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Lost my pleco last night. No idea as to the cause. My nitrates are down and all other parameters are within normal ranges. I made sure there was an algae wafer in the tank since I have snails, shrimp and the pleco so he should have had food. Did he need more than algae wafers like cucumber or...

Looks good only thing I'd suggest is some tall plants for the back; Anubia Congensis, Amazon swords or something similar depending on the lighting. I love the driftwood.

Most killifish are fairly agressive and annual fish. I was very tempted to buy one but the fact that it might eat my neons, last all of 6-9 months and costs $17 kept me away. Fantasticly beautiful though I was soo tempted. I'd say just get a few more guppies or furcata's. You have lots of...

Just to update The tank is doing fairly well. Nitrates are a bit up at 80ppm and if I can’t get them down further with the weekly 25% PCW I’ll go to twice weekly until they settle (some of it may be due to the plants decaying before the sprouted new leaves/shoots). The water sprite doesn’t...

That makes sense, I think I will lower mine so it ranges between 75-79, hoping for a 77 degree baseline. Can't seem to get the Apistos to eat anything except live worms, going to pick up some shrimp pellets and see if those work. Also would Amano shrimp eat up leftover algae wafers? If so I...

Thanks everyone. Seems like my heater is acting a little weird, it seems to range from 76.5 to as much as 79.5 degrees. I have been adjusting it slightly. What is the normal range on heaters I figured only a degree or two would be normal. My pleco also seems much more interested in the...

Added some fish over the weekend. One Ancistrus sp 4 pleco, max size is 4.5" which will probably take him a couple of years to reach. He seems the most out going. You can see him below next to the Zebra Nerite snail, added two of those. Also got a pair of apistogramma cacatuoides double red...

My tank just finished cycling and while the HOB filter I have is adequate if I had to do it over I'd oversize it. So I'm thinking in a few of weeks or so going from a TopFin 30 on my 20g to an Aquaclear 300. I don't want to have both running at the same time as I don't want to cut up my hood...

Looks like I just had to shake up the nitrite solution. So I'm 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, and 5ppm Nitrate. Looks like the tank cycled in a couple weeks. That doesn't seem normal but hey I'll run with it.

I think I found out what was going on. Wound up shaking the solution and the color went to 0 ppm within the normal 5 mins.

It does seem to be progressing much faster than I expected. I’m guessing the Eco-Complete has some of the necessary bacteria or there was still some on the java moss I transplanted. I figured the tap water rinse would have washed away any. What I’m trying to figure out now and I posted this in...

Hello, I'm using the freshwater master test kit and when I check the test at exactly 5 mins I think I have 2-4ppm of nitrite, if it's at 6-7 mins when I asked my wife for an opinion on the color it looks like almost 0ppm. So must this be read at exactly the 5 min mark? For the ammonia test...

If you have an ace hardware near you look for this: It's what I'm using currently for my fishless cycle. Make sure you get a good test kit like API Master kit.

Things are still the same, I am noticing some plant growth, was worried when I saw some melt away but looks like they are coming back. Just need to wait on this Nitrate phase.

Tests last night: Ammonia - .25ppm Dosed it again with 2.5ml ammonia and back up to 4-8ppm. Expecting to see it back to 2ppm tonight and .25ppm tomorrow. Nitrite - 5ppm or higher, same as before. Going to continue keeping ammonia at 4-8ppm until I see nitrite drop. If a couple of weeks go by...

Results are in and they are a bit odd. Tap water has no nitrites, tank has 5ppm or more, test stops at 5. Nitrates in the tank look to be about 5ppm as well. The same size dose of ammonia that brought the tank up to 4-8ppm when I started the cycle a week ago today is at 2ppm and I dosed...

It was the closest color match. I should test my tap water with just de-chlorinator and see what it is.

It’s a new tank with all new equipment. The only thing I did was 24 hours prior to testing on the 7th day I put in some java moss I got from a friend’s tank. I did rinse the moss with tap water first so I figured any bacteria would be gone. My new plants are out for delivery (UPS) so I expect...

Is it possible to have Nitrite levels of at least 5ppm after only 7 days and one dose of ammonia? Ammonia was near 0 or maybe was 0, I dosed it again.

I would think you'd need at least a 20g or larger. I use this for ideas on stocking. AqAdvisor - Intelligent Freshwater Tropical Fish Aquarium Stocking Calculator and Aquarium Tank/Filter Advisor A betta would probably be best for a 5g.

I put in my driftwood, it's been soaking for about a week and the water in the bucket seems pretty clear. If need be I'll pull it out for another couple of days but it will need to go back in when my plants arrive on Wednesday. I also broke up some sandstone rocks I got from home depot (checked...

So while I’m waiting on my tank to cycle and the tannins to leach out of the driftwood and before I buy plants I need help with stocking. My original idea was to go with cardinal tetras, a small Pleco and a Betta. Well the more I read the more it seems that other fish don’t like Bettas and the...

Well I got everything set-up tonight: Strapped the stand down. Put some foam on the bottom rim of the tank to even out any pressure and protect the stand. Put in my two bags of eco-complete, I did a mix of red and black. I had to fill it about 3/4 of the way to get the filter to draw. Then I...

I figure I’ll start with the tetras once the tank is cycled and then after a couple weeks add the bamboo shrimp. I can feed them some algae wafers or crushed up fish food I’m sure. MT, Well its the Ace ammonia that everyone has mentioned, say 10% ammonia on the bottle, I'll take a pic tonight...

I just ordered my Seachem ferts and a 6,500k bulb. I'll try to put some foil behind the bulb as a reflector and see how things do. I can always play with the exposure times. Picking up the eco-complete tonight and some wall straps to attach the stand to the wall (it’s a high stand and I have...