BrettMad
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
I have told some of the story of my journey to having a tank again in the new members area. Short version, had very small tanks/betas often on in previous decades. Could never keep fish alive more than a few months, but tanks were all very very small. Never cycled any of those previous tanks, never knew that I should, which probably is why I tended to lose the fish within 2 to 5 months.
Bought a new house two years ago and there was a huge 155 gallon bowfront tank built into one of the walls. It had been long empty and was at one time a saltwater tank.
I hired a couple who runs a local fish store, focused on saltwater, but who are hobbyists as well. The wife (Jennifer) was giddy at the thought of helping setting up a new freshwater planted tank.
We got everything set up including the first wave of plants. A week later the second wave of plants and 36 fish were added (14 tetra, 6 gold barbs, three different types of juvenile rainbowfish totaling 16 fish). At this point I got even more interested in this as an ongoing hobby and wanted to learn a lot more, mostly in an effort not to have wasted all the money setting up this beautiful tank. When reading I learned more about the nitrogen cycle and that according to both forums I was reading I may have made a fairly massive mistake. However, Jennifer seemed unconcerned and actually mentioned that without the plants we would not be adding fish anywhere near this soon.
Somewhat alarmed, particularly about hearing problems with local fish store employees, I went and got an API Master test kit today.
I put this in my introduction thread, but here are my current test results:
PH level – just above 7.0, possibly 7.1
Ammonia level – while not at 0 ppm it was closer to that than the next color bar which was 0.25 ppm
Nitrite level – exactly the same as above, while not at 0 ppm it was closer to 0 ppm then to the 0.25 ppm color
Nitrates – 5 ppm – this is the only one that had nearly a perfect color match.
Clearly, neither the ammonia nor the nitrate are at dangerous levels, although they are also not at zero. Could it be that the plants are absorbing ammonia and nitrites while the bacteria establishes itself in the canister in the canister media?
I am going to continue to test daily for the next couple weeks at least, but I would love any advice on what I should watch for or opinions on what happened here. Almost everything this couple did struck me as extraordinarily competent and they are hobbyists as well as owners of the store, so it seems odd that she would have gone with a path that was ultimately detrimental, but it is certainly at odds with everything I have read here and not another forum.
Bought a new house two years ago and there was a huge 155 gallon bowfront tank built into one of the walls. It had been long empty and was at one time a saltwater tank.
I hired a couple who runs a local fish store, focused on saltwater, but who are hobbyists as well. The wife (Jennifer) was giddy at the thought of helping setting up a new freshwater planted tank.
We got everything set up including the first wave of plants. A week later the second wave of plants and 36 fish were added (14 tetra, 6 gold barbs, three different types of juvenile rainbowfish totaling 16 fish). At this point I got even more interested in this as an ongoing hobby and wanted to learn a lot more, mostly in an effort not to have wasted all the money setting up this beautiful tank. When reading I learned more about the nitrogen cycle and that according to both forums I was reading I may have made a fairly massive mistake. However, Jennifer seemed unconcerned and actually mentioned that without the plants we would not be adding fish anywhere near this soon.
Somewhat alarmed, particularly about hearing problems with local fish store employees, I went and got an API Master test kit today.
I put this in my introduction thread, but here are my current test results:
PH level – just above 7.0, possibly 7.1
Ammonia level – while not at 0 ppm it was closer to that than the next color bar which was 0.25 ppm
Nitrite level – exactly the same as above, while not at 0 ppm it was closer to 0 ppm then to the 0.25 ppm color
Nitrates – 5 ppm – this is the only one that had nearly a perfect color match.
Clearly, neither the ammonia nor the nitrate are at dangerous levels, although they are also not at zero. Could it be that the plants are absorbing ammonia and nitrites while the bacteria establishes itself in the canister in the canister media?
I am going to continue to test daily for the next couple weeks at least, but I would love any advice on what I should watch for or opinions on what happened here. Almost everything this couple did struck me as extraordinarily competent and they are hobbyists as well as owners of the store, so it seems odd that she would have gone with a path that was ultimately detrimental, but it is certainly at odds with everything I have read here and not another forum.
