New 5.5 Gallon Dwarf Puffer Tank

[jmiller]

Here is my latest tank:

It is a 5.5 gallon and my first attempt at a fishless cycle. Tonight I will be adding the heater, thermometer and these:

They have only been soaking since Sunday and should give the water a nice tannis shade. I am going for a certain look and it should work out nicely. Also the tank will be heavily planted. Here is the above shot:

The Aqua Clear 20 will be arriving tomorrow and I already have the ammonia from Ace Hardware, which I could only find in a small hole in the wall hardware store an hour from my house. So I think I’m all set. After doing all my reading up on it here is what I plan on doing. Please offer any corrections or advice.

“Add and wait method”
Turn heater up to 85-88
Add air pump and stone
Steal one sponge from the AC20 on my 10 gallon and clean out the rest of the media in the tank water, hoping to jump start cycle
Add first dose of ammonia (1ml) then check reading……first big question, how long after I “seed” the new filter should I dose the ammonia?
Check ammonia level after 24 hrs and every 24 hrs after, at first sign of drop start checking nitrite
Once ammonia gets at/near zero start dosing again and raise to 3-4ppm and start checking every 12 hrs
Once at zero again dose to 3-4 ppm and continue until nitrite spike
Continue until ammonia and nitrite at zero after 12 hrs
Once reached 90% WC and done
There is the plan in a nutshell. I will be starting tomorrow. See anything that needs changing?

If I understand this correctly I should completely cycle the tank before I add the live plants, right?

 

[jimv8673]

you can and should add the live plants during the cycle (unlike fish, plants actually like ammonia as long as its level isn't way too high), but then lower the temperature down to 25-27°C...most plants don't like warm water.

 

[waterdrop]

I believe the main counter-argument is that there's a much greater chance of algae during a fishless cycle and sometimes that algae clamps on to plant leaves and gets its little microthreads down in the leaves such that you can't get it off. So that usually just means its good to understand that upfront. You'd hate for someone to spend a lot of money on plants not realizing that could happen. On the other hand if its taken into consideration and deemed not a problem for whatever reason then all should be ok.

Nice stuff there! ..startin to make me wish I had an actual tank light for Oliver's quarantine tank! WD

 

[jmiller]

I think I'll just wait on the plants then. If you like the looks of it now just wait until tomorrow night. I got the confirmation that the filter will be here tomorrow. So after work I set the whole thing up and get started. Would I add the first dose of ammonia right after I seed the filter or do I have to wait any certain length of time?

 

[jmiller]

Here we go:

Sorry for the cloudy water. I decided at the last minute that it needed more gravel so I went to the LFS and got another 5 lb bag. It will be heavily planted and I didn't think the 1" of gravel was going to work. I also cleaned out my other filter in the water. Boy did it need it.

Added 20 drops (1 ml) to get 5ppm.


Any suggestions on easy to grow plants?
I'm thinking bacopa australis in the back left hand corner to cover the thermometer and filter inlet. What about for the rest of it?

I'm probably going to reposistion that piece of driftwood on the right a little, it needs to be turned some one way or the other. It has to much character to be facing directlt forward.

Edit:
Day 1.....ammonia 5ppm

 

[waterdrop]

Yes, in my opinion you're doing the "balancing" thing again and placing the two big pieces too regularly. Nature never does that. A natural scene often looks more natural because things just "fell" where they are.. then again, the falling can look unnatural and ugly too, lol. The wood does look great though and I know how hard it is to place things in a tiny 5.5g. Our Q-tank is 5.5 and Oliver's "diver with treasure chest" is way too big for it so you can imagine... ..but our latest 5 baby neons are really perky and eating well with no signs of disease, so I need to ask the experts what their latest thinking is on how long to quarantine?

On your ammonia result I never feel we can necessarily see it over the internet properly but if you have any feeling it might be 8ppm then it would be safer to just make more sure its on the 4ppm side, since 3ppm wouldn't really do any damage. Are you going to log your pH and note your temperature in the first post and create a running log?

~~waterdrop~~

 

[jmiller]

Why did I know you would call me on the two pieces of driftwood.

I have a good reason this time. Being that the dwarf puffer requires a lot of cover and "stuff" to explore I'm using the two pieces of driftwood and very tall plants. Everything will be on a larger scale on purpose. I'm going for a large visual contrast between the huge surroundings and the tiny fish. As I tell me wife it's all part of the master plan. Once the driftwood turns the water it should look a lot better.

I'll start a running log once the temperature comes up and the driftwood has time to settle since I know it will lower the PH a little. It was at 80* this morning. I have it set for 86*.

 

[waterdrop]

While you're telling her its the master plan, she's just eyeing the growing number of tanks and feeling nervous she doesn't have gills...

 

[jmiller]

There is kind of a funny story about this tank. Especially with what I wrote in Jayne's thread about her 4th tank, if you don't remember it was about trying to sneek the next one past her husband. When I came home with this one the wife was busy doing something and didn't see me bring it in. It set on my desk for about an hour until I finally got around to setting it up. I had it almost comepletely done when she walked into the room and immediately said "You bought another tank!?". And I replied with the straightest face possible "Nope, this is the one that I've had forever and I'm finally getting around to putting it up."

Pity I left the receipt out. I got busted.

 

[jmiller]

Yesterday I dosed ammonia to 5ppm

All future readings will be PH/Ammonia/Nitrite/Nitrate. Tank at a constant 85*

Day 1.....7.8/4.0/1.0/5.0

 

[jmiller]

PH/Ammonia/Nitrite/Nitrate

Day 1.....7.8/4.0/1.0/5.0
Day 2.....7.8/2.0/5.0/20.0

 

[waterdrop]

I forget, did you tell us you put MM in this new filter you're logging? WD

 

[jmiller]

I was only able to put in the two small pieces from my other AC20. They were the pieces from my old AquaTech 5-15. I also cleaned out the all the AC20 media in the tank water.

 

[waterdrop]

Nonetheless its MM and it appears to be on a "take" and working!

 

[jmiller]

Cool.