Recent content by jenelle

:whistle: I figured had sped things up by adding media from established tank. I guess I'm in for the long haul. The waiting game sucks. Day 15.

24 hours later, no change. Ammonia is steady at 2.0, no nitrites, nitrates 5.0. Maybe I should do another water change? On a positive note, my plants are growing gangbusters. Hades, the betta, is patiently waiting in his bowl, but I feel bad for him.

Oops. Yes, ammonia was 2.0. My bad!

This morning's reading: Ammonia 20.0 Nitrite 0 Nitrate 5 -- up a bit, this is the only change So several days of nitrite at 0. If that ammonia would start moving down, I'd rejoice!!

I'm going to give it an hour and retest the ammonia. I was pretty careful though.

That's a very good question! I have no idea! I haven't added anything - only did 2 25% water changes yesterday. There are several plants. So why the ammonia is going up instead of down is very confusing.

Boo! I think perhaps I've lost all progress. I did a 2nd water change yesterday to bring the ammonia to 1.0. 24 hours later the ammonia has risen again to 2.0, still 0 for nitrites and just a trace of nitrates now - between 0 and 5. The tank is really clearing up, all the cloudiness is...

Okay, I think your advice is good news for my first fishless cycle. It sounds like not all is lost. I think I'll check that I brought down the ammonia via the water change and wait until it's almost 0 before I add more. I'm so excited to get this tank up & running -- I sold my 46 g a couple...

Hoping someone might have some insight: I'm doing a fishless cycle in a Fluval Edge 5 gallon using pure ammonia (planted). I'm on day 10. 3 days ago, I added some media from trusted LFS. From day 1 I've kept the ammonia hovering around 4ppm. Both before and after I added the media from the...

I guess the long and the short of it is that I'm willing to spend more money to get a set up that doesn't involve me pulling out my hair trying to deal with algae, BGA and sitting by the tank for half an hour every few days trying to get the bubble counter right. I am realizing you get what you...

Thank Aqua_Chem. I'll try not to bother you after this: I have the citric acid/bicarbonate in pop bottles set up. It's okay, but not great. I get very frustrated trying to regulate the bubbles. Speeds up, slows down to nothing; it has a very inconsistent dial. I get by with it, but also...

Aqua Chem: Would you advise, then, that a pressurized system with EI (dry ferts) is the best route to take if I want to keep my fluval LED light? Would I get to grow more interesting plants and control the algae?

It's been 12 hours since I did a 33% water change and put the carbon back in. I did all my tests this morning: Ammonia 0 Nitrite 0 Nitrate Between 10-20 pH 6.6 KH 30 mg/L (ppm) - I think this is really low. ? GH 60 mg/L (ppm) Chelated Iron - 0.1 (also low I think) So my BB did just fine...

Regyan and Fresh 2o, do both of you use Metricide 14 instead of CO2 injection? Are you able to grow red plants? Also, doing some reading this afternoon about carbon, and wondering if that is part of my problem re. nutrients and phosphates... maybe I should use purigen instead? I'm hesitant to...

For ferts? I'm doing Flourish once a week. That's it. Yes, I agree citric acid/baking soda is amateur (but hey, that's what I have been so far - an amateur!). Am I getting the results I want? Well, no. Although all the easy to grow plants grow like crazy, I've repeatedly ripped out all...