Substrate replaced and tank rebuilt

DAM deocder,

Talk about some ****ty lucky. I feel for ya man. I will keep my eye on this thread. There's a lot of good info here.

deocder said:
Temp - 84 degrees
Ammonia - 0 mg/L
Nitrite - 2.0 mg/L
Nitrate - 20 mg/L
4 dKH
11 dGH
Phosphate 3.0 mg/L
Click to expand...

NitrItes at 2.0
NitrAtes at 20
Before your Ammonia was a little bit up (not much)
~Could this tank be cycling?

Keep us informed - please.
 
Last edited:
Thanks for your interest jamzwayne...

There is no doubt in my mind that this tank is cycling. It became obvious to me when there was a build up of ammonia. Needless to say, removing the largest biological bed in the entire tank, the substrate, will most likely cause a bit of disturbance...lol.

Well, the new substrate has been in for 11 days now. And the new filter media for 6. I'm letting everything take its course. Since the Nitrite is so high I am doing 50% water changes every other day, probably should be doing it every day. The bio load is much less now since I removed the fish as stated earlier.

Today's water parameters:

pH - 6.8
Temp - 82° F
4 dKH
10 dGH
Ammonia - 0 mg/L
Nitrite - 2.0 mg/L
Nitrate - 5.0 mg/L
Phosphate - 4.0 mg/L

It looks like the plants are using the available Nitrates. It also looks like KH and GH are stabilizing as well. But, I really hate phosphates. They keep going up. I dont even know what to think about it right now.....blahhhhhh!

I will be doing a water change after I finish this post to lower the nitrite and phosphate concentration which will also add some nitrate. I have been dosing 1 teaspoon of Mg and 1/2 teaspoon KCl every other water change. Along with 2 mL Flourish daily.

I will reiterate the fact that I really like the cobomba...although I've read that it is one of the most difficult plants to take care of....just what I need...lol.

Here's an updated pic:

90804crop.jpg
 
Honestly...the tank itself looks WONDERFUL.

I remember when I was cycling my tank, it seemed like forever, nothing was the way I weanted it, keep doing water changes, NitrItes and Ammonia kept me in the pits.....so, I decided to leave it alone and not mess with it - AT ALL.

I got my water level up, and didnt touch it for a little over a week. (I went on vacation, or I would have been tempted to do tests - blah).

Came back from vacation - tank was cycled, and parameters, were PERFECT.

Give that a try, Im not saying what I did will work, but it will releive some of that stress........and I will still keep my eye on this thread.
 
Add the Mg and K after each water change. Keep changing the water to maintain as much balance as possible. I wouldn't worry too much about the P until after the cycle is complete.
Up your Trace dosage to 5mls./day.

Len
 
Thanks guys!

nvision, I have an Eheim Classic 2017 cleaning this tank.

Okay, a question comes to mind when you (djlen) said to up my 'trace' to 5 mL a day. I have been using Flourish at 2 mL per day. There is a product out there called Flourish Trace. I do not have this. I just want to make sure we don't have the products confused.
 
Flourish is a good all around Trace element mix with plenty of everything.
Flourish 'Trace' is crap(to be blunt). I don't know why they even produce it.
Next time you're at the store compare ingredients.
Plantex+B from Gregg Watson is just as good or better for traces and much cheaper to use at the rates I'm going to be suggesting that you use when you get this puppy cycled and growing well. I dose 49mls a week(or 7mls./day) in a heavily planted 40 gal. tank, and you wouldn't believe the results.
BTW, the tank does look good.
Keep up the good work. Have you noticed an increase in plant growth?

Len
 
Ok great! I'll have to track down some Plantex+b.

And yes I have noticed definite plant growth since the substrate change. In fact, some of the plants that were showing no growth at all before are taking off! The swords that you (djlen) sent me are already sending runners and rooting new plants! The wisteria that my blind cave fish ate all up is showing tremendous growth! My anubias has produced 3 new leaves since the big change! Nothing at all before. The crinum thaianum has tons of roots now where before I could not get it to root at all! Same thing for the dwarf water onion plants! The rotala indica is getting a lot taller. And that cool salvinia floating plant! I love the look of the roots......

I guess I have failed to convey how much better the plant growth in this tank is now! I am amazed....
 
Glad to hear that. That's an important first step. The fish don't handle the 'cycle' process very well, but the plants love it.
You will come to hate me for sending the chain swords. Those cute runners will go everywhere and get into everything. I've pulled them out of the inside of my internal cannisters on a few occasions, where they were growing as well in the dark, as they were in the tank. Always keep some Salvinia around for emergencies. It can be a life saver.
For Plantex go here: www.gregwatson.com/
Click on the PMDD Store link and you'll find all the stuff you need for your tank at a decent price. He's a good guy.

Len
 
Day 15 update:

I ordered some Plantex CSM+B, MgSO4, K2SO4, and KNO3. This will no doubt be cheaper than going the Seachem route. Thanks for the link to Greg's site!

The cycle is over! Here are the parameters prior to water change:

pH - 7.1
Temp - 78° F
Ammonia - 0 mg/L
Nitrite - 0 mg/L
Nitrate - 10 mg/L
4 dKH
9 dGH
Phosphate - 3.0 mg/L
Calculated CO2 - 9 mg/L

I also pulled out my Hagen Iron test kit just to see, but the results show 0.0 mg/L. I understand there's controversy over the accuracy of Iron tests kits.

One hour after a 50% water change and addition of 1 teaspoon KCl, 2 teaspoons MgSO4, and 5 mL Flourish, here are the parameters:

pH - 6.8
Temp - 78° F
Ammonia - 0 mg/L
Nitrite - 0 mg/L
Nitrate - 10 mg/L
4 dKH
9 dGH
Phosphate - 2.0 mg/L
Calculated CO2 - 17.8 mg/L
 
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