Getting in...

[AquaBud]

Hi. I must say after lurking here for a week or two this is the place to be!

My wife and I was given a 20 gallon starter kit about two weeks ago. It sat in the box for a week while I read online as much as I could.

Saturday we put it together. It's a Top Fin ( I know now) with white sand like substrate. I kept the hob filter and added a smaller one. I also ditched the stock hood and got a glass hinged top and added 2 23 watt cfl bulbs in 5 1/2 inch brooder lights placed on the glass top. I found a piece of driftwood at a lfs and boiled it for several hours.

Thanks to another member of this board I came into some seeded media that I added today.

I have a few lingering questions though.

Should I still be cycling like I would be fish less with seeded material in the tank?

I'm showing about 2 ppm on the ammonia, 0 on nitrite and about 5 on the nitrate. This tank has been running since early Saturday. I have 2 Anubis Nanas, 2 java ferns, and a big bunch of Java moss. I have flourish and co2 booster but I have yet to use it.

Also, is this too much light for this setup? I'm going to add wisteria and hornwort in the next few days when I can find some lol.

 

[rhsoto94]

You have to have a steady source of ammonia to see when it cycled so yes watch it like your doing a fish less.

 

[AquaBud]

Thanks for the reply!

 

[rhsoto94]

No problem. I did the same thing recently, the seeded media only sped up the cycling process to about a week only.

 

[threnjen]

rhsoto is entirely correct. Pretend you're fishless cycling from scratch and dose it that way, and it will just finish a lot faster.

 

[AquaBud]

Awesome

 

[AquaBud]

My nitrites are now off the charts but showing only 20 nitrates. My ammonia went down from 4 to .25 since last night. Closer and closer lol. Now to find some floating plants...