A Fresh Start

[LookoutTrout]

The pump chamber may leak by design but too much leakage may stop water going through the filter properly.
Cloudy water may not be a the fault of the filter, it can be the biological cycle catching up with the load and should go away in a few days.
If your filter media is getting dirty then I'd wait a while before changing anything as it could upset the balance.

[BalloonMolly]

Yes it was the too much leakage that worried me!

Now the plants are in I'm going to leave the tank alone for a week or so to let things settle. I'll post an update then!

[BalloonMolly]

Here's the tank in-situ - though, as a friend said, the stand is a little "office-core" I'm a big fan. It's darn sturdy that's for sure.


Still getting things cycled. I had a spike of nitrite and nitrate on the 17th and since then the readings have been 0 when measuring at least 12 hours after adding more fish food. I've been testing twice a day and adding fish food in the morning and ammonia stays at a constant 0.2 - 0.5 ppm. This morning I tested before adding food (NH3 = 0.5ppm) and 3 hours later (NH3 = 0.5ppm).

With such low readings, I'm wondering if there's much bacteria activity going on at all? Though the reading I get seems to stay the same regardless of how much food I put in. In which case, it seems like it could be a test kit issue...

[BalloonMolly]

Despite my prior determination to persist with "ghostfeeding", I've opted to grab some "Knock Out!" household ammonia to start dosing more accurately.

I'm not too fussed about losing the heterotrophic munchers, though there's plenty of leaf litter and probably now fish food for them to continue to break down. I'll be monitoring ammonia twice daily for the next few days (testing immediately before and then 12 hours after adding a dose) to see how things fluctuate. I've also covered the back of the tank with some polystyrene left over from the Flex's box to keep the filter chamber as close to pitch-black as possible (as filter munchers are sensitive to UV I believe?)

[black ghost]

They don’t even like visible light so they’re always best in the dark.

It takes about a million heterotrophic bacteria to consume as much ammonia as 1 (one) ammonia-eating bacterium. I wouldn’t worry about losing some. They’re great for making uneaten food disappear but they take up a lot of surface area.

[BalloonMolly]

Thank you BG for the confirmation!

As for stocking, I'm set on (probably species-only) Limia islai or Xiphophorus xiphidium. However as these will probably have to come from breeders, I won't be able to get any at the earliest until February, or potentially even April.

A friend of mine has some Endlers and almost certainly fry to spare, so I was considering either talking to my LFS now about raising them up for the next 3-6 months before giving them to the shop, or maybe instead keeping them (or just keeping 3 or 4 males) and adding the other livebearers to the tank in the New Year since they can't interbreed.

[BalloonMolly]

Cycle stalled for a few days but adding a decent amount of (household) Ammonia seems to have started things up again. All munchers are in action but not too close to bringing levels down within 24 hours - I'll update on cycling after the weekend.

Should be getting some Endlers next Friday (obviously only if the tank has been all zeroes/minimal nitrate for 3+ days). Plants seem to be growing well. Surprisingly, the hornwort tops have a slight brown but healthy-looking tinge to them and the Monte Carlo is growing well!

One of the Swords is throwing out beautiful new leaves already, which I've tried to capture in the photo below but, of course, the leaf is a bit hidden away for a good camera angle.

[BalloonMolly]

Ammonia is dropping to 0 quickly now but I have a huge build-up of nitrite and nitrate. Am I right in thinking that too much nitrite can stall the cycle (again)? Wondering whether to do a water change...

[plankton]

It's usually the fact that the munchers have used most/all of the carbonates that stalls it.
High nitrite should only be a case of wait it out for around 10 days if the ph hasn't dropped below 6.2.....

[BalloonMolly]

Brilliant ok, I'll keep topping up the ammonia then. Hopefully near the finish line now!