I have come to think of a new aquarium as a plant cycle. I usually start a new tank with plants. I know some people here are much better at chemistry than I am and many people here are much better at keeping plants than I am.
Still I think the logic of this would be good for many people.
I think the cycle is something like plants followed by diatoms, then plant more plants and maybe some fish followed by green spot algae. Somewhere in there is a fish cycle and if things go well or in error the next step seems to be a red hair algae problem. Sometimes you can do this with the fish living and sometimes you can't. Why is that?
Basically I plant plants. Get diatoms. Do a fish cycle. (not always sucessful) Plant more plants. Get green algae. Plant more plants and hope for no red hair algae.
If all that works I figure the cycle is over.
I don't think this differs much in high light with CO2 or in low light. Some of you I think can balance this all out right from the beginning but I would like to hear how you do this. And I would like to hear a chemical analysis of what actually happens.
Still I think the logic of this would be good for many people.
I think the cycle is something like plants followed by diatoms, then plant more plants and maybe some fish followed by green spot algae. Somewhere in there is a fish cycle and if things go well or in error the next step seems to be a red hair algae problem. Sometimes you can do this with the fish living and sometimes you can't. Why is that?
Basically I plant plants. Get diatoms. Do a fish cycle. (not always sucessful) Plant more plants. Get green algae. Plant more plants and hope for no red hair algae.
If all that works I figure the cycle is over.
I don't think this differs much in high light with CO2 or in low light. Some of you I think can balance this all out right from the beginning but I would like to hear how you do this. And I would like to hear a chemical analysis of what actually happens.
