Just planted my 5g nano!

I thought I might start a worklog of sorts for my first tank in more than 5 years, and my first planted tank. It's a small one but I've been amazed at how impressive some planted nanos are, so they have been a real inspiration.

I've posted the details in another thread, but for reference here they are:

Equipment:
Eclipse 5g Corner
Eclipse Hood w/ Bio-Wheel and 11w CFL
Hagen Natural Plant System
2.5" - 3" Flourite Substrate

Plants:
- 2 x Java Ferns (small ones)
- 2 x Anubis Nana
- 1 Red Wendtii Crypt
- 1 Lobelia Cardinalis
- 1 Pygmy Chain Sword

Fish:
Not yet determined. Nothing big, some Nanos and shrimp most likely

Everything is planted, and I've added the Hagen CO2 at it's lowest setting. Fishless cycle is in day 2, and so far so good.

Tank parameters are:

Ammonia ~5ppm
Nitrate/Nitrate (Not tested, will start testing tomorrow)
pH - 7.2
GH - 80ppm
KH - 65ppm
CO2 ~8.5ppm if my math is right
Temp - 79f

So, everything looks good so far. I'm leaving the rockwool from the established plants in the tank floating overnight just to make sure the tank is seeded, but I'll pull them out in the morning. The tank is hovering around 80f or so without a heater since it is in the kitchen which has a southern exposure. I'll likely install the heater later just to maintain tank temperature overnight.

If the Flourite dust has settled well enough in the morning, I'll take a picture and post it up.

Thanks everyone for the advice they have given. It's been a learning experience!

Well, here's what I have. The tank is still cloudy from the Flourite, like I said. It's clearing quickly though, so I'll have better shots in the morning.

Okay, here is a less murky picture from this morning:

I was thinking the same thing about the light. The sediment should be settled even more tonight, so I'll try one more picture tonight.

Well, did a night-time picture with no other light, and this is the result:




A little clearer I think. I'll take a new picture in 4 or 5 days and I guess we'll see if anything grows

Update 4/20

The fishless cycle is going well, Ammonia vanishes by the next day and I've got a nice Nitrite spike going (about 3ppm right now).

The Crypt has melted to practically nothing, but the other plants seem to be doing well. There is fresh growth on the Anubia, the java fern is rooting well to the driftwood and the swords appear to be popping up new sprouts. The Lobelia is not doing much but it's a low light tank for it, so I expect it to grow slowly if at all...

My water chemistry is otherwise quite confusing. I was sitting at a pH of about 7.4 or so and the kH was dropping pretty quickly, as low as 30ppm. I was only testing pH every few days though, so to my surprise, it had PLUNGED to 6.5 as of my test last night. The kH was up around 35ppm so my CO2 was something like 33ppm.

I realize this was my fault. When the kH kept dropping, I moved the tube from the Hagen CO2 system to the highest setting, trying to get the hardness back up. What I appeared to have done was just massively acidify the water instead.

Naturally, I've moved the CO2 back to the low setting. I'd rather have less CO2 than dead fish!

I'll take a new picture this weekend, and compare things.