adm's 1st tank

[adm]

Back to another issue.....Algae.

I have left it alone for the last few days as I hope to get a cleanup crew into the tank next week and want to give them an all you can eat buffet to get them started.

But the last couple of days it has been growing crazily - in particular on my Java Moss. And it seems to be particularly healthy as it is pearling oxygen like mad.

I can vacuum some of it up every day, but it's impossible to get it all off the ferns or the hardscape without a lot of mechanical agitation.

What would you do? I hope to get the cleanup crew in early next week. I will be away from Friday through Sunday as well. So should I just leave it to grow unrestricted, or maybe have as good a scrub/vacuum as I can and then turn the lights and CO2 down a bit while I am away. I could also chuck some API "Prevent Algae" in there as well....

[plankton]

The water...
It'll probably be the filter munchers then lowering the hardness while the cycle is going on - they use the carbonates.
The tank will be much closer to the tapwater once you start doing weekly water changes....
The algae...
If you get algae-eating snails and a young female BN that'll be gone in a month or so.

[adm]

Day 22

First official "00" day today!

pH: 7.0
Ammonia: 0 ppm
Nitrite: 0 ppm
Nitrate: 5 ppm

Ammonia added to top back up to 2ppm

On the water hardness, I have been doing weekly water changes for the last two weeks - about 40% of the tank volume. Will do so again on Sunday.

[adm]

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?

[fr499y]

plants will be using up nitrates.

[adm]

plants will be using up nitrates.

:-) Probably my Algae!

[Pleco Fan]

It's hard to see the algae in your pics, but what I can see in my opinion is excessive pearling think you can reduce the Co2 a tad, shrimps are probably your best bet for a cleaning crew.

[adm]

Done. CO2 turned down to about 1 bubble per second. At least I know photosynthesis is happening with all the pearling. It's like a bottle of fizzy drink right now. I guess the tank water will be well oxygenated too.

I am away for the next three days, so will also turn the lighting down quite a bit and probably the tank temperature by a couple of degrees. You might find it hard to see the algae, but to me it's like invasion of the body snatchers or something! Maybe I am overreacting....

I will do a big water change when I get home on Sunday, stick in a little bit more Ammonia, test on Monday morning and if all is good, I will then scoot off down the LFS to buy a cleanup crew. Amano Shrimp, a female Bristlenose Pleco, maybe a couple of snails and maybe some Otos. We shall see.

[adm]

Well, the tank tested out double zeros again on Friday before I buggered off for the weekend.

I had done a "show and tell" on water testing with my son that still lives at home before I left and he told me Saturday was the same. I don't trust his science powers 100%, but nonetheless, when I got home this afternoon, it was double zeros again.

So I think it is now officially cycled.

I had a very good cleaning session this evening and did about a 70% water change. There was lots of algae everywhere and I got rid of quite a bit, but left enough for the cleanup crew to gorge on. Bumped the Ammonia up to 1% and will check the water tomorrow morning at 8am. If it is back to double zeros again, I will go and get some fish.

I also did a potentially bad thing on Friday. Ordered some Amano shrimp off the internet. Apparently they will be delivered tomorrow. I am not really convinced about buying critters like this, but I did it anyway. I don't think I will do it for fish though.

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.

[gantiz]

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