i cant take the wait any longer

There is a difference between Elodea and Anacharis but I cannot tell the difference. One of the more humorous things I have run across is that despite the name Elodea canadensis and the widespread nature of the stuff in NY and Canada it was illegal in Canada.

Bacteria are a living things. Bacteria lives on something, any solid thing which includes fish bodies, glass, plants, gravel etc. but not in water although it (the bacteria) needs water to live. Filter media is very good and as long as it is wet the bacteria survive if there is food available. There probably are more non identfied (graced with a name by some namer type person) than are actually named. If a bacterium occupies a place another bacterium will not occupy the same place. We have many bacteria in our tanks but only a few do a job for us and some of them take a while to grow. Bacteria only grow in accord with food and space available for them. I think that bacterias will grow on top of old colonies that have died off so cleaning a portion of the tank every once in a while is good.
 
well i just got in and tested my water roughly 6 hours after the water change and ammonia, rites, and rates seem to be all 0. something must be wrong with what i'm doing... a month in and i'm still readying 0 WITH dirtydawg's established cotton fabric in my filter... my pH also dropped back down to 6.2 (tap is 7.6 and my 20g that is also fishy cycling is maintaining a 7.6 pH). i'd hate to tear this tank down after the $$ i sunk into it, but this is proving to be near impossible for me.


This doesn't surprise me.. Now pull that driftwood out, wait 24 hours, and see how those numbers look..
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corax did you mean if hitman took the driftwood out of his tank his readings would go back to the way they were? if not, should i follow his lead?
 
I did mean that if he pulled the driftwood out, his bacteria would mostly disappear (unless it has been in the tank long enough for the bacteria to spread sufficiently).. But why would doing that be a good idea? All I meant is that the driftwood itself, or more accurately, the bacteria living on the driftwood, was what was zeroing his tests.. The tank is still vulnerable if that driftwood were to be removed. As I said before, adding used decoration, gravel, anything physical would help your tank support life. As long as you can keep the decoration in there, the tank's cycle will come along as it needs to. The trick is, buying enough decoration to handle the job. Clearly, this piece of driftwood is large enough, and houses enough bacteria, to handle the waste his fish were producing. If you exceed that balance, you will see a cycling event.. It's a teeter totter.. One end, you have all these hungry mouths (bacteria) and on the other, you have your pollution. As long as pollution and bacteria stay in balance, all is well. When pollution outpaces bacteria (like when impatient tank owners want to add more and more and more fish mid-cycle), you see mini-cycles. Thankfully, these bacteria spred very quickly and can take up the slack in short order ONCE THEY'RE ESTABLISHED.

So if you've got the funds to do it, go to your LFS and buy several hunks of driftwood for your tank and chuck it in there. I bet you'll see more of those zeros.
 
Dude,I would go buy some driftwood,throw it in and see what happens
My Petco here has alot of it in the store. I think you have a 46 right,throw like three pieces in , can't hurt at this point for another $15

Like I said ,I am no expert,just starting out,but I'm willing to wager that it will work for you
 
Depending on the driftwood, it could be a lot more. But I'll agree, it can only help move things along. It's the same concept as adding Cycle and Biospira, except it isn't snakeoil and actually works..
 
cool, well i'm going to run a test after i visit with my family who came over for breakfast. if everything is still dormant, i'm gonna have to buy some driftwood out of a tank at petco... and i have no problem leaving it in my tank forever... long as it works.
 
jesus jesus jesus. everything is 0, and my ph is now 6.0 or lower! i don't understand why my pH is so low.

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another thing i was thinking. when i do do water changes, i vigorously clean the gravel and watch a whole bunch of particles go up the tube. are these the bacteria? i may try just changing the water without vacuuming the gravel from now on. it's been over a month and my tank is in the same shape it's been in from the day i started. i have dirtydawg's filter media in my filter, and that is still doing nothing.
 
I'm gonna go out on a limb here Mike and say two things... #1- I see slight Nitrates. #2- I believe you are cycled (for a very small bioload).

I think you are good to begin adding slowly to your load aas long as you are willing (and it sure seems as though you are) monitor your readings closely and do necessary water changes based on them.

The particles you see when gravel vaccing are not bacteria, they are most likely food particles and detritus.
 
katuuuz the driftwood can lower your ph i wouldnt worry about it as long as its stable, quit doing the gravel vacs till the tank settles down
 
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