Aquarium Hobbyists

Definitely fun!

Just got done testing an hour ago as this would be 6hrs after having added ammonia.

I'm at around 1ppm now already down from 2ppm this morning.



Nitrites and nitrates still at 0ppm (as expected)





And since I had tested for pH levels, I'm at what looks like 7.4

 

Well, a few things to add to this thread

My water hardness test arrived so I was finally able to test that. Did it twice to confirm and the results were

5 kh
6 gh

Those parameters tell me I'm set to house anything really

I won't bore anyone with each test result as I did two daily but today's was a tad different because I am finally above 0ppm as far as nitrites go



Little hard to see, but in person it's a real light lavender compared to the light blue I've seen day in and day out

For just a few days, I think that's rather quick already

Ph levels still coming in at 7.4, and my plants are beginning to melt (as expected) so I'm happy to say things are moving along as necessary!

 

She's progressing pretty quickly

 

And last night, a sudden change (for the better)

Ammonia had moved up to and hovered at 2ppm for the last few days, however today it seems to be dropping again as it looks closer to 1ppm



Nitrite levels almost quadrupled to 2ppm



And nitrate levels are real close to 10ppm



Blame the climate-controlled house with great insulation, or the great water from the tap lol but these numbers are great for only being on day 9 today.

 

The latest, added two more plants and another ornament

Two java ferns, one anubias, and two ludwigia sp live plants -



Ammonia drops pretty fast, so waiting to see nitrites drop as quickly but everything is moving as expected!

 

The Anubias Congensis had slightly yellowed, and shortly got back to green which suggests it was simply acclimating

Microsorum Pteropus gained a little bit of browning/black (doesn't rub off) but hasn't changed since

The Ludwigia have shot out tons of adventitious roots (more noticeable on those on the right side of the castle)

Recently added is the Vallisneria so it's looking a little yellow at the moment, same with the Mayaca Vandelli

And we'll see how well the Phyllanthus Fluitans do seeing as how I'm running a lid on my setup



Nitrites are consistently below 0.25ppm, and even with dosing 2ppm of ammonia daily, it gets converted to nearly 0 within 12 hours

With as heavily planted as I am, nitrates can't even reach 5ppm

Had I not dosed ammonia this morning, I could've gone out and added some livestock already so I might go shop around today and do a pick up for tomorrow

 

Looking good! I was wondering when we would hear another update. I've only got one anubias nana that I moved from my small 20g tank to the bigger one. It's got some more room to grow now. I had never done plants and read that this one was pretty easy. It's got some ugly leaves and some healthy ones, but I get that slime algae that covers them and I need to clean off the leaves more regularly.

My lights died so I just got a Hygger brand one that has a 24 hour mode that seems pretty cool. Hopefully better for the plants!

 

My tank is on day 25 as of today, so it's fair to say if some would've died...they would've been showing signs of that already.

The Anubias shown there had gone yellow shortly after introducing it to my tank. What shocked me most was that it was an emmersed plant, and like any emmersed plant, they go through a phase of dropping leaves and melting back when being submerged.

Mine never went through that phase and instead perked right up without dropping any leaves or melting back.

Here it is when I first added it -



And here it is as of a day ago -



You will see however that the Java Fern there did gain a few 'black spots' that do not look like they can be rubbed off. I haven't tried it to be honest but chalking it up to the whole 'melting back' process as these too were emmersed before going into my tank.

As for the Ludwigia, they were already living in a tank (from my LFS) when I got them and as you can see, they're doing well as they really opened up and have developed many more roots and shoots to propagate from if I wanted -



Ludwigia do well in a low tech, low light tank, which is why I went with them but I hear if you give them too low of a light (as well as not providing additional iron) the reds aren't as strong as they can be.

Still, they're doing really well.

I'm just waiting for my vinyl tubing and suction cup setup to arrive so I can open up another 'ceiling' above the set on the right as the floaters have really provided a lot of shade -





All I can say is, there's no reason why anyone should skip having live plants in a tank!

Not only do I enjoy checking out my tank (even though I haven't added fish yet), it does great at providing plenty of filtration by itself.

 

Ammonia has been 0ppm for a week and a half, nitrites have been at 0ppm for a few days, and nitrates are at 10ppm as I did a water change yesterday and today

With that said, I introduced these two







Sunset Gourami

Here's to hoping they weren't too stressed during the move and don't show any signs these next few days

 

Digging these little guys

 

Harlequin Rasbora added to the tank; everyone's a happy little family



Voracious little eaters

 

Ignore the wiring, I've yet to purchase or make something to place the power strip in and hide everything.

Made a small, decorative sign to go above the tank.

 

My nano tank lol

 

Had a light failure.

A 70 dollar chinesium replacement is still cheaper than springing for what should have been a $500 fixture.

 

The Hygger has treated me well

Fat kid eating his veggies

 

That's what I got this time, a hygger that is the exact duplicate of a hytuiang that I ordered 2.5 years ago.

 

The 24hr feature is nice, and although I have no algae I still shut the light off completely versus letting the moonlight feature run its course

So far I dig it and the plants are all flourishing

 

My current program has sunrise at 6:30 am, sunset at 6:30pm, blue moonlight from 7 to 10pm.

I'm hoping that the hygger can mimic that.

 

There's a video that walks through programming as it's fully programmable; recommend watching that versus reading and following the included instructions

I've just been too lazy to mess with it and especially since the tank is thriving, doing a manual on/off is no biggie

I'll have to buy another light as I plan to add a 50 gallon tank

The current co2 setup will go towards the bigger (future) tank and that DIY setup you hooked it up with will either go to the 20 gallon or maybe a smaller, extra tank

 

@Rock Lobster I'm an idiot, it's a Finnex

My vacuum is a Hygger



But Hygger does have a fully programmable light as I had asked about it and only got my specific questions answered after having ordered the Finnex

Had asked on another forum about the two and their features (not specificity mentioned in the ad)