Transporter
Community Member
Ok, since I can't seem to figure out how to upload pictures on here yet, I'll do my best to verbally explain.
I am going to be setting up a 75 in my living room and decided to set up my 10g in the mean time to start the cycling process and hopefully get a jump start on the 75.
It's a basic, pet store, 10g aquarium with 2 sets of cheap LED's under the plastic hood. I have a good sized heater, a small fluval power head, and an aquaclear 50 hob filter unit with nothing in the media basket except for a small piece of blue/white filter floss.
Around mid March, I started this up by just throwing in a little (1/2") sand and a bunch of cleaned & dry LR, and saltwater. About a week later, I tossed in a piece of raw shrimp from the local grocery store. After about 3 weeks, to my surprise, the shrimp was still mostly intact but did show some signs of decay. I left the shrimp in there for about another week, and pulled it out.
When I started testing (standard API kit), the ammonia was off the charts. After about a month, signs of nitrites & nitrates started barely showing up. I remembered everyone saying that if a filter was not cleaned, it turns into a nitrate factory, so I put a small piece of blue/white filter floss into the AQ50. About 2 more weeks went by, and almost all the ammonia was gone, nitrites were barely visable, and nitrates had gone down to around 5-10 area. Since then, I have turned on the cheap hood lights and thrown 1 or 2 pieces of flake food in there a week to keep the bacteria colony going.
And I waited, and waited, and waited for this dreaded ugly stage to start... Here it is mid September, and still not one sign of diatoms, algae, etc. Still looks the same as when I started, only no cloudiness.
I have thought about adding a couple snails, or crabs, or something, but with no algae or anything to feed off of, I don't want them starving either. I also considered trying to find someone in a desperate need to eradicate some GSP and see if they would send me a piece, but if nothing else is growing, would this ? Could it just be that the cheapo LED's (about 1" from the surface) just aren't strong enough ? Is it possible that even 6 months later, this isn't "cycled" enough ? No diatoms, cyano, etc ?
The only thing I can think of is, I was once told by a person that I consider very reliable to in the saltwater world, if you start with a sterile system, the only way algae can get in there is if I put it in there.
The 75 is almost ready to put together and set up, and I am really wanting to get a better bacteria support system going in the 10 before I transfer the rock, sand, etc over. Any thoughts, suggestions, considerations appreciated !!
API kit
Sg 1.025-1.026 (measured with 2 floaty hydrometers)
NO3 - 5-10
NO2 - 0
Am - 0
pH - ~ 7.8
I am going to be setting up a 75 in my living room and decided to set up my 10g in the mean time to start the cycling process and hopefully get a jump start on the 75.
It's a basic, pet store, 10g aquarium with 2 sets of cheap LED's under the plastic hood. I have a good sized heater, a small fluval power head, and an aquaclear 50 hob filter unit with nothing in the media basket except for a small piece of blue/white filter floss.
Around mid March, I started this up by just throwing in a little (1/2") sand and a bunch of cleaned & dry LR, and saltwater. About a week later, I tossed in a piece of raw shrimp from the local grocery store. After about 3 weeks, to my surprise, the shrimp was still mostly intact but did show some signs of decay. I left the shrimp in there for about another week, and pulled it out.
When I started testing (standard API kit), the ammonia was off the charts. After about a month, signs of nitrites & nitrates started barely showing up. I remembered everyone saying that if a filter was not cleaned, it turns into a nitrate factory, so I put a small piece of blue/white filter floss into the AQ50. About 2 more weeks went by, and almost all the ammonia was gone, nitrites were barely visable, and nitrates had gone down to around 5-10 area. Since then, I have turned on the cheap hood lights and thrown 1 or 2 pieces of flake food in there a week to keep the bacteria colony going.
And I waited, and waited, and waited for this dreaded ugly stage to start... Here it is mid September, and still not one sign of diatoms, algae, etc. Still looks the same as when I started, only no cloudiness.
I have thought about adding a couple snails, or crabs, or something, but with no algae or anything to feed off of, I don't want them starving either. I also considered trying to find someone in a desperate need to eradicate some GSP and see if they would send me a piece, but if nothing else is growing, would this ? Could it just be that the cheapo LED's (about 1" from the surface) just aren't strong enough ? Is it possible that even 6 months later, this isn't "cycled" enough ? No diatoms, cyano, etc ?
The only thing I can think of is, I was once told by a person that I consider very reliable to in the saltwater world, if you start with a sterile system, the only way algae can get in there is if I put it in there.
The 75 is almost ready to put together and set up, and I am really wanting to get a better bacteria support system going in the 10 before I transfer the rock, sand, etc over. Any thoughts, suggestions, considerations appreciated !!
API kit
Sg 1.025-1.026 (measured with 2 floaty hydrometers)
NO3 - 5-10
NO2 - 0
Am - 0
pH - ~ 7.8
.
