What are you using as an ammonia source? What is your nitrate?
He said he's had Ammonia/Nitrite: 0 for the last week
Nitrate has stayed steady at 5 or so.
What are you using as an ammonia source? What is your nitrate?
Ok, testing for another week is fine. That is when one of my LFSs sell figure 8 puffers. Also someone else recommended that to keep up with the waste that f8s put out, I use biospira. This seems like it would work, so I will get bio spira when I purchase the puffer. After a day or so, I will do a 25% water change and replace those 5 gallons with 5 gallons that contain half a tsp of sea salt. Next week I'll do this but I'll add 1 whole tsp, and so on. Also I have learned from here that ghost shrimp don't produce enough waste to cause problems/cycle a tank, but I might change the fish's diet after I buy a new tankmate. To prevent the bumblebee gobies from getting eaten, I'll put in little tubes and stuff to hide in.The problem he's talking about is, Who eats the shrimp waste? It's the bacteria. So, as the shrimp eat, they put out ammonia as well. Think of it this way, BBs put out 50 points of ammonia. You have 2. So the bacteria can handle 100 points of ammonia. Shrimp will put out 25 points. So the bacteria will have to grow a little bit to handle them. These numbers I just made up, so don't use them as a guide of any kind, other than as an example.
Anyway, I'd continue to test every day for at least another week.
When you add the puffer you'll get what they call a mini cycle. Where you'll have to do water changes while the bacteria colony grows. Until then, we want to make sure that the colony is safe.
I thought that in my LFS there was something in a frozen packet that looked like Bio-Spira.Bio-Spira is for SW only. You need Dr Tim's or Tetra's Safestart for FW/low-end BW.
Ok, so I'll get bio spira with the f8 to help with the puffer's messy habits, and I'll acclimate after I get the puffer.
But just in case the bio spira dies and I get owned from my own stupidity, I'll save half of the bio spira.
Yes, I am talking about increasing the S.G. after I buy the f8What are you acclimating? Do you mean increasing the S.G?
You should not be placing the burden of reducing ammonia and nitrite levels on shrimp, fish or plants. Your plants are not going to eat up ammonia and nitrites, especially in brackish water. The shrimp will not eat ALL of the leftover food in you tank. And withholding food from your fish to reduce waste, especially juvenile fish who are still growing, is not acceptable. You need a fully established biological filter before you add the puffer. They are very sensitive to ammonia and nitrites. You should have had an established bio filter before adding the BBGs. If you think that plants, shrimp and restricted diets are the solutions to ammonia and nitrites then you are doomed to fail. If you are too impatient to cycle your tank correctly, you need to stop this venture now. Because judging from the overall tone of your posts, you are not the type to do daily water changes to reduce the ammonia and nitrite levels in your uncycled tank. And your fish will die.
The other half will be stored in the refrigerator.If the bacteria that you add dies because it can not survive in the environment you create, how will keeping half of it out of the tank help?
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Doing water changes every day would be difficult for me because my parents would think I'm wasting water and I would end up soaking my whole room. (which the tank is in) I have tested for ammonia in the tank since August 16 and there is no ammonia or nitrites, so the only time I'd change is if OMFG THERE IS A HUEG SPIKE OF NITRITES AND AMMONIA MY FISH R GUNNA DAI!!!111 And I am testing the water quality frequently so I could tackle a situation like that very quickly.
...inb4 land plants and aquatic plants are totally different you are wrong blah blah blah.
What I was trying to ask is: if the first half dies in the tank, why do you think the second half would live in the same tank?The other half will be stored in the refrigerator.