Greetings from SEPA

[Scc1798]

Hello all, recently started my first tank, 29 gallon aqueon, and went with some heavy planting. I got some bladder snails which hitchhiked in on one of the plants and I'm ok with that atm. 

 

Not sure what I plan on doing when the tank has cycled as far as fish go but I'm more excited for the plants in general at this time. 

 

I do have some questions on cycling though. I've got eco complete and fluvial stratum for a substrate with a gravel cap. Two pieces of spider wood and an assortment of plants. I put in fish flakes every other day for the first week, ammonia was sitting around 1ppm and pH of my water is high at 7.4 from the tap, well water with softeners and lead removal. I have some root tabs in and I've been using easy green, six squirts to start and three squirts every 4 days. I haven't seen a nitrite spike yet, testing every three days. Ammonia has dropped to 0 and my pH has dropped to 6.2. I've only topped off the tank at this point. 

 

Should I continue to add ammonia with flakes, keeping ammonia around 2ppm until I see a nitrite spike? Should I do anything to raise the pH in the tank at this time? 

Additionally I have started seeing either brown or diatom algae on surfaces and some hair algae growing on plants. I had my lights setup for ten hours a day but reduced that to 8. I have an acrylic lid I made for the tank which I've read can reduce light. 

 

Also running a hob marineland 150 hob with a prefilter sponge. 

 

Edited July 6, 2021 by Scc1798

[Bobbie]

Welcome! Your tank looks nice. 
 

In my experience, the tank is ‘cycled’ when there’s plenty of algae and the plants have been growing very well for a few weeks - then you can maybe try adding some hardy fish (zebra danios and albino corydoras are popular species) and see how they cope for a month or so. 

While you’re dosing the easy green, I’d also recommend seachem equilibrium - it’s good for the plants and I think it also raises ph a little bit. 

I rather like snails, because they reduce the need to fight algae, but if you find you’re getting an infestation of them then most aquatics places sell assassin snails - two or three will keep the snails at a reasonable number. 

[CalmedByFish]

I think others can do better at answering your questions, but I gotta tell you that Stargate is awesome. 🙂 

[Scc1798]

On 7/6/2021 at 12:07 PM, CalmedByFish said:

I think others can do better at answering your questions, but I gotta tell you that Stargate is awesome. 🙂 

Thanks! I wasn't planning to do any fake decorations but then saw it and knew it'd be the exception. 

[GameCzar]

Love the Stargate tank!  Welcome! 

[NanoNano]

I think I have the same Stargate decor...What's double awesome is that it has an air line input (which I think OP has hidden under the rock) to it and will function as a bubbler too.

[Scc1798]

On 7/6/2021 at 2:26 PM, NanoNano said:

I think I have the same Stargate decor...What's double awesome is that it has an air line input (which I think OP has hidden under the rock) to it and will function as a bubbler too.

It does indeed have an airline to an airstone. I left it slightly tucked in so I can access if I choose to run air to it. Haven't decided yet. 

[Lauren A]

On 7/6/2021 at 10:40 AM, Scc1798 said:

Hello all, recently started my first tank, 29 gallon aqueon, and went with some heavy planting. I got some bladder snails which hitchhiked in on one of the plants and I'm ok with that atm. 

 

Not sure what I plan on doing when the tank has cycled as far as fish go but I'm more excited for the plants in general at this time. 

 

I do have some questions on cycling though. I've got eco complete and fluvial stratum for a substrate with a gravel cap. Two pieces of spider wood and an assortment of plants. I put in fish flakes every other day for the first week, ammonia was sitting around 1ppm and pH of my water is high at 7.4 from the tap, well water with softeners and lead removal. I have some root tabs in and I've been using easy green, six squirts to start and three squirts every 4 days. I haven't seen a nitrite spike yet, testing every three days. Ammonia has dropped to 0 and my pH has dropped to 6.2. I've only topped off the tank at this point. 

 

Should I continue to add ammonia with flakes, keeping ammonia around 2ppm until I see a nitrite spike? Should I do anything to raise the pH in the tank at this time? 

Additionally I have started seeing either brown or diatom algae on surfaces and some hair algae growing on plants. I had my lights setup for ten hours a day but reduced that to 8. I have an acrylic lid I made for the tank which I've read can reduce light. 

 

Also running a hob marineland 150 hob with a prefilter sponge. 

 

Your tank looks beautiful!  Do you have any sunlight hitting your tank?  If so, you may consider blocking off the sunlight and reducing your lighting schedule a couple of hours more while you get the algae situation a little under control and your tank continues cycling.  
 

Watch out for those pond snail eggs too!  I’ve had some “hitchhiker” pond snails show up and they lay a LOT of eggs.  Just a warning because they can be a pain to get off of the glass, decorations and plants and keep up with.  I opted for nerites since they only reproduce in brackish water.   The assassin snail is a great idea too.  

It also sounds like you might be adding too many nutrients with the easy green and root tabs, and this will also contribute to your algae issue.  I know that stratum and eco complete are already rich with nutrients so personally, I would reduce this quite a bit.  
 

I can’t comment on ammonia dosing.  I do know that cycling a tank takes a long time.  Months.  If you’re getting antsy, you could use Seachem Stability to speed things up and cycle this way instead?  Just a thought.  

 

Hope something in here helps!  Your tank looks really awesome!!!  Good luck!  

[Lauren A]

On 7/6/2021 at 10:40 AM, Scc1798 said:

Hello all, recently started my first tank, 29 gallon aqueon, and went with some heavy planting. I got some bladder snails which hitchhiked in on one of the plants and I'm ok with that atm. 

 

Not sure what I plan on doing when the tank has cycled as far as fish go but I'm more excited for the plants in general at this time. 

 

I do have some questions on cycling though. I've got eco complete and fluvial stratum for a substrate with a gravel cap. Two pieces of spider wood and an assortment of plants. I put in fish flakes every other day for the first week, ammonia was sitting around 1ppm and pH of my water is high at 7.4 from the tap, well water with softeners and lead removal. I have some root tabs in and I've been using easy green, six squirts to start and three squirts every 4 days. I haven't seen a nitrite spike yet, testing every three days. Ammonia has dropped to 0 and my pH has dropped to 6.2. I've only topped off the tank at this point. 

 

Should I continue to add ammonia with flakes, keeping ammonia around 2ppm until I see a nitrite spike? Should I do anything to raise the pH in the tank at this time? 

Additionally I have started seeing either brown or diatom algae on surfaces and some hair algae growing on plants. I had my lights setup for ten hours a day but reduced that to 8. I have an acrylic lid I made for the tank which I've read can reduce light. 

 

Also running a hob marineland 150 hob with a prefilter sponge. 

 

One more thing, I do agree that because you have algae growth, your cycling process may be complete, so skip my advice with stability, although it never hurts to add more beneficial bacteria post large water changes.  Sorry about the mis-information there!

[Scc1798]

On 7/6/2021 at 11:28 AM, Bobbie said:

Welcome! Your tank looks nice. 
 

In my experience, the tank is ‘cycled’ when there’s plenty of algae and the plants have been growing very well for a few weeks - then you can maybe try adding some hardy fish (zebra danios and albino corydoras are popular species) and see how they cope for a month or so. 

While you’re dosing the easy green, I’d also recommend seachem equilibrium - it’s good for the plants and I think it also raises ph a little bit. 

I rather like snails, because they reduce the need to fight algae, but if you find you’re getting an infestation of them then most aquatics places sell assassin snails - two or three will keep the snails at a reasonable number. 

 

On 7/6/2021 at 4:07 PM, Lauren A said:

One more thing, I do agree that because you have algae growth, your cycling process may be complete, so skip my advice with stability, although it never hurts to add more beneficial bacteria post large water changes.  Sorry about the mis-information there!

This is what I started with, checks date, apparently a month ago! Photo at the top of thread is the other day.  I've obviously added a lot more plants to it but the ones I started with, the bacopas and rotala indica, have been doing really well I think. I didn't bother testing the first few weeks I had it setup, it's not likely that I missed nitrites is it? The eco complete was apparently supposed to have beneficial bacteria in it but I have no idea how true that is or if it would help in starting a tank. 

[Colu]

I would add crushed coral in a media bag in your filter to help buffer  and provent pH swings  

[CalmedByFish]

@NanoNano and @Scc1798 Are you guys saying the bubbles would allude to the shimmery effect in the center of the ring? If you are, that is definitely the most important piece of info in this entire thread. 🤣

[NanoNano]

Like @Scc1798, I haven't hooked mine up to a pump either.  

I got the decor off Amazon and it took three tries to get one that wasn't broken into several pieces.  The first two times,  the seller simply reeused a box from a different product (canned air for cleaning computers on try #1,  Ramen noodles on try #2) without adding *any* additional packing so the decor was free to move around in the box.  If you buy,  check seller feedback on this item carefully.

[cornelius85]

Congratulations on the new tank. At that ph level you probably will never see nitrite spike.

At that ph level all of the amonia is converted to amonium. And as far as I know plants use amonium directly (I might be wrong). The problem is when you do a water change your ph will rise instantly, And amonium will turn into amonia. That is dangerous.

[Scc1798]

On 7/7/2021 at 2:56 AM, cornelius85 said:

Congratulations on the new tank. At that ph level you probably will never see nitrite spike.

At that ph level all of the amonia is converted to amonium. And as far as I know plants use amonium directly (I might be wrong). The problem is when you do a water change your ph will rise instantly, And amonium will turn into amonia. That is dangerous.

 

On 7/6/2021 at 6:40 PM, Colu said:

I would add crushed coral in a media bag in your filter to help buffer  and provent pH swings  

I retested water from the tap, I've got well water which is sitting at 8ph and gh and kh are both listed as high. I've got a softener and lead filter inline and these readings are after them.  Would it perhaps make more sense to start doing water changes to reintroduce alkalinity to the tank and find a settling point? I don't have much evaporation with the fitted lid I've put on a couple weeks ago so I haven't topped the water off as it hasn't needed it. Maybe a 10 or 20% water change weekly and see how the levels go from there before adding any coral or stability chemicals? 

Edited July 7, 2021 by Scc1798

[Lauren A]

Hi!  What are you aiming for with your ph.  To me your ph sounds good at 8.  I guess it depends what type of fish you plan but for the plants you are using, it seems acceptable.  
 

I personally would not opt to use coral right away unless you want to raise the Ph and that’s really dependent on the fish you add as some prefer acidic water vs. alkaline.   Right now your sitting right in a neutral spot.  
 

I’m not really familiar with a lead filter inline.  I always thought they were for saltwater setups but I’m probably wrong.  I don’t have well water so maybe this is why so I can’t comment on this. 

 

Are you using Prime as a softener?  Any other additives?  
 

During cycling, i would increase water changes at 10-15% every few days but I know others might disagree.  This should not cause any major changes to ammonia or nitrites.  If it does cause a slight shift, it should not slow down your cycling process.  

BUT, I truly believe your cycle is complete with the algae growth!  If you agree, I’d go ahead and do a 40-50% water change and cleaning.  You could try cleaning up some of that algae too.
 

Have you been testing with API’s master kit?  Once you are reading 0 ammonia and 0 nitrites, you’re good.  You have the beneficial bacteria doing it’s job.  Nitrates should be around 5-15ppm, ideally.  
 

I apologize for sort of being all over the place here with cycled or not.  Moving forward, definitely add Prime or another softener to your water.  One drop or .1ml of Prime per gallon.  I’d also add some bio balls or something similar to capture beneficial bacteria to your to your HOB  I use  Seachem Matrix and have had great success and you don’t need to bag them unless you want, use a mesh bag.  They sell them real cheap on Amazon.  
 

Aim to keep direct sunlight off your tank and look into the nutrients you are adding.  Your substrate is rich in nutrients and I’m concerned this will only promote more algae growth.  It can get messy.  I just added some nerites to a tank I’m having algae issues with and wow, they do a great job cleaning things up.  There are a lot of algae eaters out there though so think about it.  The pond snails will clean up some too, for now.

 

Sorry for the long winded message.  If you want to send me exact readings from the master kit if you have it, I can look them over to see what I think.

 

thanks for reading and good luck!!!
 

 

 

[Lauren A]

@Scc1798Hi, please ignore my comment on Ph.  8 is definitely high on the alkaline side.  My head is off today.  In this case, I wouldn’t add coral.  To lower, I would add driftwood or Indian almond leaves.  There’s also a way to do this quickly with reverse osmosis water, but I’m not familiar with this.  
 

sorry I was so wrong on that.  Here’s a good article on adjusting ph.  
 

https://www.aqueon.com/articles/aquarium-ph

[Scc1798]

On 7/7/2021 at 1:03 PM, Lauren A said:

Hi!  What are you aiming for with your ph.  To me your ph sounds good at 8.  I guess it depends what type of fish you plan but for the plants you are using, it seems acceptable.  
 

I personally would not opt to use coral right away unless you want to raise the Ph and that’s really dependent on the fish you add as some prefer acidic water vs. alkaline.   Right now your sitting right in a neutral spot.  
 

I’m not really familiar with a lead filter inline.  I always thought they were for saltwater setups but I’m probably wrong.  I don’t have well water so maybe this is why so I can’t comment on this. 

 

Are you using Prime as a softener?  Any other additives?  
 

During cycling, i would increase water changes at 10-15% every few days but I know others might disagree.  This should not cause any major changes to ammonia or nitrites.  If it does cause a slight shift, it should not slow down your cycling process.  

BUT, I truly believe your cycle is complete with the algae growth!  If you agree, I’d go ahead and do a 40-50% water change and cleaning.  You could try cleaning up some of that algae too.
 

Have you been testing with API’s master kit?  Once you are reading 0 ammonia and 0 nitrites, you’re good.  You have the beneficial bacteria doing it’s job.  Nitrates should be around 5-15ppm, ideally.  
 

I apologize for sort of being all over the place here with cycled or not.  Moving forward, definitely add Prime or another softener to your water.  One drop or .1ml of Prime per gallon.  I’d also add some bio balls or something similar to capture beneficial bacteria to your to your HOB  I use  Seachem Matrix and have had great success and you don’t need to bag them unless you want, use a mesh bag.  They sell them real cheap on Amazon.  
 

Aim to keep direct sunlight off your tank and look into the nutrients you are adding.  Your substrate is rich in nutrients and I’m concerned this will only promote more algae growth.  It can get messy.  I just added some nerites to a tank I’m having algae issues with and wow, they do a great job cleaning things up.  There are a lot of algae eaters out there though so think about it.  The pond snails will clean up some too, for now.

 

Sorry for the long winded message.  If you want to send me exact readings from the master kit if you have it, I can look them over to see what I think.

 

thanks for reading and good luck!!!
 

 

 

My tank is actually at 6.4-6.6. 

 

The water from my tap is at a pH of 8. I figure between the fluvial stratum, spider wood, and plants and snails the pH has been lowered significantly to where it is in the tank of 6.4-6.6. I've, since yesterday, learned this can lead to old tank syndrome and the possibility of ammonium changing to an ammonia spike if the pH goes up, say during a water change. I'm going to try a ten percent water change this evening and see where my pH sits after that before I decide to make any other additions of chemicals or additives. 

 

As far as sunlight hitting the tank, this is less of an issue. I used a light monitor meant for gardens and faced it towards the window for a day and got a heavy shade readout. The window faces the NE so there is very little direct sunlight, plus we keep the blinds half way closed. 

Wen I do add fish I will likely start with either some Otos, Cory's, bristlenose plecos or possibly hillstream loaches. I'll have to see where my pH lands before deciding. From there I'm thinking of zebria danios, maybe some cherry barbs or diamond tetras and a centerpiece fish which I've not decided on. Thinking rainbow fish or a gourami. 

[Lauren A]

@Scc1798Hi, please ignore my comment on Ph.  8 is definitely high on the alkaline side.  My head is off today.  In this case, I wouldn’t add coral.  To lower, I would add driftwood or Indian almond leaves.  There’s also a way to do this quickly with reverse osmosis water, but I’m not familiar with this.  
 

sorry I was so wrong on that.  Here’s a good article on adjusting ph.  
 

https://www.aqueon.com/articles/aquarium-ph

 

heres another on kh and gh

 

https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/aquarium/ph-gh-kh

 

id read AC’s article first 

Edited July 7, 2021 by Lauren A

[Lauren A]

On 7/7/2021 at 1:21 PM, Scc1798 said:

My tank is actually at 6.4-6.6. 

 

The water from my tap is at a pH of 8. I figure between the fluvial stratum, spider wood, and plants and snails the pH has been lowered significantly to where it is in the tank of 6.4-6.6. I've, since yesterday, learned this can lead to old tank syndrome and the possibility of ammonium changing to an ammonia spike if the pH goes up, say during a water change. I'm going to try a ten percent water change this evening and see where my pH sits after that before I decide to make any other additions of chemicals or additives. 

 

As far as sunlight hitting the tank, this is less of an issue. I used a light monitor meant for gardens and faced it towards the window for a day and got a heavy shade readout. The window faces the NE so there is very little direct sunlight, plus we keep the blinds half way closed. 

Wen I do add fish I will likely start with either some Otos, Cory's, bristlenose plecos or possibly hillstream loaches. I'll have to see where my pH lands before deciding. From there I'm thinking of zebria danios, maybe some cherry barbs or diamond tetras and a centerpiece fish which I've not decided on. Thinking rainbow fish or a gourami. 

Ok cool!  Your ph is golden at that number IMO.  I’m sorry I missed that.  You’re way ahead of me with everything you mentioned so definitely keep doing what you’re doing.   
 

 

[Lauren A]

On 7/7/2021 at 1:21 PM, Scc1798 said:

My tank is actually at 6.4-6.6. 

 

The water from my tap is at a pH of 8. I figure between the fluvial stratum, spider wood, and plants and snails the pH has been lowered significantly to where it is in the tank of 6.4-6.6. I've, since yesterday, learned this can lead to old tank syndrome and the possibility of ammonium changing to an ammonia spike if the pH goes up, say during a water change. I'm going to try a ten percent water change this evening and see where my pH sits after that before I decide to make any other additions of chemicals or additives. 

 

As far as sunlight hitting the tank, this is less of an issue. I used a light monitor meant for gardens and faced it towards the window for a day and got a heavy shade readout. The window faces the NE so there is very little direct sunlight, plus we keep the blinds half way closed. 

Wen I do add fish I will likely start with either some Otos, Cory's, bristlenose plecos or possibly hillstream loaches. I'll have to see where my pH lands before deciding. From there I'm thinking of zebria danios, maybe some cherry barbs or diamond tetras and a centerpiece fish which I've not decided on. Thinking rainbow fish or a gourami. 

Your tank is going to look even more beautiful with all of your fish!  I think you’d be fine for a large water change and would absolutely recommend one before adding any fish.  You’re probably way ahead of me on this though too!

 

hope you have a great day!!!  Sorry for all the confusion.