awakebyjava
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
- Joined
- Sep 7, 2008
- Messages
- 35
Well, its been a while since I've been on the forum. I guess the holidays are busy for everyone. Now that I am into the new semester though I thought I would post an update and ask for some feedback.
I was super stressing out over they tank before Christmas. The nitrItes were all out of control and ammonia wasn't going down very much and I saw NO nitrAtes at all. So. When I was talking to a friend from college about this endeavor he said, "Dude, you are stressing, stop stressing. Feed the fish, and forget about it." I know that for those of you in this forum who are very much into the hobby this might sound callous, but I started to think about it. My cat, when I got him, was great. But I worried constantly about if he (as a curious kitten) was going to hurt himself or get somewhere dangerous. I was the same way with my snake, thinking always about what they temperature was and whether the substrate was right. At some point I realized with both of those pets that if the care of them was more worrying than the enjoyment I got from having and caring for them then there was something wrong! So I chilled on the fish. I fed them normally, but I didn't test their water every few days. I didn't change the water in the tank for almost 2 months! Then the other day I was grabbing a mouse from the pet store and i thought about my lonely little tank. I grabbed a vacuum, as it was getting a little grungy, and another plant. When I got home I cleaned up the tank, changed the part of the water, and put in the new stuff I got. A couple days later I tested the water and, lo and behold, nitrAtes! And ammonia and nitrItes were zero! I was so excited that the dang tank had finally cycled that I went out and got even more new stuff as I had also found a good store for some rock and driftwood. Here is the tank right now:
I am loving those little kyoto plants. I love plants in general, and I think that I am not doing well with them. The peacock fern I got died pretty quickly, and I have a little bit of brown smudge on things, which I think are diatoms? Which I guess means lack of light. That makes sense because I am only using a walmart fluorescent strip light right now. It works fine for lighting, and I don't really like any of the hoods I see around, especially not for the price. I am probably going to make one myself, because I have the right skills, but until I do, what kind of bulb should I put into this 18" fixture? I was looking at this one Zoo Med Flora Sun Max Plant Growth Fluorescent Lamp - 18" (T8) at Big Al's Online as it is the right size and close to those I see recommended for plants. Not like the Coralife bulbs everyone seems to suggest, but there isn't a T-5 in the right size it seems. Also, what should I be doing in addition to light? People seem to talk about C02 a lot. Might be much the same as my hyrdoponics system? Expandable Hydroponics System from Junk - Flood and Drain Picture of mine is down there a bit in the comments. But with yeast? Should I wait on that till I see the effect of changing my light?
Also, right now I have 3 leopard danios in there. What do you think I should add? I kind of wanted a snail, but there aren't any in the stores around here. At least those I can walk to, and I walk everywhere. There were some awesome aquatic frogs at the store, but they said they were aggressive. I like the idea of something interesting, but I don't want to upset the peace.
Wow, I winded on for a long one. Thanks!
I was super stressing out over they tank before Christmas. The nitrItes were all out of control and ammonia wasn't going down very much and I saw NO nitrAtes at all. So. When I was talking to a friend from college about this endeavor he said, "Dude, you are stressing, stop stressing. Feed the fish, and forget about it." I know that for those of you in this forum who are very much into the hobby this might sound callous, but I started to think about it. My cat, when I got him, was great. But I worried constantly about if he (as a curious kitten) was going to hurt himself or get somewhere dangerous. I was the same way with my snake, thinking always about what they temperature was and whether the substrate was right. At some point I realized with both of those pets that if the care of them was more worrying than the enjoyment I got from having and caring for them then there was something wrong! So I chilled on the fish. I fed them normally, but I didn't test their water every few days. I didn't change the water in the tank for almost 2 months! Then the other day I was grabbing a mouse from the pet store and i thought about my lonely little tank. I grabbed a vacuum, as it was getting a little grungy, and another plant. When I got home I cleaned up the tank, changed the part of the water, and put in the new stuff I got. A couple days later I tested the water and, lo and behold, nitrAtes! And ammonia and nitrItes were zero! I was so excited that the dang tank had finally cycled that I went out and got even more new stuff as I had also found a good store for some rock and driftwood. Here is the tank right now:

I am loving those little kyoto plants. I love plants in general, and I think that I am not doing well with them. The peacock fern I got died pretty quickly, and I have a little bit of brown smudge on things, which I think are diatoms? Which I guess means lack of light. That makes sense because I am only using a walmart fluorescent strip light right now. It works fine for lighting, and I don't really like any of the hoods I see around, especially not for the price. I am probably going to make one myself, because I have the right skills, but until I do, what kind of bulb should I put into this 18" fixture? I was looking at this one Zoo Med Flora Sun Max Plant Growth Fluorescent Lamp - 18" (T8) at Big Al's Online as it is the right size and close to those I see recommended for plants. Not like the Coralife bulbs everyone seems to suggest, but there isn't a T-5 in the right size it seems. Also, what should I be doing in addition to light? People seem to talk about C02 a lot. Might be much the same as my hyrdoponics system? Expandable Hydroponics System from Junk - Flood and Drain Picture of mine is down there a bit in the comments. But with yeast? Should I wait on that till I see the effect of changing my light?
Also, right now I have 3 leopard danios in there. What do you think I should add? I kind of wanted a snail, but there aren't any in the stores around here. At least those I can walk to, and I walk everywhere. There were some awesome aquatic frogs at the store, but they said they were aggressive. I like the idea of something interesting, but I don't want to upset the peace.
Wow, I winded on for a long one. Thanks!