Hi everyone! New hobbyist here (aquarist?!) and already feeling some multiple tank syndrome coming on. I'll add pictures at the bottom.
When I started out, I didn't know the first thing about getting an aquarium going so I came to this site and read until my eyes cross. I did a full 8 week long nitrogen cycle, got real substrate, was careful about allowing the pH to just be natural and unmodified, and instead chose plants and fish around what the natural pH of my water was already (I of course treated the water with a conditioner for every change).
I used the Fluval black sand and black gravel substrates and rinsed that out for several hours and STILL had clouding hahaha. Took about a week to fully settle that out, then I went ahead and planted some amazon swords, microblades, and a few dwarf hairgrass clumps. I kept a couple clumped and propogated a couple of clumps into tiny sprouts. So far things seem to be growing, but it's only been a short time, so I'm being patient about it.
I am using a full LED hood with a beauty max light and the default that came with the hood as well. I also have an Aqueon QuietFlow 20 filter on there as well as a 78 degree preset heater.
I set it up with 6 zebra danios at first, waited about a week and then introduced 5 sunburst platys and 5 neon tetras. So here we are~!
This next one was BEFORE I added in the backdrop and the hood light, so forgive the weird quality:
When I started out, I didn't know the first thing about getting an aquarium going so I came to this site and read until my eyes cross. I did a full 8 week long nitrogen cycle, got real substrate, was careful about allowing the pH to just be natural and unmodified, and instead chose plants and fish around what the natural pH of my water was already (I of course treated the water with a conditioner for every change).
I used the Fluval black sand and black gravel substrates and rinsed that out for several hours and STILL had clouding hahaha. Took about a week to fully settle that out, then I went ahead and planted some amazon swords, microblades, and a few dwarf hairgrass clumps. I kept a couple clumped and propogated a couple of clumps into tiny sprouts. So far things seem to be growing, but it's only been a short time, so I'm being patient about it.
I am using a full LED hood with a beauty max light and the default that came with the hood as well. I also have an Aqueon QuietFlow 20 filter on there as well as a 78 degree preset heater.
I set it up with 6 zebra danios at first, waited about a week and then introduced 5 sunburst platys and 5 neon tetras. So here we are~!
This next one was BEFORE I added in the backdrop and the hood light, so forgive the weird quality: