Just finished cycling!!!!!

[mimifish]

All,

My 75 gallon tank has finished cycling (used the fishless cycling info. from this forum), and now I am ready to add a few plants and fish after doing a 50% water change. Will I have to change a larger volume of water? My question is regarding using wood as a decorative item.

I have 2 pieces of wood that have been soaking in water for about 1.5 weeks. I change the water that it is soaking in about every other day. Even when I do this I notice that the water is still brown. I am planning on attaching some java ferns to them. Once I place it in the tank I have read about the tannic acid leaching from the wood into the water. The pH of my tank water is about 7.2, I am afraid that once I add the wood it will leach tannic acid into the water and lower the pH.

Would it be safe to add the fish in the tank the next day? What if the water is brown, would it still be safe to add the fish in the tank? I have an Eheim canister filter (model 2215), will I have to change out my activated charcoal so that the tannic acid can be absorbed by the new activated charcoal? If I do change out the activated charcoal, do I risk throwing away my beneficial bacteria even if I have those little ceramic tubes as surface for the bacteria to grow on? Will it also be safe to plant with the water being brown and a bit acidic?

I also plan on buying some plants, is it safe to plant them in the tank with some plant plugs/fertilizers (contain some trace minerals, vitamins, etc) in the roots and then add fish the next day?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Alien Anna]

Depending on what type of fish you want, a pH lower than 7.2 would be fine - bogwood only lowers it a tad. Besides, if you have very hard water, the pH is really hard to shift more than a couple of tenths of a point.

Apparently if you boil bogwood it gets more of the tannic acid out, but most people feel slightly brown water is a good thing, particularly with some species that come from such an environment.

Once you have cycled a tank you need to get fish within 3 or 4 days of the nitrite and ammonia hitting zero, or keep adding ammonia to feed your bacteria.