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Penny

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Posts posted by Penny

    Newbie looking to understand my water parameters

    in General Discussion

    Posted · Edited by Penny
    More info

    18 minutes ago, Jessica. said:

    Based on your nitrite readings and the fact that they haven't dropped, you tank isn't cycled yet. It's probably well on it's way, but we'd need to see ammonia to test that. 

    Do you have fish, or are you adding ammonia? It's helpful to have an ammonia source when cycling a tank. This could eve be just adding a pinch of fish food on day 1. 

    Here's what you're looking for to tell you it's cycling- 

    1.  Have some kind of ammonia/bio load source (could be a fish, could be pure ammonia dropped in, could be fish food.)
    2. See ammonia decrease, then see nitrite levels increase. This shows you've growing the colonies of bacteria that will process ammonia into nitrite
    3. Next, see nitrite decrease and nitrates increase. This means you're growing the bacteria that process nitrites into nitrates. 
    4. Finally, see a read of 0 ammonia and 0 nitrites, and some nitrates. This means all colonies of bacteria have reached grown a large enough population to process the waste in your tank. This is a "cycled" tank. A freshly cycled tank is vulnerable to crashed for the first few month. 

    A note on the ammonia source. You need to continue to feed the ammonia comsuming bacteria throughout the whole process. If you dose liquid ammonia on day one but not again, you'll grow some bacteria to process it, but they will starve and die off when there no longer ammonia present. Fish product a constant source of waste for these bacteria, so if you want to cycle a tank without fish, you need to simulate the waste production of a fish.  

    So, all that said, here what I see in your tests: 

    • GH/KH both fine. Any variations in these I'm chocking up to some test inaccuracy with color reading. 
    • PH fine. Looks like about 7.6. Maybe higher in the one tank, if you have seriyu stone in it that can raise PH, or maybe you have driftwood in a tank which can lower PH. Again, looks fine and nothing I'd pay much attention to besides saying, yup, that didn't crash (but you have 6KH so a PH crash is unlikely).
    • Nirite is not decreasing, it's reading 5 every time. This is the biggest tell right now that your tanks are not cycled completely yet. A cycled tank should not have a nitrite reading. But I also see your tap has very high nitrites, so maybe your tank is very close to cycled and just needs a few more days to process that final bit of nitrite into nitrates. I'd keep monitoring and looking for this number to drop. 

    Are you looking to add fish soon? I'd love to see pictures of the tanks 🙂

     

    Thank you so much @Jessica.  And everyone for taking the time to reply. I'll be sure to get the ammonia test asap.

    So.. I have no fish, I'm not planning on adding anything for quite a while. (I'm thinking months. Eventually a Betta and some shrimps) 

    I've not added any ammonia, but I did add a pinch of fish food to each tank on day one. I haven't added any fertiliser since day one (we're day 6 now)

    I also have a good bit of water evaporate every day. I tested before topping up. I add tapsafe and age my water for days.

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    • Like 4

    Newbie looking to understand my water parameters

    in General Discussion

    Posted · Edited by Penny
    Typo

    Hi, I set up three nano tanks last Wednesday and everything seems to be going really well. My plants are all growing nicely.. lots of new leaves and dangly root sprouts. My two hitchhiker snails are about 300x bigger than when I found them. 

    I have the tetra 6in1 dip tests for now. I decided to test my water every 3 days to see what's going on with it. I keep reading about the cycle.. I'm just not sure what's going on at the moment! I'm collecting my data and making a spreadsheet. Things got even more confusing when I downloaded the app and it gave me different readings. So now I have two spreadsheets.. one by eye, and one by the app.

    Which one should I trust? I know already I don't trust the KH on the app.. the colour my camera captured was nothing like  I saw on the strip! Which also kept changing before my eyes.

    If anyone could look at my numbers and explain to me what's going on I'd be super grateful ☺️ also, if there's anything I could do to improve my setup. Also.. any idea how the app gave me a co2 reading? 

    Thank you so much 

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    My first aquariums. Planted nano tanks photo journal.

    in Photos, Videos & Journals

    Posted

    I wanted to share with you my first steps into the wonderful world of aquariums. I'm not sure if this will be useful to anyone in the future, or if I'm just preserving and sharing the experience for posterity. I must say, I enjoyed the entire experience immensely, and I'm looking around at where I can fit more tanks. 

    I started with three little tanks. 2x 10lt (2.65 us gallon) and 1x 15lt (4 us gallons) and a love of Marimo moss balls 😃 I knew I wanted it to be heavily planted but knew nothing about aquatic plants... so I read, joined the forum and watched youtube. I was imagining the tanks as being just plants, but i soon realised that to have my little worlds work properly I needed to balance it. That's when I fell in love with shrimp. I had no idea there were so many different types and colours, I'd have a few snails to keep things clean and it seemed a Betta would complete my setup. Again, I had no idea they could be so fancy and beautiful. I also decided that I wanted the plants to be my filters.. so I'm going without for now, if I need to I will add them later. I want to keep my bioload low.

    I'm going to wait until I see some good plant growth before I even think about adding my fish and then shrimp. I really don't want to kill anything, especially by rushing things.

    I made my shopping list and started gathering all the bits and bobs I would need.

    3x 25w heaters

    Driftwood, to get biofilm on and tannins for my shrimp

    3.5lt Tropica Plant growth substrate (1cm 1/2" all over)

    10kg (22lb) Black limpopo course sand

    Stones

    Fertiliser

    Root tabs

    When it came to the light I did struggle a little, I didn't want to spend tooooo much. I wondered if I could uses a plant grow light, that wasn't specifically for aquariums. I found a lamp that would be perfect, with 144 full spectrum LED's on 3 goose necks. this had a timer for 3, 6 and 12 hrs. 10x dimmable and was only 29.99 gbp. @Jessica. showed me that she used that kind of bulb in a super cool antique lamp she'd made so I decided to try it.  When it arrived the build quality was actually much better than expected. I tested it on some herb pots that were struggling in the kitchen with the lack of sunlight. within a couple of hours my limp horizontal parsley had stood up and was leaning towards the light, I turned it.. it leaned back. I was so happy! 

    I ordered my plants, waited (somewhat) patiently, and then set to putting it all together. Just to namecheck.. I have been really inspired by @Streetwise nano tanks and just about everything @Daniel does!

    The plants I chose were

    Salviania Naturns (Water spangles. floater)

    Elodia Densa (anacharis)

    Bacopa Caroroliniana

    Water Wisteria

    Myacca Fluvitalis 

    Java fern

    Hair grass

    Liliopensis Brasiliensis (micro sword)

    Amazon Swords

    Jungle Vallis

    Echinodrorus Harbii (Oval leaf amazon sword type plant)

    oh.. and 10 Marimo Mossballs

     

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    • Like 4
    • Thanks 2

    Lighting for the nano tanks

    in Plants, Algae, and Fertilizers

    Posted

    Hi, I'm hoping for a little advice on lighting for my trio of planted nano tanks. 

    I was wondering if something like these plant grow lights would work for me? I like the idea of having one plug with three lights on the goose neck. I think they'd look pretty neat and give me room to grow up and out of the tanks.

    Am I missing something important? My tanks are only 8" deep to the very top of the glass.

    Many thanks in advance ☺️

     

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    • Haha 1

    Share your macro photos!

    in Photos, Videos & Journals

    Posted · Edited by Penny
    Typos

    This is not a traditional macro photo but I kinda love it. I got my first plants for my nano tanks yesterday and when I was sorting out my floaters had a tiny black speck like a grain of sand stuck to my finger. My camera wouldn't show me what it was so I used a jewelers lens and got this pic. 

    I must admit, I love the adorable little guy! His name is Watson 🐌

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    • Like 12

    Filtration in the Nano Aquarium

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    36 minutes ago, Streetwise said:

    Welcome to the forum!

    I would keep it simple and just use some nano or small (depending on height) Co-Op Coarse Sponge Filters. I also like internal MF10s for moving water horizontally. You can go no-filter on some types of established tanks, but I would not recommend it to someone just starting out.

    I have pico and nano tanks in my indoor aquariums journal, if you want some small tank examples.

    Cheers

    Thank you. Your tanks are beautiful, and just what made me want nano tanks in the first place.

    I'm more than happy to stay with just the plants for a long time, maybe permanently. 

    I'm thinking nano filters might be best. I'm in England, so no co-op filters for me unfortunately.

    Thanks for your reply

    • Thanks 1

    Filtration in the Nano Aquarium

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Hi everyone. I'm brand new to the hobby and i'm looking for some advice.

    I'm setting up three nano aquariums, I'm not sure if they will just be heavily planted but I love shrimp and snails and I would love a Betta in each

    What is the recommended filtration?  I've been looking at external filters.. is it possible to split the input and output three ways and do them all from one filter?

    Does anyone have any experience with a nano tank with no filtration at all?

    I'd love to see any pictures of your setups 😁

    Thank you so much in advance

    Greetings from England

    in Introductions & Greetings

    Posted

    Hey Everyone. I'm Penny and I've been lurking around for a little while, trying to absorb some of your knowledge bit felt it was time to say hello 😁

    I'm super new to the hobby and I am trying to find out as much as I can to give myself the best chance for success. I'm going to be setting up 3 nano tanks, I want them to be heavily planted and possibly keep a few shrimp and maybe a Betta in each. 

    I plan on getting the tanks planted and settled for as long as possible before even thinking about putting anything alive in there. 

    I'm interested in any plants you think are must haves in nano tanks I have 3x 2.7 us gallon/10lt and one 4 gallon 15lt.. I'm thinking lidless to let the plants get big as possible.

    Thanks for all the super interesting posts... I know these won't be my only tanks.. the hobby just doesn't work that way! 😂

    • Like 2
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