[My first planted tank... what do you think?]

That looks fantastic.  I just started a planted tank too and it looks like garbage next to yours ;)

 

What's that little plant on the bottom far right

[Does anyone use refrigerator water in their tanks?]

 

31 minutes ago, Brandy said:

Seachem Prime doesn't make ammonia unavialable to bacteria.

I'm curious why that is?  I don't know what's in seachem prime so I'm not really sure how it works.

Edit: I see that Seachem's FAQ says this is so.  Not a satisfying answer but I believe them.

31 minutes ago, Brandy said:

If it kills tetra safe start, it likely does it in some other way. Possibly the same chemical mechanisim to bind ammonia does something to the bacteria directly, but it isn't "starving" them. I would just keep dosing with prime, not change water too often, the bacteria will arrive.

Yeah, although it came directly from their support, I share your skepticism.  Bacteria that are starved for a day and then just die would get out competed pretty fast in nature.  Also if it really killed the bacteria through some other mechanism wouldn't those drops kill off a healthy cycled tank?  I'm pretty sure no one would buy Prime if it did that. 😉

[Does anyone use refrigerator water in their tanks?]

I'm trying to cycle my tank and having "trouble" (read: impatient) so I wanted to prevent binding up my ammonia with the drops.  I'm also using tetra safestart plus with no results (0 nitrate 0 nitrite 1.0 ammonia, 3 guppies in 5g after 5 days).  I went ahead and used the drops (seachem prime) today with a 50% water change.  Added some TSS from a new bottle from a different store chain in case my first bottle came from a bad lot or shipping conditions.  Of course right after, I found an authoritative answer from Tetra saying to wait at least 24 hours after using a dechlorinator/ammonia binder otherwise the TSS dies.  I guess I'll dose some more tomorrow and see how it goes and use boiled fridge water with no drops for the next two weeks (tetra says no water changes but I'm too afraid to go that far unless my ammonia stays under 1.0)

[Does anyone use refrigerator water in their tanks?]

My fridge has a cartridge filter that filters chlorine (we don't have chloramine in our city water either) and other things like heavy metals.

I'm wondering if I could use that instead of adding drops to my water change water.  I presume it would also soften my water but tap water here is really soft and i add salts anyway. 

Does anyone already use 'fridge water in their tank?