Lioness sometimes it happens that way. do a 90% water change and then top the ammonia back up to 5ppm and see what happens. might just need a kick start.

Day 10 (Tuesday 22nd April)

Tested Ammonia at 6.00pm
Ammonia: 2ppm
NitrIte: 0.25 ppm
PH: 7.6

The NitrIte has contiued to drop while the PH has risen. Does anybody have any feedback on this? Should the PH be rising?

Day 11 (Wednesday 23rd April)

Tested Ammonia at 6.00pm
Ammonia: 1.00ppm
NitrIte: 0.25 ppm
PH: 7.6

Add Ammonia to take it back to 4.00ppm

Hi Stormy,

Your cycle seems to be going well with both ammonia and nitrite processing to some degree.

I am intrigued by your sudden dip in nitrite and subsequent algae explosion. It is probable that the cause of the algae explosion was excess ammonia / nitrite. With the plants and the algae both feeding, this may explain the sudden disappearance of nitrite.

How many live plants do you have? I ask because they can hinder your cycle somewhat by feeding on the ammonia / nitrite which obviously makes results difficult to interpret accurately. They can do this to such an extent that a heavily planted tank can be set up without a filter as the plants will oxidise the ammonia and nitrite. To have such an effect requires lots of plants, so if you only have a few, theres nothing to worry about.

With regard to the pH, ammonia will raise the pH of the water, and the acids produced by the nitrification of the ammonia will lower the pH. As such, it is common for the pH to bounce around during the fishless cycle, and you should only really worry if it drops below 6.0.

Keep topping up that ammonia, you seem to be doing fine.

Cheers

BTT

Thanks BTT. I have about 13 plants (by 13 I mean 13 'bunches' as they come from the LFS) in there including Jave Fern, Lilaeposis Carolinensis, Lilaeposis Brasiliensis, Anunbias Nana, Alternanthera Rosafolia, Vallisneria Spiralis and a plant I cant indentify. I wouldnt say the tank is heavily planted as an awful lot of the substrate is still showing. Whats your opinion?

I agree. Its not heavily planted.

Your plants will use some ammonia / nitrite (primarily ammonia, contrary to popular belief that nitrate is the preferred food), but not enough to have any real impact.

Stick at the fishless cycling and keep us updated.

P.S. Got any pics?

BTT

Here you go BTT..... ideally I want to add CO2 and more plants in the near future but I will wait until the tank has cycled now!





This post has been edited by stormy78: Apr 23 2008, 11:54 PM

Day 12 (Thursday 24th April)

Tested Ammonia at 8.20am
Ammonia: 2.00ppm
NitrIte: Did not test
PH: Did not test

I will test again tonight

Tested Ammonia at 6.00pm
Ammonia: 2.00ppm
NitrIte: 0.25ppm
PH: Did not test

So no real change!

This post has been edited by stormy78: Apr 25 2008, 05:21 PM

Very nice aquascape stormy! Nice background!

(know you are not asking, but..)
From reading the pointers the judges give in the aquatic gardeners competitions, I would guess they might say to "unbalance" some of your plant and/or rock placements. They often seem to say or imply that you want to get away from anything that is too symmetrical and in your case the plant and rock placement is both highly balanced and quite symmetrical.. Really pretty stuff you are working with though, both plants and rocks. ('course nothin says you can't want symmetrical, and tanks are all about doing whatever makes you happy!)

~~waterdrop~~

Thanks Waterdrop, at the moment I'm just trying to find out what plants will happily live in the set up without CO2 (I may add this when cash allows). I do intend to move a few things around, maybe move the bog wood off to one side. If the Vallisineria Gigantea and Natans both grow they will stay where they are but I'm thinking of adding more Java Fern and more Anubias Nana as they are low light plants.

I'm no one to talk, that's exactly what I plan to do and I don't have any idea which low-light plants are going to work for me - you're certainly ahead of me in the game.

yeah tank looks good, just a touch too structured. but about a zillion times better looking than my first tank so no I reckon you'll have it looking tip top in no time

Its a good start ... I have no problems with symmetry ... though I understand why many do.

I'm unsure though as to why you would want CO2 if you haven't got the high lighting to go with it?

This post has been edited by pastabake: Apr 25 2008, 11:22 AM

So that's where she was this morning, out getting her picture taken...

eh ???

you on about my new avatar?

Hi pasta, do you think co2 is usually not a limiting factor in low light? I've never been quite sure, clearly mostly used in the high light full-blown planted tank setups but not sure what those folks feel about using it in low light situations.

~~waterdrop~~

I dont have the lighting at the moment BUT Im thinking of adding another T5 unit to the back lid panel (as seen on these forums somewhere) to take me into the realm of 2WPG. The light unit is cheap compared to a decent CO2 unit so I'm thinking of saving for the CO2 unit and then buying both the new lighting and CO2 together. I may not go down that route if the plants I have survive/hopefully grown, but having seen some of the tank on here I am starting to think I would like a mid to heavily planted tank.

I have looked at the Red Sea Turbo Bio yeast based system which says it will cover tank upto 160 litres as a cheap option (£30)but I doubt whether it would touch the 160L of water I have after responses from people on the planted forum. For £60 I can get the JBL Easy Set 1 and the new light unit and tubes would be around £40. Again having never used CO2 before I'm new to it and I'm having to do some digging around. The lighting in the Trigon 190 is a bespoke size (Thanks Juwel!) so I cannot just add a higher Watt bulb or longer tube, hence needing the new unit.

After Waterdrops post last night and a few comments from the good lady wife I decided to combine fishing snails out of the tank with a bit of a rework. Hopefully I will post a few pics tonight with the Ammonia results so any feedback would be appreciated!

if you use Co2 in a low light set up you're likley to just get a load of algae.

a low output DIY Co2 can work but it's unstable, and like most of fishkeeping, stability is key