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What to do... with one of my display tanks


kermadum

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No water change today and interestingly Nitrite and Ammonia levels seem to have dropped in todays water test... No idea what that means.

kH - 2

pH - 6 (or under as it's been pointed out that my test kit only measures as low as 6 so I'll need to get a different kit to be sure where this actually sits)

Nitrite - 0.25

Nitrate - 5

Ammonia - 0.5

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Means your cycle is progessing ;) lol

I need to get me a pH pen one one day. If you can find a test kit that does <6 pH let me know, 'cause as far as I know most don't and the only other option is a pen. Or an in-line pH monitor but I can't see myself spending that much to know something as relatively insignificant as pH.

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I did a few hours of research today & it seems that a ph pen is the way to go. There are some on eBay that may be dubious quality but are also only $10 so probably worth trying.

Ps. Water parameters a the same today. No difference at all. I did plant some ambulia & rotalia wallichii that I had lying around as a temporary assistance for the cycling.

I set the shrimp up in a holding tank yesterday too. They so cute.

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I did a small check on some of the water parameters this morning, not a full test.

Nitrite - 0

Nitrate - 0

Ammonia - 0.25

I guess that means that things are cycling. Although it seems awfully fast compared to the time frames that other people using Aquasoil have reported. I'm still not sure that I'll be adding any fish for another week or so.

I might do a 50% water change tonight and see what happens after that.

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You're possibly right Paul, but I'm very untrusting of levels in a newly setup aquarium, and especially as everywhere I look people are reporting massive ammonia spikes (up to 4ppm) with Aquasoil and taking 6 weeks to cycle etc. I'm having trouble believing that mine could be almost cycled in a bit over a week. I figure if things are looking good now, then I should throw a challenge like a water change at the bacteria and see if it still reads well afterwards. If it still reads well then I can be more confident that things are genuinely settling down. And I want to get any hiccups out of the way before I put any fish in there.

So I did a 50% water change last night. And out of curiosity checked the parameters immediately after. Nitrites and Nitrates were still zero. Ammonia was very low (somewhere between 0 and 0.25) and pH was 6.4 but obviously those readings are largely because the water was brand new and hadn't had time to settle.

I wanted to do another check this morning after it'd had 12 hours to settle but I was running late for work, so will have to do it tonight.

Yeah, that's my understanding of the nitrates during this process too. Which is one of the reasons that I'm still a little skeptical that things are progressing the way they should.

Edited by kermadum
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Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate now all measure zero, so I put in a handful of Cherry Shrimp last night and they appear to be doing fine.

I've also got a stack of new plants that I bought for a different setup, that I will be planting in here as a temporary measure, test the waters, see if I can get them to grow, and also to provide a bit of additional cover for the shrimp while I wait for the permanent plants in this tank to grow in a bit more.

As soon as I can I'll get some new photos.

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Oh really? Maybe that's having an impact then. I was told where I bought it though that it would leach ammonia for quite a while (though perhaps that's just the line they use so that everyone is prepared and they don't get people knocking on their door after a week saying they weren't told it would leach that much ammonia).

In any case. It's all still sitting at zero today. Thanks to a very generous person on a different forum I also have a pH test kit that I can check down to pH 5 and the tank is sitting right on a pH of 6.

I got a few photos today too

Wider shot of the tank

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The algae is starting... Need to get some cleanup fish in there.

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The Blyxa is really taking off

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The Weeping Moss is starting to green up. It was very dull looking when I put it in there.

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Little Shrimpy hiding behind some Java Fern

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This little shrimpy wasn't so shy

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I've added some hair grass down the front.

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There's some Rotala Macranda between the driftwood. This is just temporary, once things take off a bit, the R Macranda, R. Wallichii and the Ambulia are coming out, they're just temporary fillers.

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The Crypt Balansae all melted back quite significantly when first put in to this setup, but are all shooting new leaves so I'm hoping that in a couple of weeks it's going to look a lot fuller at the back.

The Lilaeopsis that was just a few scraps floating around in the tank from it's former incarnation has also started to grow and send out runners. So that'll be awesome if that takes off.

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