Hi Everyone!
So I have a question that I've been wondering about since I started fish keeping two years ago.
I've always wanted a planted tank and in the past I've tried a couple of plants in my tank and they would melt in just a few days. I recently sold a lot of my 40Gs and bought a 90 gallon. I put in soil substrate and capped it with fluval plant and shrimp stratum and a few other things. The plants are doing great and I'm just waiting on the cycle. As you can see in the attachment there are a lot of plants.
My pH is 6. I'm worried about my pH because I've heard that your beneficial bacteria will die off at acidic levels.. I normally put crushed coral in the HOB but in this case I didn't put any in the canister. I think the pH out of the tap is around 7 or so. I'm thinking the substrate is tanking the pH level to 6. The tank has been running about 3 weeks or so and the plants initially had a little melt problems but they are doing great now. They all have new growth and the death is clearing up. I generally cycle with ammonia drops but I put 6 neon tetras in there and they show zero signs of problems. My ammonia was sitting around 1 ppm but now sits around 0.25. I do 50-60% water changes every week and dose ferts. No signs of nitrites yet. Will the tank ever cycle with all of these plants? I'd like to end up with a hefty amount of neons and red cherry shrimp and an absolute jungle of a tank. I want it to be super thick with plants.
Thank you ahead of time for the help!!!
So I have a question that I've been wondering about since I started fish keeping two years ago.
I've always wanted a planted tank and in the past I've tried a couple of plants in my tank and they would melt in just a few days. I recently sold a lot of my 40Gs and bought a 90 gallon. I put in soil substrate and capped it with fluval plant and shrimp stratum and a few other things. The plants are doing great and I'm just waiting on the cycle. As you can see in the attachment there are a lot of plants.
My pH is 6. I'm worried about my pH because I've heard that your beneficial bacteria will die off at acidic levels.. I normally put crushed coral in the HOB but in this case I didn't put any in the canister. I think the pH out of the tap is around 7 or so. I'm thinking the substrate is tanking the pH level to 6. The tank has been running about 3 weeks or so and the plants initially had a little melt problems but they are doing great now. They all have new growth and the death is clearing up. I generally cycle with ammonia drops but I put 6 neon tetras in there and they show zero signs of problems. My ammonia was sitting around 1 ppm but now sits around 0.25. I do 50-60% water changes every week and dose ferts. No signs of nitrites yet. Will the tank ever cycle with all of these plants? I'd like to end up with a hefty amount of neons and red cherry shrimp and an absolute jungle of a tank. I want it to be super thick with plants.
Thank you ahead of time for the help!!!