to the plants. Plants will remove ammonia and are sometimes treated as if they are the only ammonia remover that you need. I don't agree with that approach but it is done by some people. The ammonia being consumed by plants is not a problem but will mean it takes more ammonia additions to keep up with the plants and still maintain enough ammonia to get your cycle going.

 

[smudger123]

Thank you for your advice waterdrop and oldman, I wondered if the plants were responsible. I think interpreting the readings will be a little more difficult for me with plants and SafeStart in the mix - I'm unsure of what im seeing and what to expect. I will take your advice of course and keep bringing the ammonia up to 4 when it's at zero

I'll hold off on the other tests then until I start to see the 24hr ammonia drop? Can I assume A-bacs will be responsible for such a drop at that stage or will other tests confirm what's happening?