nickbme06
Aquarium Advice Regular
Ill have to get back to you on that. Not sure of the exacts, alot of plants online look similar, but i would have to go to the LFS to see what they suggested and i picked...
Nicks 10g FRESH Project w/ live plants
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Ill have to get back to you on that. Not sure of the exacts, alot of plants online look similar, but i would have to go to the LFS to see what they suggested and i picked...
jsoong
Aquarium Advice Addict
It is a bit screwy to see such a low pH when you are doing all that water changes ... I would definitely test your tap water & see what equilibrium pH that settles out at.
One other thing ... the phosphate .... how much are you adding? Phosphates will decrease pH. In a low tech tank like yours, esp. with lots of bioload, you don't really need to add fertilizer unless there is a definite deficiency. <You are more likely to feed algae than the plants.>
One other thing ... the phosphate .... how much are you adding? Phosphates will decrease pH. In a low tech tank like yours, esp. with lots of bioload, you don't really need to add fertilizer unless there is a definite deficiency. <You are more likely to feed algae than the plants.>
nickbme06
Aquarium Advice Regular
Good point. /puts away plant food
nickbme06
Aquarium Advice Regular
Ok, well its been a while now and my ammonia is still getting to 4+ppm if i let it. Ill have to do a change every week to keep it down. I stil havent gotten ANY nitrites except one time about 3 weeks ago @ about 2ppm. Since then i havent, straight 0 on the tests everytime and my pH is still 6.0 or below (test wont show lower). What im thinking is is that at at one point i was using tap water with the de-chlorinator it and i must have not used the right mix or whatever and traces of chlorine or something has gotten in my tank and is killing the good bacteria over and over....
So anyway, im still working on my saltwater reef setup and have an RO/DI unit now and also reef crystals on hand. Im going to take the fish out and start over using fresh RO/DI water and get the pH, GH, etc correct by using marine salt and baking soda mix.
Ill put the plants and fish back in and give it another few weeks changing out water with same properties mix every weekend. This should get me to cycle correctly..
im not in any rush and no fish have died, so im good with that. lost a couple of plants though, dont think they were liking the oxygen tube i was runnin under the rock bed, so i killed that and they have been doing beter. I tried cycling the lights off at night and they didnt like that either, causing black spots on the leaves. Im sure the high ammonia isnt helping them either.
Im also starting to get a dark brown/green algae growing on the back plastic rock i have for decoration. Nothing on glass or rocks yet... bio filter wheel looks the same as when it started, not sure what that means, or what it should look like, but it def doesnt look like it has bacteria on it.
I found my camera though, so i can post pics now =)
So anyway, im still working on my saltwater reef setup and have an RO/DI unit now and also reef crystals on hand. Im going to take the fish out and start over using fresh RO/DI water and get the pH, GH, etc correct by using marine salt and baking soda mix.
Ill put the plants and fish back in and give it another few weeks changing out water with same properties mix every weekend. This should get me to cycle correctly..
im not in any rush and no fish have died, so im good with that. lost a couple of plants though, dont think they were liking the oxygen tube i was runnin under the rock bed, so i killed that and they have been doing beter. I tried cycling the lights off at night and they didnt like that either, causing black spots on the leaves. Im sure the high ammonia isnt helping them either.
Im also starting to get a dark brown/green algae growing on the back plastic rock i have for decoration. Nothing on glass or rocks yet... bio filter wheel looks the same as when it started, not sure what that means, or what it should look like, but it def doesnt look like it has bacteria on it.
I found my camera though, so i can post pics now =)
nickbme06
Aquarium Advice Regular
actually. my fiance wants to have brackish water and hold black mollies etc in there... im going to get the tank cycled with reg water as i spoke before and the tetras. After its cycled, can i manipulate the water and take the tetras out and replace with the mollies etc? follow me? is this possible, or shoudl i just rid the tetras now and start off with the mollies??
dolittle1026
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
you need way less fish and way more plants
nickbme06
Aquarium Advice Regular
I dont have that many fish in the anymore.
I did the water change out yesterday. I acclimated them to the new pH for about 1 hour. They all lost all thier colors for about an hour after. After then they started acting ok and gained thier color back.
pH is around 7.8 or so, so i feel beter now. I had to leave a little water behind from rocks etc, but got most of it out. Refilled with RO water, so i should be pretty much chlorine free (if that was the problem before).
Ill give it a few weeks and see how the cycle goes now. If it doesnt work this time, im ditchin all the livestock including plants and doin the shrimp way until i get cycled, then go straight to mollies, etc.
I did the water change out yesterday. I acclimated them to the new pH for about 1 hour. They all lost all thier colors for about an hour after. After then they started acting ok and gained thier color back.
pH is around 7.8 or so, so i feel beter now. I had to leave a little water behind from rocks etc, but got most of it out. Refilled with RO water, so i should be pretty much chlorine free (if that was the problem before).
Ill give it a few weeks and see how the cycle goes now. If it doesnt work this time, im ditchin all the livestock including plants and doin the shrimp way until i get cycled, then go straight to mollies, etc.
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