adm's 1st tank

[plankton]

Beautiful first scape. I have setup mine to just 2weeks back. Not densely planted but decent no of plants.. I did not add any ammonia to start the cycle or any liquid bacteria. Is it necessary? My task ammonia show 0.25ppm and nitrites 0 after 2weeks

I've answered in your thread.

[Unalome]

So, almost certainly LFS tomorrow and looking for a female Bristlenose Pleco, maybe a couple of snails and possible some Otos depending on how the water tests for GH tomorrow morning.

I may/might/maybe get some small shoaling fish too. Depends on what LFS have to say and have in stock. From what I understand from the guide on this site to cycling a tank (which I have been following as a bible), this method should allow you to 100% stock a tank once done. I'm not going to do that, but I would quite like some shiny fish to catch the eye along with the algae eating crew.

Personally I would advise against stocking your tank to capacity straight off the bat... By adding in smaller groups it allows your tank time to adjust to the increase in bio load.

[black ghost]

Another question.....why are my Nitrates so low?

IIRC, one part Ammonia --> 3 parts Nitrite. 1 part Nitrite --> 3 parts Nitrate.

So if I start off with 2ppm Ammonia, I should see around 6ppm Nitrite, which then gets converted to 18pmm Nitrate, right?

But I am only measuring around 5ppm Nitrate. It was way higher a week or so ago, measuring at 20-40ppm.

So what is eating the Nitrates? Is it the plants, or is there another kind of bacteria that converts Nitrates to.....something else?

1ppm ammonia gives 2.7ppm nitrite, which gives 3.6ppm nitrate. So 2ppm ammonia becomes 7.2ppm nitrate.

[adm]

Scores on the doors this morning:

pH: 7.0
Ammonia: 0 ppm
Nitrites: 0 ppm
Nitrates: 0 ppm or very close to it

dKH: 5
dGH: 8

I have a couple of calls to make and then will be sloping off to the LFS....

[adm]

1ppm ammonia gives 2.7ppm nitrite, which gives 3.6ppm nitrate. So 2ppm ammonia becomes 7.2ppm nitrate.

Ahh....thanks. So my Nitrate readings of 5 or below are consistent, given that the plants will be consuming some as well.

[adm]

Personally I would advise against stocking your tank to capacity straight off the bat... By adding in smaller groups it allows your tank time to adjust to the increase in bio load.

I totally agree - and I won't be doing that!

[fr499y]

The idea behind fishless cycling with ammonia is to be able to fully stock the tank from the off, so you can and shouldn't have a problem but I'd always recommend leaving the more sensitive fish until the tank matures.

[adm]

Back from the LFS a while ago, and I now have some fish.

I ended up getting:

1 blue eyed yellow Bristlenose Pleco. Hopefully female.
6 Otocinclus Catfish
12 Black Neon Tetra
2 Nerite snails - apparently called "Onion" snails. They are kind of yellow with sort of black dashes on the shells. LFS assures me they won't breed.

First impressions. Everything is very SMALL. But I guess they will hopefully all grow.

AqAdvisor says that my tank is 46% stocked. But I guess that is worked out on adult sizes for these fish.

Anyway, the Otos seem to be HUNGRY they are suckered onto the tank glass eating crazily. Kind of fun to watch them. They seem to eat like crazy for a few minutes, then talk a couple of minutes for digestion and then off they go again. Greedy little buggers.

The Bristlenose is calmer. She is also suckered on and eating, but more slowly and serenely.

The snails are both slowly motoring around - also eating.

The Tetras are busy exploring in a pack....

I have Amano shrimp arriving tomorrow.

I have the lights off for now, but will turn them on again in an hour or so.

I also got some Tetra flake food for the Tetras, and some algae wafers for the BN and Otos. But I am not going to feed anything today, and certainly not the BN and Otos until they have made good progress on the algae in the tank.

What fun. I need to see what the dogs will make of the Tetras if they even deign to notice them....

[Martinspuddle]

I am not going to feed anything today, and certainly not the BN and Otos until they have made good progress on the algae in the tank.

Take care with Otocinclus Sp, most, if not are collected from the wild and many succumb to starvation once introduced into the home aquaria without proper feeding.

[adm]

Take care with Otocinclus Sp, most, if not are collected from the wild and many succumb to starvation once introduced into the home aquaria without proper feeding.

So far, so good. They seem to be eating like crazy. They are going from leaf to leaf eating algae and I can literally see the poop coming out of them as they go. I will absolutely keep an eye on them though, but I guess the fact they are eating lots means they aren't going to die of starvation short term.

That said, I can't see them all right now, but the three I can see are definitely having an all you can eat buffet!