Lily Rose's 64L Tank Cycle

[waterdrop]

There's nothing wrong with doing a large water change during a fishless cycle as long as you recharge the essentials (ammonia) and understand that the numbers may be a bit wacky for a few days. After all, its the bacteria in the filter we're growing and the tank is nothing but a big reservoir of "bacterial growing soup."

I think your plan to switch is very sensible. Most people do choose to use their newest and largest equipment for their main community/show tank. I think it would be good however (given a bent in the impulsive direction we've just witnessed) to keep in mind that fledgling bacterial colonies (even big fully cycled ones at 2 months) are still fragile enough that they can be significantly disrupted by things like filter and tank swaps. We all read of lots of mature media being moved around on this forum but we don't read as much that the most successful moves involve very old, very mature media and sometimes that new, immature media gets badly set back by moves to new filters. I'm not yet proposing a plan, just want you to keep that in the back of your mind as you continue the stable environment of the bacteria you are currently growing.

more of fish choices later...

~~waterdrop~~

 

[LilyRose Tank]

Hi Waterdrop, thanks for that. finished designing my 2nd tank today..what do you think?



I have planted my 1st tank and I've decided I overdid it, so waiting for water to clear, to have a second look, and we'll see. May take it apart eventually and redesign it

 

[finalfantay85]

Very nice looking. I think that's the same gravel I have lol. Are they real plants?

 

[LilyRose Tank]

No these are plastic, My other tank is a real plant tank but I am starting to loose paitients with it as the plants keep coming up. Thinking of taking it apart completely,, and starting again....put earth in plant the plants, put thin layer of gravel over top. or maybe give up and go plastic with that one too.

 

[waterdrop]

Yes lovely, very colorful!

The approach of using soil is called the "Walstad" or "natural planted tank" approach. Its a wonderful thing but I would suggest perhaps waiting on this sort of thing for a while. I think it can be good to just hang out with simple gravel for a year or two and really get the beginner basics down while perhaps beginning to read about all the plant things. I think plants are a harder skill than fish. My concern is that it can become quite a mud bath if you don't quite know what you're doing and using the wrong type of soil can be a serious problem too, not to mention that it needs its own fairly long adjustment time, kind of like fishless cycling but a separate thing. I would not give up on learning about and practicing the thing of growing plants in plain gravel with correct lights and supplements.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[LilyRose Tank]

OK thanks waterdrop, the way these plants are dying off, I'm seriously thinking of going plastic with this tank to, to be honest. I move the plants around to see if they will settle with stone on them to hold them down, but the leaves are dissintegrating, going yellow and turning to mush and I wanted to allow a real feel for the Betta. I think if these die to, I shall stay well away from that type which is a shame, as they are the ones that I really like too. ( variegated green/ white, variegated red/ green, and variegated grasses........think I may have biten to big a bite! lol

anyway, this evenings results are:

ammonia 0ppm
nitrites lilac>>>>green again....5+ppm
nitrates 5.0ppm
pH 7.4>>>>> added bicarb

 

[waterdrop]

Nothing (well, some planted guy will prove me wrong, lol) with multiple colors on the leaf is an underwater plant. The vast majority of these variegated plants one finds especially in the big box pet shops are simply inexpensive landscaping plants that are meant to be borders for walks. They will live a while underwater before they die, which is why they sell them and what you've observed. Yes, go for a few more silk plants for a bit and then we'll get back to the subject of plants and hopefully get you started right.

In aquarium plants, light is a skillset, CO2 is a skillset, macro/micro nutrients are a skillset and algae is a skillset that requires some knowledge of the previous skillsets. Light is the thing that drives everything else and so is an important planning factor. The plants themselves go best if understood somewhat on a species basis prior to getting them. I forget, do you know if your water there in Wales (wow, one side of my family came from there way back!) is hard or soft?

~~waterdrop~~

 

[LilyRose Tank]

Nothing (well, some planted guy will prove me wrong, lol) with multiple colors on the leaf is an underwater plant. The vast majority of these variegated plants one finds especially in the big box pet shops are simply inexpensive landscaping plants that are meant to be borders for walks. They will live a while underwater before they die, which is why they sell them and what you've observed. Yes, go for a few more silk plants for a bit and then we'll get back to the subject of plants and hopefully get you started right.

In aquarium plants, light is a skillset, CO2 is a skillset, macro/micro nutrients are a skillset and algae is a skillset that requires some knowledge of the previous skillsets. Light is the thing that drives everything else and so is an important planning factor. The plants themselves go best if understood somewhat on a species basis prior to getting them. I forget, do you know if your water there in Wales (wow, one side of my family came from there way back!) is hard or soft?

~~waterdrop~~

I believe the water in wales in soft, a bit like the ditzy women who dont read up on these things and spent £40 on plants that are only doomed to die! duh....always said those with degrees had no common sense see....was last in the queue when sense was handed out.

 

[finalfantay85]

I think you were just behind me in the queue lol. It's shocking how bad my common sense it....maybe it's a Welsh thing?

 

[LilyRose Tank]

So where are you from then boyo?

 

[finalfantay85]

Me i'm a good Rhondda boyo, Tonypandy. Proper welsh lol. Tho i've worked all over Swansea in the last few months...some interesting places lol

 

[waterdrop]

-completely- impossible to understand the names over there in your parts.. I -have- had the apparently rare luck though of having lunched at the top of Snowdonia on a day clear enough to see the sea! (not bad for a yank?)

~~waterdrop~~

 

[finalfantay85]

Well to pronounce my town name WD it's easy it's Tony Pan Dee if you do it phonetically.

How was the top of Snowdonia?

 

[waterdrop]

Snowdonia was awesome (no fish up there, just sheep, lol).. I went through a lot of really nice little towns and saw some beautiful aquaducts on my way up there. --wd--

 

[finalfantay85]

I'm from the other end of the country so we've got the sheep but not the mountains. Never been up the north so might have to go one day