@Odd DuckThank you so much, that is very useful information. I'm sad about the substrate, I did not see a warning anywhere on the bag about not being snail safe 😞 when looking at in on their website though I see that. I just went and looked at my bag and it doesn't mention it. wish they would have. 😞 I don't know what to do now, I'm not sure if I should not get a snail or if I should put a layer of sand on top of the gravel, or change the whole substrate out completely. 😞 I'm stuck on what to do.
I'm in Michigan. I have thought of calling around different places seeing if they sell cycled sponge filters at all and wondered if I could find any online but wasn't sure if bacteria would survive being shipped etc so I wasn't sure if I should/could or not! It would be nice to find something like that though to help the process.
Oh and to answer about testing daily, I was but then without progress I started only doing it a couple times a week because I thought maybe I was testing too often and being too obsessive about it, was also feeling discouraged.
Thanks, im glad too, that makes sense about the diatoms eating up nutrients.Im hoping it won't be too long before it's ready for a Betta. Not sure what to do about a snail now though because I don't want to get one to see what happens and have him get cut on the gravel or something 😞
@Chick-In-Of-TheSea Yeah it was surprisingly enjoyable 😂 Thanks, I'll give it a good clean and hopefully that will help!
I'm guessing it must be the light coming in from the side, I think I'm gonna pull the curtain over further around the edge of the curtain rod and see if that helps completely block any light out. Would it be a good idea to put something along the side of the tank, like hang a towel over it or even wrap some tinfoil over it for the time being to block more light out completely?