Coolio... Will read up some more on Amazon biotopes. I chucked in about a level tablespoon of chopped fish that I feed my marines. Thought that would get the cycle started? Shouldn't I see ammonia at the beginning of the cycle, even before nitrites?
Ok cool man, well the bacteria needs some source of food to grow and populate e.g. flakes now and then. Yes you should first see ammonia levels then nitrite levels and then when the bacteria is strong enough you will start seeing nitrates as nitrates are the end of the cycle. So a cycled tank should have 0 ammonia and nitrites and nitrates between 5 - 15ppm. Go read this it is about the Nitrogen Cycle. Nitrogen Cycle for Aquariums
The gardening has begun:nuts:. I drove around East London looking for Amazon biotope suitable plants this weekend. There isn't a huge selection available I will concede, and even less knowledgeable advice. Ah well.... Thank goodness for Google hey!! Did I make a mess of the planting or what!? The tank was already full of water, so I didn't want to completely drain it and set the cycle back. So I half drained it and began planting like that. I have no idea how to make palm peat go under the gravel like this? So what I did was slice the blocks into planks, which I kinda wiggled under the areas where i wanted to plant. Man, does this stuff expand or what? suddenly there were little peat volcanoes erupting all over the place and me frantically trying to plant and scoop gravel up to quell the volcanoes. Thank goodness I don't have a parrot, cos it's resale value would have gone out of the window. So it's still a bit messy, but the water is getting that nice Amazon blackwater colour. All rather exciting I must say. Just don't know how I'm gonna be able to wait to put fish in. Maybe I should try to find a girlfriend for the cycle period?
Hee hee. I like your tank and your writing. Here's what you do about the PFP if you need to put any more in - mix it with water first so it does its expanding thing, then freeze the mixture in ice trays. Poke the ice cubes under the sand wherever you need them and there you go. Makes it easier that there aren't fish yet so you don't have to worry about keeping the temp stable.
@Broder, Looking good. Do you know a fish keeper in the area? Or maybe a fish shop will help. If you get some media from a mature filter, it will speed the cycle up considerably.
Awesome tip, thanks.The tank is 600 litre, so the temp fluctuation won't be noticeable. Thanks.... yeah. That has happened already. I'll post another pic soon. Just waiting for that nasty tea colour to disappear with a few more water changes. Don't know why I thought that "blackwater" was such a good idea to start with??? It's like looking into an old rain filled drum at a building site! Thanks for the tip. Yeah, I did get some media from emocaveduck. Also added the plants from an established tank and the driftwood which had been soaking in one of my ponds outside. Anyhow, finally starting to see a drop in ammonia today, so all good in the end. Just shows you though that you cant just go on hearsay with the cycle, but must measure the levels yourself to eliminate guesswork and dead fish. Yeah dude. Waiting in antici............. ....pation for your tank thread.
Tank is coming on slooooooowleeeeeeee............... Plants are growing nicely but the cycle is taking forever. Nitrite maxed out last weekend, so the tank should be ready for some fish soon. I replaced the pair of 150w metal halides in my light unit with 2 x 50w cool white led floodlights. They're definitely not as bright as I expected them to be, but give a lovely alternative view to the tank if viewed without the T5s on. You can actually see the beams of light dancing through the water. Dark, defined shadows are cast, making it easy to imagine that you're underwater in a small Amazonian tributary, with a dense canopy of jungleness overhead. Some pics of the lights. Scored them off Bid or Buy. They were not the dimensions, which I had specifically enquired about and one of the reflectors was sliding around inside the unit. But hey.... that's the internet for you.. Some keyboard ninja sending you stuff that fell off a Chinese fishing trawler! The lights are very slim and appear to be completely waterproof. The seal on the unit that I opened looks effective. The reflectors are of pie-dish quality. The units fitted with the existing 8 x 39w T5s.
A pic of the 50w leds on alone(100w) The colour of the 2 lamp appears different as one is closed to the front, and the water is very tannin laden. A pic of the T5s on alone(312w). I kept the exposure on the camera the same across all of the pics, to give you an idea of how the brightness compares. Lastly a pic of all of the lights on.
