yet another noob cycling thread (sorry)

[Squeakfish]

Dust tends to happen when you add substrate. Switch out the feeders. You're just about cycled. Add fish slowly, maybe one for a week, check the readings every day. Be sure to check out the fish you want to add to make sure it's hardy enough; neon tetras are an awful choice, for example.
Nitrates usually range from 0 to 20ppm, with 40 being the max you'd ever want. If ammonia and nitrites consistently stay at 0 after a few days of testing, you're cycled.

 

[fineexampl]

Cool!

 

[fineexampl]

Well, let's see how this goes. Cycling seems to be complete, Alphonso moves into his home. So far so good. He's swimming everywhere and exploring every nook and cranny. No signs of stress aside from some gill flaring when we got home tonight and he sensed us around. Not at all abnormal for a betta. He gladly ate his food and aside from having to work his fins alot harder, he appears to be okay. It's definitely an improvement over the bowl he was in even if it weren't cycled, which now it is (or appears to be).

 

[Squeakfish]

Holy crap, you got a hold of Egeria najas! That stuff is SO HARD TO FIND. Lucky you.

 

[fineexampl]

Holy crap, you got a hold of Egeria najas! That stuff is SO HARD TO FIND. Lucky you.

Similar it seems, but i think it's just regular anacharis. The young stems appear similar though.

 

[fineexampl]

Squeak, thanks though. You got me to finally look up the other plant i had in the tank. Turns out it is Aluminum Plant. Apparently it's not aquatic as well. I don't think i'll be going back to the store i bought it. They sold me 2 non-aquatic plants. Freakin bums. That's a total of 3 non-aquatic plants thus far. Argh! i hate this noob crap.

edit: i think i found the future occupant of my sciplus.com terrarium.

edit#2:
Check out the interesting water requirements.

"do not overwater"
So by that i suppose they mean, "submerge in water for 3-4 weeks", right?

 

[Squeakfish]

Thumbs up for you!
I've had varying ages of densa, and that really does look like najas.

 

[fineexampl]

I just want to say thanks again to everyone with my questions. My little runt of a betta seems to be very comfortable in his new home. He's got lots of places to swim and inspect. He still gets a little scared when we come home and he starts to flare a while, but that's to be expected. He's eating and swimming everywhere, including the clay pot caves i gave him. I'll have to post a pic thread soon, once i get everything all mapped out. Just got some killer driftwood pieces from the Jersey shore (already cleaned, now soaking) and moving right along.