Bettafanatic
Aquarium Advice Addict
Today I have started a brand new tank, and the biggest one I ever owned (which is a bit sad considering its small size). A 38 gallon planted tank! Woohoo!
The plants I have are amazon swords, java fern, cryptocoryne undulata, cryptocoryne wendtii, and dwarf anubias. So far, I am NOT off to a good start. I spent two hours yesterday battling my swords to get them to stay put, and once I finally did I realized I accidentally buried the rhyzomes of my java ferns and once i uncovered them they went all over the place and now most are tied down to rocks and driftwood and the last two are still floating. I need to figure out a spot for them. Today, I was attacked by my pressurized CO2 system twice because I decided to open the cylinder while the solenoid was plugged in, which was a slightly traumatic experience for me, and I accidentally brushed one of my swords and again it managed to break free of the substrate and now is being held down by a rock with three java ferns tied to it. As soon as its roots begin to grow I'm going to move them to a nicer spot.
The only plants that have given me absolutely no trouble are my anubias. I'm already in love with them. I have one tied to my driftwood and the others surrounding it. The crypts are also behaving. They're already starting to lift up the leaves that were drooping from the long trip through the post here (no good stores to buy healthy plants from). So yeah, not off to a good start.
But there are some good things happening, thank goodness. The cycle is started to, and I clipped some filter media from my betta tanks to seed bacteria and also used a rock from my betta tanks to tie some ferns to. But unfortunately I'm having trouble getting ammonia to 4 ppm like I'd like to. Yesterday it was at 1 ppm, and when I dosed again my results today were .5 ppm so i'm just downright confused. Maybe it's the plants or the seeded bacteria doing their work. I'll have to test for nitrites and nitrates to just in case my tank wants to apologize for putting me through hell and is going through an insta-cycle.
I'll post pictures when I can figure out how, so expect them real soon! And thanks for reading. I know it must be awfully boring reading about me fail.
The plants I have are amazon swords, java fern, cryptocoryne undulata, cryptocoryne wendtii, and dwarf anubias. So far, I am NOT off to a good start. I spent two hours yesterday battling my swords to get them to stay put, and once I finally did I realized I accidentally buried the rhyzomes of my java ferns and once i uncovered them they went all over the place and now most are tied down to rocks and driftwood and the last two are still floating. I need to figure out a spot for them. Today, I was attacked by my pressurized CO2 system twice because I decided to open the cylinder while the solenoid was plugged in, which was a slightly traumatic experience for me, and I accidentally brushed one of my swords and again it managed to break free of the substrate and now is being held down by a rock with three java ferns tied to it. As soon as its roots begin to grow I'm going to move them to a nicer spot.
The only plants that have given me absolutely no trouble are my anubias. I'm already in love with them. I have one tied to my driftwood and the others surrounding it. The crypts are also behaving. They're already starting to lift up the leaves that were drooping from the long trip through the post here (no good stores to buy healthy plants from). So yeah, not off to a good start.
But there are some good things happening, thank goodness. The cycle is started to, and I clipped some filter media from my betta tanks to seed bacteria and also used a rock from my betta tanks to tie some ferns to. But unfortunately I'm having trouble getting ammonia to 4 ppm like I'd like to. Yesterday it was at 1 ppm, and when I dosed again my results today were .5 ppm so i'm just downright confused. Maybe it's the plants or the seeded bacteria doing their work. I'll have to test for nitrites and nitrates to just in case my tank wants to apologize for putting me through hell and is going through an insta-cycle.
I'll post pictures when I can figure out how, so expect them real soon! And thanks for reading. I know it must be awfully boring reading about me fail.
