yeah, everybody does these, but darnit, it's a big event.
the particulars:
20 gallon high:
cycled with four platies (wanted to do fishless, but these fish, due to my ignorance, were wedged into a 2.5 gallon with poor water - letting them loose in the 20 seemed less cruel than their previous conditions)...
...and a couple of live plants (crypts, aponogeton bulb).
I added a handful of ghost shrimp two weeks in in order to placate my five year old...
daily 30-50% water changes, depending on levels. I think the plants helped file down the spikes a bit - ammonia never got higher than .5, nitrates peaked at 1.0
at day 22, readings as follows:
ammonia = 0
nitrite = 0
nitrate = <10
phwew.
the particulars:
20 gallon high:
cycled with four platies (wanted to do fishless, but these fish, due to my ignorance, were wedged into a 2.5 gallon with poor water - letting them loose in the 20 seemed less cruel than their previous conditions)...
...and a couple of live plants (crypts, aponogeton bulb).
I added a handful of ghost shrimp two weeks in in order to placate my five year old...
daily 30-50% water changes, depending on levels. I think the plants helped file down the spikes a bit - ammonia never got higher than .5, nitrates peaked at 1.0
at day 22, readings as follows:
ammonia = 0
nitrite = 0
nitrate = <10
phwew.
