fluval edge

[tiger terror]

Setup this morning to begin cycling,black silica sand,1 lava rock&sm piece of driftwood. After cycling will be adding some baby tears,java moss,wendi,java fern&possibly short hair grass...along with three varieties of shrimp,2white cloud & a dwarf snail of some kind...

 

[Rhino]

Where did you get the sand?

 

[tiger terror]

Uncle Bill's Indpls.In

 

[KittyKat]

What about going for a small school of one of the Boraras species? They're better suited in terms of activity level (White Cloud Mountain minnows can clear a 4-5 ft tank in under a second), set up requirements (WCMm come from fast flowing streams) and you could keep them in a better sized group (smaller -> less bioload per fish). Boraras would also be less likely to have health problems as WCMm would be stunted in a tank that size, while the Boraras wouldn't.

 

[tiger terror]

Thanks for the input Kat,I will be doing some research on the various micro species I can add..keep in mind that I plan on this mainly being a shrimp tank w/fish highlight..so not a lot of fish in there.Any other suggestions would be appreciated

 

[tiger terror]

So far the cycle is going well,added a couple ghost shrimp& they seem to be doing quite well. Will check levels tomorrow & if all is well will be going to the lfs to pick up plants,my various shrimp&a couple small fish..

 

[Justme68]

Looks good so far! I'm a newbie & trying to learn as much as possible. My question is....can you add plants when setting up and let them go thru the cycling also?

 

[KittyKat]

Thanks for the input Kat,I will be doing some research on the various micro species I can add..keep in mind that I plan on this mainly being a shrimp tank w/fish highlight..so not a lot of fish in there.Any other suggestions would be appreciated

That's understandable, of course, but the reason I pointed out that you could keep more is because minnows and boraras (microrasboras) are both schooling and shoaling fish respectively, so it wouldn't be fair on them if you kept only two. Schoaling fish (which includes schooling) should really be kept in groups of at least 6 for their own benefit… there are quite a few fish that will do well in pairs in a tank that size though, like Brachygobius aggregatus (peacock gobby) or a couple of male guppies.

Also, it sounds like you're doing a fish-in cycle. Please keep in mind that it would still take 4-10 days for the ammonia spike with a fish-in cycle, so it would be wise to wait for at least a week after adding the first animals before adding more, and stocking up *very slowly*.

Looks good so far! I'm a newbie & trying to learn as much as possible. My question is....can you add plants when setting up and let them go thru the cycling also?

I recommend fish-less cycles because they're much easier if you don't want to hurt the fish and take less time because you can keep the conditions ideal for the bacteria, instead of the fish. For fish-less cycles, it is best to not add plants until it is complete because ammonia + light lead to algae.
On the other hand, I consider that fish-in cycles should *always* be done with as many plants in the tank as possible, because the plants will use up some ammonia, meaning that the fish would be less likely to be harmed (as any ammonia at all is harmful to some extent and the bacteria can multiply even with amounts of ammonia that our liquid test kits cannot detect).

 

[redsea]

Looks great so far!

 

[tiger terror]

So test results are as follows: ph between 7.4 & 7.6-ammo .25ppm actually could be alittle less as the color isn't exact - nitrite 0 ppm- nitrate about 2.5...also I am using ro water in this tank..

 

[KittyKat]

Just out of curiosity, is there any particular reason you are using RO water? Are you adding back some of the leftover water or an additive (to buffer it)?

It's clear from your result that you ammonia spike has started, so it would be a good idea to keep that as close to 0 ppm as possible with water changes

 

[tiger terror]

My tap water is hard&I wanted to go w/soft water as with some of the species I intend on keeping thrive in it.Also did ammo test this morning&reading was .25 ppm,did a 35% water change&added 3.5 ml of bb...will recheck after I get home today&will pick up some plants I had on order at the lfs.

 

[KittyKat]

My tap water is hard&I wanted to go w/soft water as with some of the species I intend on keeping thrive in it.

Even with the softest soft water species, they can't survive in RO water unless you add some of the minerals back… otherwise, you might start seeing nutrient deficiency and secondary problems due to osmoregulation in the fish (poor health) and potentially snails as well (poor shell quality). I recommend you read what I wrote about osmoregulation, where I mention why keeping neutral/hard water fish in soft water is a bad idea: Importance of acclimatisation | An aquarium adventure

Also did ammo test this morning&reading was .25 ppm,did a 35% water change&added 3.5 ml of bb...will recheck after I get home today&will pick up some plants I had on order at the lfs.

Looks like it's progressing, you should start seeing nitrites in the next few days. If you're doing single bucket water changes and the bucket will take a little bit more water, larger ones would be better. Also, if you don't know already, it's a really good idea to use double dose of a dechlorinator which "deals" with ammonia (like Prime or Stress Coat) as it will make it easier on the shrimp, giving them a higher chance of survival, while not affecting the cycle. The plants will really help too

That's bb?

 

[tiger terror]

BB being beneficial bacteria,using Stability by Seachum..also have been using Prime with the water..

 

[Wy Renegade]

Looks like it's progressing, you should start seeing nitrites in the next few days. If you're doing single bucket water changes and the bucket will take a little bit more water, larger ones would be better. Also, if you don't know already, it's a really good idea to use double dose of a dechlorinator which "deals" with ammonia (like Prime or Stress Coat) as it will make it easier on the shrimp, giving them a higher chance of survival, while not affecting the cycle. The plants will really help too

That's bb?

I think you may have misread the OP's first post. S/he stated that shrimp, plants, and fish would not be added until after the cycle is complete. All this concern for the well-being of the animals is fine, but keep in mind, none have yet been added to the aquarium.

Nice article by the way.

 

[tiger terror]

So checked my parameters when I got home today&ammo was at 0 ppm...could I already be out of the woods with this one?will continue to do checks as usual..also added some plants that I had on order...

 

[Aron]

Have you upgraded the lighting in the Fluval edge? I ask just out of interest because I looked at several different methods with mine of upgrading the light to grow plants and finally settled on simply changing the bulbs to a higher watt LED.

 

[tiger terror]

No I haven't ,was told that the halides were sufficient... Do you have a link to a site where I cam take a look?

 

[Aron]

I think... Don't quite me on this... But the stock mr-11 bulbs are 15 watt halogen and you can directly replace them with bulbs with the same fitting like gu-10's. The ones I replaced them with were 35 watt gu-10 and I picked them up for real cheap. Of course things may be different over the pond!

 

[tiger terror]

Thanks Aron ,I'll check it out.