Shane L.

I'll message you when I'm ready to purchase, thanks!

Thanks for steering my question in the right direction! Ok, thanks for the suggestions. I may give Scarlet Badis a try soon!

I’ve wanted to get a Scarlet Badis last year but was told to wait until my tank is seasoned well before buying one. My 24 gallon bookshelf tank is now 1 1/2 years old now, fairly heavily stocked with plants (see photo) and only a few small fish: 4 endler male guppies and a small regular guppy, 2 neon tetras, 1 mystery snail and about 80+ cherry shrimp. All good so far for the most part. I know Scarlet Bais need live food (maybe they can eat some of my smallest cherry shrimp) and my LFS says they feed theirs Freshwater Frenzy frozen cubes with success. My question is how anyone out there handles feeding Scarlet Badis (or other very small live food eaters) when they are on vacation? I have an Aquarium Coop dry food auto feeder for my other fish, but how would I feed a Scarlet Badis while on vacation (I would say max time away would be between 10 and 14 days). Any advice from someone who has dealt with this before will be appreciated. Thanks.

Last night at 9 days after startup it seemed like I got my first hint at possibly being cycled? At day 7 ammonia was down to zero. At day 9 both ammonia and nitrites were at zero and nitrates at 5. I guess I'll monitor it for at least another week for any spikes, but if they stay in this range, I can add the first fish! pH, GH and KH have stayed stable the whole time, with pH fluctuating just a little.

Thanks for the great fertilizer link. I was considering trying the light siesta once the tank gets cycled, but wasn’t aware it was an option during cycling. Maybe I’ll add that in the mix. Thanks

Ammonia, ph, KH and nitrates seem to be in safe ranges per your numbers above. Nitrite is at 1ppm so I’ll keep an eye on that. May be even higher since 1.0, 2.0 and 5.0 are all nearly the same color on the chart! Thanks

Thanks for the info!

Staying fishless with the cycle. I know to expect ammonia and nitrite spikes during cycling so no water changes because of that, but what other test parameter would trigger a necessary water change during cycling? Would I need to do a water change with high nitrates, say over 40 or 80? Or is it ok to leave nitrates high during cycling too?

Eco Complete is inert so no leaching from that, but maybe some from the Easy Tabs I buried ( 1 every 4 or 5 inches or so around the tank on sides, middle and back where plants are). I won't waste my time water changing daily and just keep an eye on the water parameters. If anyone reading this feels differently, please let me know so I'll be totally conflicted on what to do, LOL. Thanks for your opinions.

Also @lefty o" - Believe me, I don't want to do water changes every day. I've just seen online where it's often recommended for new heavily planted tanks to do 50% water changes daily for week 1, every other day week 2, every 3 days week 3 and weekly after that. Do you recommend not doing any water changes until it's finished cycling? Less water changes sounds good to me!

Thanks, now your 75 gallon in the photo is what I wanted to start with - it looks amazing! But I'll learn on my 24 gallon first! I do have several small guppies to spare in my 3 gallon. Maybe I'll consider switching over to a fish in cycle. Forgot to mention in my post that I did add a medium piece of spiderwood, a few small dragonstones, java moss and 2 anubias nana petites from my cycled 3 gallon tank to help (I'll edit my post to add it). That coupled with Seachem Prime bacteria and whatever bacteria is in Eco Complete should help jump start the cycling too. Thanks for the input!

Hello All, I’m new to planted tanks and maybe a little too ambitious thanks to YouTube, the internet and forums like this. So I tried to pace myself with a fairly small starter tank as an upgrade to my current 3 gallon. Two days ago I set up and started the fish-less cycling process on a heavily planted 24 gallon long rimless bookshelf tank. I’m trying to get opinions on: 1) whether to fertilize the water column with Easy Green and Easy Iron during the cycling process (already buried Aquarium Coop Easy Root Tabs during setup) - if so, how often, daily or weekly?, and 2) Should I add a flake of food daily during cycling, and 3) Water change frequency (see current schedule below) I know there is no right way or wrong way, things work differently for everyone. So just wanted to get opinions on the 3 questions above. Photos attached and specs below: Tank: 24 gallon, low iron, rimless 39” x 11.75” x 11.75” Seachem Tidal 35 with 2 sponge thicknesses and Seachem Matrix Small airstone for surface agitation. No Co2 Fluval Plant 3.0 light raised about 3” from water surface. Light set for 6 hours per day during cycling with intensity (will raise to 8 hours after cycling) set to about 30% intensity with slight increase every 2 weeks until I reach maximum 65% (since tank is so shallow)-this is following Bentley Pascoe setting from his Youtube videos. Heated with temperature around 76 to 78 degrees, probably will be around 80 degrees during summer. Substrate: Eco Complete with Aquarium Coop Easy Tabs set throughout during setup. Topped with very small Aqua Natural gravel, and sprinkled with larger regular gravel and crushed dragon stone for color accents. Hardscape: spiderwood (boiled so no tanins), petrified wood, small dragon stones Plants: Based on research, all should be good with no Co2 and medium light. Anubias Nana Petite, Java Moss, Super Red Ludwigia, Bacopa, Golden Lloydeilla, Ludwigia perusensis, Ludwigia Ovalis, Rotala, Micro Sword, Giant Baby Tears, Dwarf Hairgrass, Frogbit (may not survive with airstone bubbles popping on surface and getting them wet?) On day 1 parameters were: Ammonia 0, Nitrites .25, Nitrates 40-80, pH 7.6, GH 15/285, KH 5-6/75-100 On day 2 parameters were: Ammonia .5, Nitrites .25, Nitrates 20, pH 7.4, GH 14/270, KH 6/100 I plan to do water changes daily for week 1, every other day for week 2, every 3 days for week 3 and weekly after that Adding Seachem Prime Stability for beneficial bacteria daily for first week per the bottle instructions. Then with each water change after that. I did add a medium piece of spiderwood, a few small dragonstones, java moss and 2 anubias nana petites from my cycled 3 gallon tank to help boost the cycling with beneficial bacteria (along with what is in Seachem Prime and Eco Complete). Thanks, Shane

@lefty o @Guppysnail I’m considering just gravel as well but was afraid to try. I’m assuming you use root tabs every 3 or 4 months and probably liquid fertilizer weekly? Do you use anything else to help growth, like CO2?

@Ragnarok12 Thanks for the info and photos. Your tank and lid look amazing and that's exactly what I would like to do. And I like the tip of using the rubber bumpers. I'll look into local glass shops for pricing! Thanks again for the photos.

@ZenzoThanks for the info, good to hear sitting it on top edge is working for you.