My first real planted tank

[myswtsins]

Dead fish would give off ammonia but given time that would be converted to nitrite, so yes. It converting to nitrite but not nitrate in the short amount of time seems unlikely but possible.

Given that you were dosing properly and it wasn't the first time dosing I don't think the excel is to blame. Is it possible that at the water change something happened? Maybe your source water changed (like if you are on city water they may have started adding something or well water can change with seasons)? Do you use a water conditioner? Any chance a kid could have overfed the tank or put something in there?

Do you have sufficient aeration? Whatever the problem is adding fresh water and aeration helps 99% of the time, might not fix it entirely but usually helps.

 

[Tom C]

Alright, I'll keep those factors in mind. Could be that the city added extra chlorine or the likes to clean the pipes. I do use a water conditioner yes, and no, don't have children yet. Nitrite is all fine, just tested nitrate as well, nothing special there. Well, I don't plan to buy new ones for that tank, will just keep it as a reserve, and use some of the bacteria to have a better start in the new one.

 

[Tom C]

Plants have arrived, time for planting is tomorrow morning. I did make a change to the hardscape, adding some white gravel for more contrast.

 

[dougall]

The more chemicals added to the tank at once can lower it's ability to contain dossolveed gasses... including oxygen,

You might try adding Excel on the next day, or after some time, if you are adding right at the water change.

Yes, the dead fish will create ammonia, this will follow the cycle as other ammonia will, but as there is a spike in it's amount, your beneficial bacteria may not be able to keep up, hence nitrite, not nitrate.


But... good luck withy the plants... I've had great luck with Tropica plants in the past and the tank is still looking great!

 

[myswtsins]

Well what are you waiting for!? Put them IN the tank already!!! Just playing. Setup looks sweet! Looking forward to planted pictures.

 

[Tom C]

what a morning! Spent around 3 hours on the aquarium, planting plants and refilling

Anyway! picture time!

So, this first part, started planting the monte carlo around the tree, tank is still mostly empty.

and around the rocks:

lots of worries while planting, first thinking I wouldn't have enough, then thinking i'd have too much, in the end, the amount was just about right I think. Same with the Staurogyne Repens:

(never mind the ugly towel, the old and ugly ones are the only ones my wife lets me use for this )

and around the rocks:

Then, started filling with water. Unfortunately I got some black gravel on my white and vice versa (not very sharp, but still interesting).

Then I attached the moss to my moss tree to put it in place as well (again with the ugly towel, lol).

And finally, 3 pictures of the finished product, I'm right pleased with the way it looks

I've put in some Biotopol as a water prep, Flourish Excel for the plants, took the filter medium out of my tiny tank and added it to my large one's filter to have a quicker start, added some fish food and hit the Power button. Everything smooth so far, some minor plants detaching from the gravel, but nothing major. Going to do my first water tests tonight, start watching for those ammonium and nitrite spikes.

 

[Tom C]

And one final picture (wouldn't fit in the previous post, perhaps it was too much) to give an overview:

 

[FreshyFresh]

Tom, it looks beautiful. Hopefully your substrates stay separate for as long as possible! Given you had access to good used bio filtration media and installed it in the new tank's filtration, I'd stock the tank immediately. Lightly at first.

 

[Tom C]

Guy in the shop tried selling me even more starter bacterial culture, even though I told him I was using old filter media to get started. Guess he has to sell

 

[Tom C]

Water has been getting cloudier over the past 2 days, probably bacterial blooms as I'm adding decent amounts of fish food (much more than I'd feed the fish themselves), to encourage bacterial growth. If I see Nitrates by friday (just to be sure) I'll start adding fish.