I need plant, don't I?

[Radek Z]

Hi everyone, newbie here! I spent a day browsing the forum and seems like it's time to ask.

I have got myslef 240l tank, decided to take it very easy with fish - i.e. no fish for a while. The plan was landscape the tank, get the murky water filter out, get some plants, go through this cycle thing and may be then get some fish.

OK, that was the plan. It's third day and the tank has some basic landscape, no plants but the murky water is turning green(ish). I read the forums and it seems to me that I need some (a lot of)plants to fight with the green stuff for nutriens. Do I get that right?

For completnes here is info about the state of the tank from my journal.

Did some tests - the pH is up to almost 8, both GH and KH are in the upper teens, I did the test for Amonia (NH3) and that shows 0 mg/l, the Nitrite (NO2) shows 0.3 mg/l and Nitrate (NO3) is on 15 mg/l. These are the vital statisics of the tank - 240 l with 30 kg of 2-5 mm gravel, half a dozen rocks, three pieces of drift wood, it was aerated for last 24 hours, the CO2 injection is still negligable (few bubles a minute), the tank is now up to 27 C and the filter is running just about 4 times the capacity of the tank in an hour. There are no plants and not fish. The water was treated with Tatra AquaSafe and EasyBalance. There are two fluoroscent lights - 40W each - on between 7:00 and 10:00 and 17:00 and 23:00.


From the above - I get this:

a) thermostat should be turned down
b) I have hard water problem - not sure what to do about that
c) it's getting green

Anyway - if anyone would like to point me in the right direction it would be great.

[TKOS]

Hard water? Look for fish that like hard water. This would be things like cichlids (african) or mollies. Most other hardy fish will be able to adapt if given time.

Yes, you will want to turn that temp down to about 24C. But then that will also depend on the fish choice you have. 24C is normal for most tropical fish.

If you haven't read the sticky in the newbie forum on fishless cycling then I suggest doing it now. If you do go this way then don't add planst until the cycle is complete. Since you already have the test kits it is a good time to start. You will need a source of pure ammonia. Either drop in some supermarket shrimp which will "rot" and make ammonia or else buy some pure ammonia (no detergents or you will kill the fish). You need this as a source of food to get the bacteria growing in your tank. You will need to keep adding this until a full load of bacteria grows. This is all in the newbie sticky. After this is done add the plants and fish. This way allows you to add a full load of fish at one time instead of slowly adding small amounts of fish over a long time. Plus it will give you plenty of time to plan on what sort of fish you want to have and how many your tank will allow.

Keep asking the questions!!! Welcome to the board.

[Radek Z]

Well, the green cast is gone - night cleared it out. I have put few plants in the tank and it's starting to look nice.

I can't get amonia here in Switzerland - did not find it. I guess I will have to go for the shrimp eventually.

I have put a peat filter in the tank to try to lower the pH and GH. Will see how it goes.

Here is the tank today:

[Dapple2]

Another approach for you (if I'm reading this right) might be just to learn as much about plants as you can and load 'er up. In a really well planted tank, the effects are cycling are *greatly* reduced. The plants and CO2 tend to help lower the pH as well, just like the peat and bogwood. Unfortunately this approach will knock most African cichlids out of the running as well as the mollies (they loooove to eat plants).

[Radek Z]

Well, may be the peat is working - both GH and KH down to lower teens now - after 12 hours of filtration. Got to figgure out how to run peat in the Juwel filter whcih came with the tank. Do not feel like running two filters all the time.

Well I have vacation coming up for two weeks - will be in and out of the house. I might just wait couple of weeks and then get some hardy fish to start feeding the bacteria. Adding slowly the fish should prevent high NH3 and NO2 build up, should not it? Is getting some of these filter starter pills helpful in getting enough bacteria lined up? I have seen something about Tatra Bactozyne???

[TKOS]

I would stay away from those bacteria starters. Since you are going with plants just stick with Dapple2's advice. Put all the plants you want in the tank and then add fish slowly. This will make the ammonia and nitrite levels stay low. Of course you will still have to keep testing the water in the early days and if you ever see the levels get much above 0.5 ppm then do some water changes. Also in the early days when there are just plants in the tank you might wish to add some fertilizer to keep the plants strong and healthy.

[Radek Z]

OK, I will have to find a good local source of plants. The ones I brought from the home & garden store were not very impresive. Is it normal that plant they sell has absolutelly no sign of roots - looked like fresh cutting.

[TKOS]

Try and buy your plants either from another hobbiest or from your local fish store if possible. Quite often things like bog plants get thrown in with aquarium plants. These plants only spend part of their life underwater and if kept underwater all the time will quickly die. Some plants sold aren't even underwater plants at all. Even though some fish stores sell the wrong kinds of plants, they will more than likely sell the right plants to you.

That being said there are certain plants that do end up comign with minimal roots. These tend to be the stem plants which are the perfect plant to get the tank started with. They grow fast and absorb lots of fish waste as they feed from the water column, not just their root system.