New interest has brought me here into a new circle of people; hello!
Please bear with me as I have a few questions.. Any and all advice much appreciated!
So here's the deal.
I bought a small 2 gallon self-sustaining aquarium for my gf. I used reverse osmosis water & upon startup tested balanced ph, 0 chlorine & 0 hardness.
Now the system is supposed to be self-sustaining - filter, pump, fish creates waste that feeds basil growing on top of the tank - in turn filtering the water even further, once it's grown.
So I got 1 betta fish, a mystery snail I think? A couple artificial ornaments & a moss ball. (Pics for ref.)
I let system run with water & decor for 2 days before I added life. I was impatient & couldn't wait for basil to grow.
1 week in & Gleek the betta eats regularly & seems generally happy. Sir snail really doesn't do much. I've only seen him change locations one time. Isolated & pit him on top of an algae thin - he was very active. Put him back in tank & remained active rest of the day. But that was it. His foot hangs out & he responds to touch but never really moves.
Legolas collectible toy came in a sealed package. Rinsed him & the tank & all the decor for that matter with the R/O water. Aqua siliconed the toy to a tank-safe rock & put him in.
Also added 3-4 drops of beneficial bacteria with water top off. -took a week for me to realize that R/O is super clean & some beneficial bacteria would, well.. be beneficial.
TLDR; So now, currently 2 weeks in - betta still happy. Snail still not active. Basil has sprouted. & I noticed the water to be slightly cloudy.. Which I know indicates a water change is necessary, right?
At least 1 algae thin & some tiny betta pellets have disintegrated in there, snail seemingly didn't eat any.
I retested water & now it's showing hardness.
I removed the toy & plan on aqua-siliconing the whole thing.
So all in all, all thoughts & advice are welcome! What should I do moving forward? Do a 25 or 50% water change until basil fully grows? Remove or add anything?
Thanks in advance for your time
Please bear with me as I have a few questions.. Any and all advice much appreciated!
So here's the deal.
I bought a small 2 gallon self-sustaining aquarium for my gf. I used reverse osmosis water & upon startup tested balanced ph, 0 chlorine & 0 hardness.
Now the system is supposed to be self-sustaining - filter, pump, fish creates waste that feeds basil growing on top of the tank - in turn filtering the water even further, once it's grown.
So I got 1 betta fish, a mystery snail I think? A couple artificial ornaments & a moss ball. (Pics for ref.)
I let system run with water & decor for 2 days before I added life. I was impatient & couldn't wait for basil to grow.
1 week in & Gleek the betta eats regularly & seems generally happy. Sir snail really doesn't do much. I've only seen him change locations one time. Isolated & pit him on top of an algae thin - he was very active. Put him back in tank & remained active rest of the day. But that was it. His foot hangs out & he responds to touch but never really moves.
Legolas collectible toy came in a sealed package. Rinsed him & the tank & all the decor for that matter with the R/O water. Aqua siliconed the toy to a tank-safe rock & put him in.
Also added 3-4 drops of beneficial bacteria with water top off. -took a week for me to realize that R/O is super clean & some beneficial bacteria would, well.. be beneficial.
TLDR; So now, currently 2 weeks in - betta still happy. Snail still not active. Basil has sprouted. & I noticed the water to be slightly cloudy.. Which I know indicates a water change is necessary, right?
At least 1 algae thin & some tiny betta pellets have disintegrated in there, snail seemingly didn't eat any.
I retested water & now it's showing hardness.
I removed the toy & plan on aqua-siliconing the whole thing.
So all in all, all thoughts & advice are welcome! What should I do moving forward? Do a 25 or 50% water change until basil fully grows? Remove or add anything?
Thanks in advance for your time