ISO water safe weights for fake plants

E

euglossa

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Nov 9, 2006
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Hi, I'm new here.

I've just set up a 75 gallon tank after fifteen years with no fish. I have begun cycling with a few zebra danios. The LYS store had some bio-spira, a refrigerated culture of bacteria. It claims to cycle immediately. I am not convinced of that claim-since ammonia is still needed, but I hope it will help establish the bacteria more quickly. I plan to go on with gradual stocking, with an ultimate community of congo tetras, danios, yo-yo loaches, hatchets &/or red minor tetra or rosy barbs and lace gouramis, pretty much replicating the community I had 20 years ago-except for the yo-yos. I never saw those 20 years ago.

I am not planning to use a UGF, I used porcelin tiles to pave the bottom of the tank and added rocks, artificial plants and driftwood and a scatter of gravel, but not a deep bed. My problem is weighting the artificial plants, since I can't bury them in the gravel. My LFS gave me a few of the metal bands that come with live plants. They work great, but they didn't have any more for sale. I bought a mat of low plants on a 1-inch plastic grid, designed for breeding, and cut it into smaller patches of greenery and they keep floating away.

I checked out the sporting goods sections for fishing weights, but they are either brass or of unlabled metal, so I don't want to experiment with them. Is brass safe to use?

Any ideas for safe weights to use or a source for the live plant weights?

I have a 400 gph biowheel for filtration, and I am thinking of getting a second one since I am not using ugf.

Advice would be appreciated about my stocking plan and filtration.

Thanks,
Ellen
 
the point of bio-spira is to allow you to add your entire stock at once. that supplies the ammonia for the bacteria. if you had done that, your cycle would have been maybe a week or two long. now you will have to go through a mini-cycle with each addition to your tank.

are the tiles secured to the bottom of the tank? if not, i would suggest pulling out individual tiles, drilling a hole or holes in them, then fixing stems of the plastic plants into the holes (and filling the holes completely) with some aquarium sealant. for the grass-like sections, just stick them on top of tiles where you want them. make sure to use aquarium sealant (pricey, can find it in the fish section at wal-mart) or a silicone caulk that DOES NOT have anti-mildew or anti-microbial properties. that will screw up your bacteria.
 
uh oh, I misread the label

So by putting just a few fish in with the bio sprya am I starving the bacteria or exposing my danios to more ammonia? I just put it in yesterday-I can't get all the fish I want to stock locally, but I can get some of them. Would adding more be a good or bad idea at this point?
 
there will be sufficient bacteria to take care of the waste that the danios produce, but the other 85% of the bacteria is dead.

have you tested your water for ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate just to be on the safe side?

now it is best to wait until your cycle is complete (nitrates appear and ammonia & nitrites are at 0), then add fish, then wait for the cycle, then add, then wait, etc. . . even 24hrs without food is probably enough to kill the extra bacteria, they've been dormant in that little packet and probably very hungry when they woke up. just test your water and see what the readings are. we can help you to figure out the numbers and what they mean.
 
is it possible to try bio spira again later?

Ah well, I should have asked more questions at the shop and read the label more carefully.

I've been reading more about bio-spira here-if only I'd found this forum last week I'd have known better.

So would it be possible, once the water levels get back to 0, I could get all or most of the fish for the tank and put in a new batch of bio-spira and have it work?

I've been browsing at the dr foster and smith website. Are there other mail sources, and are they any good? Generally speaking I prefer to support local business, but the closest local shops are 80 miles away-over a mountain pass and snow is falling.... And buying all at once does make sense so far as saving money on shipping costs.

For now, I'll be checking the levels again as soon as I get home this evening and carry on as a fishy cycle.

Ellen
 
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