Currently he has a 55 cycling with plants, though I am trying to warm him up to big tanks... He's just waiting on it to cycle to add fish.
fish for kids?
- Thread starter jyabs7
- Start date
Not much positive to report just yet. Just trying to combat the algae. A good amount of plants have died due to it, and others are browning for some unknown reason. Id say just about every plant in the tank is affected either by algae or just plain dying. The water is cloudy, but cycle wise things look good and still keeping up with my water changes. not sure if I even should be doing any right now, but with the algae right now figured it's best to try.
I through in five lightning bolt nerite snails, and five amano shrimp to help combat the algae, friday I'll be switching over to a spray bar, and adding three fluval fine pads, three fluval ultra fine pads, and some seachem phosguard. I'll get this darn water as clear as air if I have my way. Also will be trying API leaf zone to help the plants the best I can.
Up to about ten days after planting I couldnt believe the amount of growth I had in plants. Growing taller and fuller, new things sprouting off them, it was great. After that, everything took a nose dive. But I'm doing what I can to help everything along.
I through in five lightning bolt nerite snails, and five amano shrimp to help combat the algae, friday I'll be switching over to a spray bar, and adding three fluval fine pads, three fluval ultra fine pads, and some seachem phosguard. I'll get this darn water as clear as air if I have my way. Also will be trying API leaf zone to help the plants the best I can.
Up to about ten days after planting I couldnt believe the amount of growth I had in plants. Growing taller and fuller, new things sprouting off them, it was great. After that, everything took a nose dive. But I'm doing what I can to help everything along.
Name brand fertilizers rarely ever work. They're typically just supplements, and weak ones at that. I would recommend tropica fertilizers or NilocG ThriveS/Thrive+.
getting the brown algae managed. Got some nerite snails doing some work, and added some phosguard in the cannister for a few days. The tanks looking better, still not totally cycled yet but been doing a lot of staring at it obsessively.
The spray bar is like night and day with circulation and surface agitation. I know some people aren't big fans, but i'm sold on them now. I imagine once fish are living in there i'll have to turn flow down a little so they don't feel like they're living in a river bed but for now..
I ordered some thrive like you recommended, i'll give that a shot and see how it does. While i've been bored i've been doing some reading and thinking about future tanks and such. Is CO2 all that it's hyped up to be?
The spray bar is like night and day with circulation and surface agitation. I know some people aren't big fans, but i'm sold on them now. I imagine once fish are living in there i'll have to turn flow down a little so they don't feel like they're living in a river bed but for now..
I ordered some thrive like you recommended, i'll give that a shot and see how it does. While i've been bored i've been doing some reading and thinking about future tanks and such. Is CO2 all that it's hyped up to be?
Certainly. Most medium-high difficulty plants require it, and it improves growth regardless of if your plants require it.
Hmmm any complete kits youd reccomend reading into? I see fluval makes one but only up to 50gallons, and I dont think I'd ever spend the money on CO2 for something smaller than what I have now.
I would just run a 5lb canister with an aquarium co2 regulator. I use one on my 16 gallon, and it lasts about a year before I have to refill it. The size of the canister doesn't really matter, just the rate you inject the co2.
Everything seems solid now, and according to my tests and readings, the tank is cycled! Not sure if i mentioned in a different post, but I also added some pothos to the top of the tank as i hear it's pretty good at removing nitrates, and I had plenty in a vivarium so i stole some from that. I had a snail randomly die today, but he had a good life for a while.
I'm going to start off slow and start with a small portion of the fish I have planned and over the course of several weeks add the total amount of them and help the biofilter from deciding to kamikaze itself.
I'm going to start off slow and start with a small portion of the fish I have planned and over the course of several weeks add the total amount of them and help the biofilter from deciding to kamikaze itself.
