What to worry about?

[Ryan Rhino]

Ok, I intro'd myself in the approp thread, but will throw out my details and folks can let me know where to be on the lookout for problems.

44 gallon 5 sided corner unit. Back sides are 23 each and depth is 23 inches approx. Have a Whisper 45 filter, tetra heater and an air pump with a flex hose along the back walls ( I know a lot of folks are torn on these, but wife won on the look).

Put in 40lbs of eco-complete (remember tall tank) and properly cured drift wood. Planted a banana plant and various other low to moderate light plants.

For cycling I have 3 tetra. Unfortunately, hidden in one bunch of plant was a fresh water crab I didn't discover until I got home. I put him in, but can rapidly remove if necessary.

PH is a little high, but all else appears right to begin cycling. It looks sharp in my opinion, in a somewhat haphazardly placed plant arrangement. I didn't want it to look like a golf course.

My tank lid has two slots for 20 inch lights, I'm swapping out the daylight bulb tomorrow for a proper flora-glo tomorrow. Do folks think I need two flora-glo's given the depth of the tank?

Any other red flags popping?

[THE V]

1) If those slots are for the 20W bulbs you are a little short on light for that tank. 23" is pretty deep. It takes quite a bit of light to reach the bottom. I'd be looking for setting up a fixture that uses around 100W-150W of power. You can still grow plants with what you have it just has to be low light plants like java moss or java fern. There is no need to swap out the daylight bulb. It is actually better than the flora-glo bulbs in this situation.

2) Cycling a tank with fish = many water changes. You will need to test daily and change the water whenever you see any NH3 or NO2. The good news is by adding the plants it will help speed up the process and use some of the N. If you know someone with an established healthy tank ask if you can squeeze their filter sponge into your tank. This will shorten the cycle to less than a week generally.

3) Unless the pH is above 8.5 I wouldn't worry to much about it. Generally pH between 6-8.5 is acceptable to most species. Higher, lower or fluctuating can cause problems.

I'm looking for a 70-90 gallon tank in that shape. I personally think that they are great. I applaud your wife's excellent taste and am very glad that she won that one.

[Ryan Rhino]

Well, the tank is appears to be fine thus far. After 24 hours w/ 3 Tetra and the aforementioned hanger on crab, testing reveals there is no ammonia at all and obviously no nitrites. My question is whether the eco-complete contains enough "beneficial bacteria" to ease this process.

I read on another board that between plants and eco-complete, one may not see a cycle develop? I have quite a bit of foliage planted, probably as far as stem count, probably 12-15 plants.

[THE V]

With 3 little fish and 44 gallons of water to dilute it in I would expect you to see anything yet. It may take a few days for the initial buildup of NH3.

As for the plants removing all of the N from the water column this is possible. However you will not have an established bacteria colony to remove the wastes. Once you have a bacterial colony established you can double the stocking (mass of fish) every day. The bacteria will increase to meet the need within 24 hours. If you are relying solely on plants to cycle the tank when you add more fish you will run into problems.

[Ryan Rhino]

I have an APB out for local filter media to get this thing moving. Hopefully that helps unless there is an off the shelf product to get this thing moving, however with fish in there, I'd rather avoid adding anything chemical.

Washington DC,