the substrate in bentoinite clay mixed with miracle grow organic choice capped with flora max by caribsea. Plants include dwarf hairgrass, cryptocoryne wendtii, green temple, giant hygro, baby tears, and ludwigia perensis. still wating for my light bulbs to come in the mail. they are 2 6500k compact florescent 24w from 1000 bulbs. just started fishless cycle. right now my biofilter is converting ammonia at .2 ppm over 24hrs. i plan on keeping shrimp and snails. my bio filter is bioballs and lava rock. I dont have any plans on running co2 at this point. gonna see how it turns out.
new scape 14 gallon biocube
- Thread starter iamvictor2k
- Start date
the substrate in bentoinite clay mixed with miracle grow organic choice capped with flora max by caribsea. Plants include dwarf hairgrass, cryptocoryne wendtii, green temple, giant hygro, baby tears, and ludwigia perensis. still wating for my light bulbs to come in the mail. they are 2 6500k compact florescent 24w from 1000 bulbs. just started fishless cycle. right now my biofilter is converting ammonia at .2 ppm over 24hrs. i plan on keeping shrimp and snails. my bio filter is bioballs and lava rock. I dont have any plans on running co2 at this point. gonna see how it turns out.
Beautiful layout! Is the 24w for each lamp? I would think 48w over a 14g tank would require some form of CO2 to keep algae at bay.
If all you're going to have is shrimp and snails, I'd just start with fresh, dechlorinated water and monitor your water parameters with a good liquid test kit. Do you have access to healthy, established bio media or decor?
If all you're going to have is shrimp and snails, I'd just start with fresh, dechlorinated water and monitor your water parameters with a good liquid test kit. Do you have access to healthy, established bio media or decor?
yes 24w for each lamp and I am running 2. I have api master test kit and am going to start with fish and snails and probly some neon tetras if the shrimp and snails dont keep me occupied. O I def have access to good used bio media. all the biomedia i placed in the 14g came from my 125 aquaponics setup. If the algae does kick up I already have a tank, reg, and needle valve. ill just have to get the tank filled and buy a defuser and bubble counter. we will have to see what happens. thanks for the comments.
Cool! Sounds like you've got everything you need.
I wouldn't have bothered with the ammonia dosing / fishless cycle given you had seeded media/decor on hand though. Just my opinion!
I wouldn't have bothered with the ammonia dosing / fishless cycle given you had seeded media/decor on hand though. Just my opinion!
I have set up several tank without dosing ammonia. I just hate putting the unnecessary stress on the aquatic life. If you use ammonia to cycle the tank then you can add a full stock at one time and not have to worry about perams and water changes.
I'm no expert, but well aware. I did two tanks from scratch, fishless, by adding household ammonia early in the year. It's not that bad, but not nearly as easy as starting off by using seeded media. Stress to the fish? How, if you monitor parameters and do water changes?
if the ammonia and nitrites are automatically converted before you put the fish in then adding fish there will be no stress to the fish. You still have to cycle the tank with seeded media. during that time ammonia and nitrites are present stressing the fish. plus with a fish less cycle very few water changes are made. only 1 change to cycle my 14g biocube. the same amount of testing is done for fish vs fish less. just less water changes and less stress to fish. also with constant water changes and cycling there are ph changes that stress fish.
