Why do I stay in this hobby????

[Guest5431]

Avoid the frustration, just put the food away and give the tank a water change. You control the ammonia production. No food, drastically reduced ammonia production to give the bacteria time to catch up. If you have live plants, leave the lights on 24/7 until everything is safe. If the lights are on and growing, they can help rapidly as well. Reduce as everything becomes safe to normal and increase feeding along the way slowly. I just ordered some anacharis yesterday off E-Bay. I want more fast growing plants for my baby tubs. It should grow so fast I can trim and cut every week or two to spread it around to more as needed. Hopefully it doesn't get those long stringy white roots this time every segment or two if it's laying over sideways. Easy to pinch off though if it does.

 

[gotham01]

Thanks for the practical advise. I just ordered Thrive to help get my plants up and growing. No nitrates in take as it stands as cycling hasn't gotten to nitrites stage yet. I will cut back on food. Whats a good schedule? Every 4 days?

 

[Guest5431]

No food at all until you see a drop in ammonia, preferably to zero. The fish will not starve to death but you can harm them with high ammonia. There's no reason you can't get the level down with stoppage of the food and water changes. Then once it's at zero start with a small feeding and increase the amount and frequency as the tank testing shows the tank handling it. It's completely possible not to have any nitrite or nitrate if the plants are growing. Nothing showing, increase slowly up to normal. If things get out of hand, take the food away again. Ammonia is all you and I have several tubs right now I can't get any readings because the plants use everything.

 

[gotham01]

ok, sounds good. as for plants, ive killed hornwort (didn't know it was possible), some java moss, Madagascar Bacopia, and Pogostemon Stellatus, hence the need for Thrive. So confusing

 

[Guest5431]

I'm having a weird time with hornwort. Tub #1 it grows like crazy. Almost identical tub #2 it grew really slowly under the same light and conditions. Tub #3 it just about died out. I broke a piece off and moved it to a 15 gallon with 24/7 lighting from a single tube fixture from the 90's and it grew slowly. I replace the single tube with a twin tube and the water turns green. I change 100% of the water and turn the light off at night and the next morning all the needles fell off. Now I've switched back to the single tube with a new sprig from the good tub switching back to 24/7. Looking good so far. I gave up on tub #3 and moved it to a new spot and added the twin tube to see if we can get anything to grow at all using a 12 on 12 off schedule to prevent a green water outbreak. Tub #2 I turned sideways to increase the amount of coverage using the extra space moving #3 provided. I'm also using a box to mostly cover that one 12 hours a day now to see if I can get decent growth but no green/dingy water. Tub 1 still seems to be chugging along so that one's still in 24/7 lighting mode. If it ain't broke, don't fix it thinking. I ordered the anacharis hoping I could get it going in tub #2 and #3 since hornworts being finicky in those. Then with more plants I may be able to increase the lighting hours with less worry of green water. Life's a balancing act. Try something, it works or it doesn't but you learn from it, modify something and try again until you get it right even if you never really figure out why it was wrong here but not wrong there. Here's a video I took yesterday from the 15 gallon with the new sprig of hornwort I call adventures of baby guppy. That youngun's all over the place around the hornwort.

 

[gotham01]

Ok, i'll try not to panic. Only other thing i'll add is i use Seachem Prime to detoxify temporarily the ammonia, plus Stability for whatever bacteria it's adding, if at all. Any alternatives I all ears for.

 

[Guest5431]

Maybe the video isn't loading or it's too large.

 

[Guest5431]

Any alternatives I all ears for.

Not convinced currently any product is needed. Even Dr Tim's which is allegedly the only one with the correct bacteria failed me earlier this year. If you shut off the ammonia production by stopping the feeding, the plants should handle what's left as they grow, they'll most likely bring the needed bacteria along with them and before you know it you'll have everything right and be on to your next tank or tub. Keep the lights going, the plants keep removing ammonia and nitrate. Stop the feeding you shut down the amount entering the system. Adding more plants when possible, increases all of the above. It's really that simple, no products needed in the short term. Long term you may want extras for the plants if they're growing like a jungle and exhausting stuff but that's a different discussion.

 

[Essjay]

For videos you need to upload it to a video hosting site such as YouTube then post the link on here.

 

[Guest5431]

I have it on my Facebook which I thought would link but apparently not. I can't log onto youtube since they require you to have a cell phone to get a text code to log in. Never interested in paying for a second phone service when I already pay for a landline service here for the store. I tried a couple free to use video hosts but they want subscriptions for files that size. Video is a little over 2 minutes of a cute little guppy going all around the tank past his mom and aunt several times and apparently not getting eaten ever.

 

[gotham01]

Not convinced currently any product is needed. Even Dr Tim's which is allegedly the only one with the correct bacteria failed me earlier this year. If you shut off the ammonia production by stopping the feeding, the plants should handle what's left as they grow, they'll most likely bring the needed bacteria along with them and before you know it you'll have everything right and be on to your next tank or tub. Keep the lights going, the plants keep removing ammonia and nitrate. Stop the feeding you shut down the amount entering the system. Adding more plants when possible, increases all of the above. It's really that simple, no products needed in the short term. Long term you may want extras for the plants if they're growing like a jungle and exhausting stuff but that's a different discussion.

Roger. I went and purchased an AC 50, in addition to the Aqueon 50 I'm running. In the Aquaclear i put the biofoam on the bottom, and 2 bags a ceramic rings on the side. If that doesn't do it, I'll just jump in the tank and take my chances,

At least it'll be warmer than the temp my wife keeps the house at.

 

[Guest5431]

Be careful with those. I had several pet peeves from the quality of their plastic but the most annoying one was when the sponges would fill and clog slowly rising until they started diverting small amounts of water out onto the floor behind the tank. A new filter by itself isn't going to lower the ammonia levels any outside of any excess gassing out the circulation may provide but an air stone may actually surpass for pennies. They used to offer a bag filled with ammonia chip like substance but I don't know if they still do and as already mentioned, you should already have zero ammonia by now if you stopped feeding, left the lights on and did the 50% water change a few days ago when mentioned. I also used to make my own bags to go on top of the sponges using my own carbon and knee high stockings. Sometimes we'd just double stack the sponges cleaning only one at a time and reversing the order when doing so when putting them back.