55gal tank setup/progress

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Harlebora

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
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Apr 28, 2017
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I have finally got my tank initially setup and just finished adding the first dose of ammonia and thought I would share my setup with everyone and update progress of how the cycle goes and how the plants grow as the tank goes along in this low tech setup. Also hoping to get any help or advice as I progress towards finally adding fish. I don't know if anyone has done this before but I thought it would be an interesting read for anyone starting up or for people to just follow if there interested. I will try adding photos and update as much as I can.

My tank is a fluval Roma 200
I have a canister filter 1300lph
Fluval m 200 heater
*Thinking of adding a circulation pump*
A sand substrate 2" at front 3" at back
A number of different species of plant (I will list the names in a later post)
A couple pieces of bogwood and some redmoor wood and some rocks
 

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I have dosed ammonia up to 4ppm and my ph is 7.4/7.6 and the heater is set at 30 degrees now to just wait for everything to happen. :popcorn:

I will be testing water parameters regular with the API master test kit.

My plant list:
Nymphoides hydrophylla 'Taiwan'
Microsorum pteropus
Sagittarius subulata
Anubias barteri var. Nana
Bacopa monnieri
Ceratopteris thalictroides
Eleocharis acicularis (dwarf hair grass)
Echinodorus grisebachii 'bleherae'
Ludwigia repens
 
So after 19 days cycling my tank has now tested 0 ammonia 0 nitrites and off the scale nitrates :dance:. I will leave it for another week and continue daily testing to confirm these readings are constant then do my final big 90% water change and everything should be ready for fish:fish2:

I used no bacteria additives whatsoever and just patiently waited for the bacteria to grow and kept the heater up high at 30 degrees and dosed initially with ammonia to 4ppm so hopefully this gives me a really strong and healthy bacteria colony in my filter.

Day 3 was when my ammonia first dropped from 4ppm to 2 ppm.
Day 6 ammonia was dropping from 4ppm to 2ppm after 24 hours and nitrites finally appeared at 0.50ppm.
Day 9 ammonia was now 0ppm from 4ppm after 24 hours nitrites were 5ppm> nitrates were 5ppm
Day 14 ammonia 0ppm (continuing to dose back to 4ppm) nitrites 5ppm> nitrates 5ppm PH 6.4 so a 25% water change was done.
Day 18 ammonia 0ppm nitrites 0.25ppm nitrates 160ppm
Day 19 ammonia 0ppm nitrites 0ppm nitrates160ppm>

Now I really need to start thinking of stock and stock limit so I hope to get some ideas up and hopefully you guys can help me make the right choices. I will try get pictures up as I go but I keep forgetting as i was hoping to show the different test results with the API test kit as some of them can be tricky to decipher (for me at least).
 
Very cool. Good to see it cycled fast. I just got a 75 gal to transfer my population into, they're currently in a 46 gal. I am going to use the pure ammonia cycle method also.
 
I have finally got my tank initially setup and just finished adding the first dose of ammonia and thought I would share my setup with everyone and update progress of how the cycle goes and how the plants grow as the tank goes along in this low tech setup. Also hoping to get any help or advice as I progress towards finally adding fish. I don't know if anyone has done this before but I thought it would be an interesting read for anyone starting up or for people to just follow if there interested. I will try adding photos and update as much as I can.



My tank is a fluval Roma 200

I have a canister filter 1300lph

Fluval m 200 heater

*Thinking of adding a circulation pump*

A sand substrate 2" at front 3" at back

A number of different species of plant (I will list the names in a later post)

A couple pieces of bogwood and some redmoor wood and some rocks



Nice tank, your plants look healthy and large. Are you dosing CO2 adding plant food?
 
Very cool. Good to see it cycled fast. I just got a 75 gal to transfer my population into, they're currently in a 46 gal. I am going to use the pure ammonia cycle method also.

This method in my opinion is the best and quickest one to get a quick cycle and really strong bacteria colony. This is my second tank using this method and it's great. I hope your cycle goes well and your fish get into there new home soon.
 
Nice tank, your plants look healthy and large. Are you dosing CO2 adding plant food?

Thanks, no there is no CO2 at all in this setup. I added root tabs for all the plants when I first planted them up but I don't plan on using any liquid feeds or further root tabs in the future, I will continue to use root tabs for the amazon swords as there root feeders everything else takes nutrients through the leaves and hopefully there will be enough nutrients for the plants through weekly water changes I will monitor this and add root tabs or liquid feed as needed but it's an expense I hope I won't have to get. Also all the plants I have are low tech so there hardy and should be fine maybe slow there growth without as much nutrients. I will update as I go and see how it works out.
 
Thanks, no there is no CO2 at all in this setup. I added root tabs for all the plants when I first planted them up but I don't plan on using any liquid feeds or further root tabs in the future, I will continue to use root tabs for the amazon swords as there root feeders everything else takes nutrients through the leaves and hopefully there will be enough nutrients for the plants through weekly water changes I will monitor this and add root tabs or liquid feed as needed but it's an expense I hope I won't have to get. Also all the plants I have are low tech so there hardy and should be fine maybe slow there growth without as much nutrients. I will update as I go and see how it works out.

Looks good! I might suggest getting a black background to hide your wires and make the colors of your plants pop. CO2 is really meant more for battling algae in helping your plants grow a little faster to outcompete the algae. The problem with those plants are that they are slow growers, which are perfect targets for algae to grow all over, especially BBA. What type of light do you have?
 
Looks good! I might suggest getting a black background to hide your wires and make the colors of your plants pop. CO2 is really meant more for battling algae in helping your plants grow a little faster to outcompete the algae. The problem with those plants are that they are slow growers, which are perfect targets for algae to grow all over, especially BBA. What type of light do you have?

Thanks. I will take your advice with the background and try pick one up soon. I only have a LED white light that came with tank and I only have it on 6 hours a day, the plants I picked all have a low light requirement.
 
Thanks. I will take your advice with the background and try pick one up soon. I only have a LED white light that came with tank and I only have it on 6 hours a day, the plants I picked all have a low light requirement.

I would not worry about CO2 then. You could get by with using Excel if you wanted
 
I would not worry about CO2 then. You could get by with using Excel if you wanted

I am hoping to not need excel or any other CO2 additive but I will have to wait and see how the tank goes over the next month or so.
 
Thought I would add some readings from the api master test kit

First image is 1.0ppm ammonia reading (green)
0ppm nitrite (blue)
160ppm nitrate (red)

Second is 0ppm ammonia (yellow)
0ppm nitrite (blue)

Third is 0.25ppm ammonia (green)
0ppm nitrite (blue)
10ppm nitrate (orange)
 

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Some photos of the tank with fish added. Hope you like it as much as I do it's great to watch at night so much activity from all the fish.
 

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