Dwarf Puffer: The female platy died, the male is alive, and I'm still trying to convince her to switch to an actual tank. This is a different friend who's interested in doing things right even though it's her first tank. I'm SOOO happy she's willing to let me help her so much!!
Yes, I'm using old gravel and the tank WILL be fully cycled before I add my fish, but I don't want to have a nitrite spike because we add all her stock all at once like we plan to on her birthday, so I'm going to build up the beneficial bacteria with my platies first so the tank is ready for the bio-load.
We're setting up tonight. I'm ordering a special God of Neptune statue for the tank and we're going decoration/plant shopping sometime in the next couple of weeks. She wants to do artificial on her first tank, get used to taking care of fish first, then maybe upgrade to caring for fish AND plants.
I think this is smart.
Yes, I'm using old gravel and the tank WILL be fully cycled before I add my fish, but I don't want to have a nitrite spike because we add all her stock all at once like we plan to on her birthday, so I'm going to build up the beneficial bacteria with my platies first so the tank is ready for the bio-load.
We're setting up tonight. I'm ordering a special God of Neptune statue for the tank and we're going decoration/plant shopping sometime in the next couple of weeks. She wants to do artificial on her first tank, get used to taking care of fish first, then maybe upgrade to caring for fish AND plants.
I think this is smart.
