TankinWithUs
Aquarium Advice Freak
Hi everyone!
Brandy (mom) and Loxley (son, 2yo) here!
We are new to the site and joined because we've decided to follow this site's guide to cycle our tank.
We have a 5.5 gallon, heated and filtered tank that is being recycled from a failed adventure with a Betta 2 years ago.
We're really just starting a thread for encouragement along the way. We started the tank yesterday with hopes of fish today but while Lox slept, I decided to look up fish and quickly realized why our first attempt failed so miserably! We didn't cycle.
So, some damage was already done...we "cleaned" the tank with (gasps) antibacterial soap hoping not to make our new fish sick. That was before mommy learned bacteria were a good thing.But, the good news was that we had not added any fish yet. And so, are able to attempt a fish out cycle.
This is odd territory for me, considering I am in school to become a nurse. Everything bacteria is bad to me.
I digress...
Since then we have rinsed the bagels out of everything...have gone out and picked some live plants (anoubis, wisteria, java fern), dosed 2.5mL of pure ammonia to get the ammonia levels at 4ppm. We added Flourish for the plants....and now, with a somewhat cloudy tank, finally, we wait.
We are thinking of stocking with ghost shrimp, a mystery snail and are exploring a couple nano friendly fish, but haven't decided yet.
I wouldn't mind a betta, but I'd like to add variety to the tank for my little guy. I've seen some folks have success with a couple Enders.Thoughts?
Also, is it normal for our tank to be a little cloudy? Keep in mind that we are using substrate and a few decorations that were in the tank a couple of years ago.
For fun, we've taken video of our little journey. Welcome to view it on youtube. TankingWithBranLox is our username there.
Brandy (mom) and Loxley (son, 2yo) here!
We are new to the site and joined because we've decided to follow this site's guide to cycle our tank.
We have a 5.5 gallon, heated and filtered tank that is being recycled from a failed adventure with a Betta 2 years ago.
We're really just starting a thread for encouragement along the way. We started the tank yesterday with hopes of fish today but while Lox slept, I decided to look up fish and quickly realized why our first attempt failed so miserably! We didn't cycle.
So, some damage was already done...we "cleaned" the tank with (gasps) antibacterial soap hoping not to make our new fish sick. That was before mommy learned bacteria were a good thing.But, the good news was that we had not added any fish yet. And so, are able to attempt a fish out cycle.
This is odd territory for me, considering I am in school to become a nurse. Everything bacteria is bad to me.
I digress...
Since then we have rinsed the bagels out of everything...have gone out and picked some live plants (anoubis, wisteria, java fern), dosed 2.5mL of pure ammonia to get the ammonia levels at 4ppm. We added Flourish for the plants....and now, with a somewhat cloudy tank, finally, we wait.
We are thinking of stocking with ghost shrimp, a mystery snail and are exploring a couple nano friendly fish, but haven't decided yet.
I wouldn't mind a betta, but I'd like to add variety to the tank for my little guy. I've seen some folks have success with a couple Enders.Thoughts?
Also, is it normal for our tank to be a little cloudy? Keep in mind that we are using substrate and a few decorations that were in the tank a couple of years ago.
For fun, we've taken video of our little journey. Welcome to view it on youtube. TankingWithBranLox is our username there.