Hi everyone,
First time poster and brand new to the hobby! I have just started my 5 foot tank 160 gallon freshwater community tank.
So far everything is going great, I thought I would post my progress in case anyone has advice as it is my first time in the hobby.
Okay, I am running a SUN SUN canister filter properly stocked with sponge bio balls ect. I run no heater on my tank and have plenty of air stones it is a very well oxygenated tank.
The tank is a planted tank with a LED light (red,blue,white) my flora consists of 1 x Anubias, 6 x Java Ferns, 1 x Amazon Sword, 1 x Water Sprite, 1 x Banana Lily, 4 x Long reed plant (Don't know name) and 1 x another red / green petal leaf plant not sure on the name sorry.
It is quite a well planted tank with a substrate that consists of black tiny pebbles and red fluorite as the nutrients provider for my plants. I have some nice bits of large drift wood lots of stones (dragon stone and Seriyu) which creates plenty of caves and hiding spots.
I am currently in the process of my tanks nitrogen cycle, the tank has currently been running for 6 days. I have used seachem stability as my tank starter to create good bacteria for my bio-filter dosing it daily for what apparently should be 7 days.
(After 7 days do I stop dosing it with seachem?)
I have fish in my cycle my livestock so far is 3 x red tailed sharks, 3 x Clown Loach, 5 x Kuhli Loach, 1 x hill stream loach and finally 1 x long fin pleco.
I have been testing my water daily and results have been great. Average PH 6.8 - 7.8, no chlorine, safe nitrate and safe nitrites. I also have a ammonia test kit and have 0 - 0.25 ammonia levels still need to monitor this now that I am feeding the tank 1 x a day.
That is kind of the basic information so far. I have had no issues yet and would love to hear from more experienced people as to what I should be doing or looking out for with this set up. I know I should expect an ammonia spike at some stage...
Thanks guys if you read it I know it was long feel free to ask questions if you need more details.
First time poster and brand new to the hobby! I have just started my 5 foot tank 160 gallon freshwater community tank.
So far everything is going great, I thought I would post my progress in case anyone has advice as it is my first time in the hobby.
Okay, I am running a SUN SUN canister filter properly stocked with sponge bio balls ect. I run no heater on my tank and have plenty of air stones it is a very well oxygenated tank.
The tank is a planted tank with a LED light (red,blue,white) my flora consists of 1 x Anubias, 6 x Java Ferns, 1 x Amazon Sword, 1 x Water Sprite, 1 x Banana Lily, 4 x Long reed plant (Don't know name) and 1 x another red / green petal leaf plant not sure on the name sorry.
It is quite a well planted tank with a substrate that consists of black tiny pebbles and red fluorite as the nutrients provider for my plants. I have some nice bits of large drift wood lots of stones (dragon stone and Seriyu) which creates plenty of caves and hiding spots.
I am currently in the process of my tanks nitrogen cycle, the tank has currently been running for 6 days. I have used seachem stability as my tank starter to create good bacteria for my bio-filter dosing it daily for what apparently should be 7 days.
(After 7 days do I stop dosing it with seachem?)
I have fish in my cycle my livestock so far is 3 x red tailed sharks, 3 x Clown Loach, 5 x Kuhli Loach, 1 x hill stream loach and finally 1 x long fin pleco.
I have been testing my water daily and results have been great. Average PH 6.8 - 7.8, no chlorine, safe nitrate and safe nitrites. I also have a ammonia test kit and have 0 - 0.25 ammonia levels still need to monitor this now that I am feeding the tank 1 x a day.
That is kind of the basic information so far. I have had no issues yet and would love to hear from more experienced people as to what I should be doing or looking out for with this set up. I know I should expect an ammonia spike at some stage...
Thanks guys if you read it I know it was long feel free to ask questions if you need more details.
