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Originally Posted by FreshwaterJeff July 26, 2006
Day 3
Well, shoot. For one, my crypts look a little worse - but I'm just going to give them time and not mess with them and let them self-correct a bit.
More troubling, it appears the bacteria in my Eco-Complete were dead. Here are my readings from this evening, before I bumped the ammonia back up to 5 ppm:
Ammonia: 3.0 ppm
Nitrite: 0.0 ppm
Nitrate: 0.0 ppm
(I'm assuming the plants ate the ammonia, given the lack of Nitrites...or that they ate the nitrites)
pH: 7.8
The pH was a bit of a surprise - though not once I thought about the ammonia content (ammonia is basic, right?).
Well, looks like I'm in for a full cycle - I need to get some more plants in to help speed that along...and I'm bumping the temp up to 84 degrees. | Actually, the bacteria in the Eco won't be enough to cycle the tank. Also, adding more plants will considerably shorten your cycle, or eliminate it if you have enough plants in the tank. That water sprite is going to get huge, but the good thing, it sucks up the nutrients fast and helps in eliminating th epossibility of algae. You just need a few more fast growers to eliminate the ammonia.
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5.5G Crypt tank, 10W CF Screw-in. No filter, and air wand for circulation
26G Medium Planted Community - 65W CF Lighting - Emperor 280 Bio-Wheel
55G Aggressive Community - Filstar XP3
75G Heavily Planted - Pressurized CO2, 520W Lighting, Filstar XP3 with spraybar
29G Planted - 130W Lighting, Filstar XP2 with spraybar
4 10G Tanks - Various setups |