tank levels

jsm11482

Hi, I have had my 15gal running for about a week now. I have tested a few times and over the last 6 days it has been steady at:

Ammonia: 0
pH: 6.4
NO2: 0
NO3: 5
KH 3

LFS gave me some bacterianated spikey things (whose name escapes me). When should I expected the spikes?

As a side note, this tank is for plants mostly, and over the last week one of the bulbs has sprouted and is already 2 inches above the substrate and has 2 leaves! Seems fast to me!

Lupin

Hi Josh,
Good updates.

Your tank seems to have finally finished cycling. Whew...Very fast.

Plants serve as biological filtration. There is always an advice to get more plants than having too many mechanical filters which is in fact, true as plants help consuming nitrates.

So what fish are you planning for the 90 gallons?

Pls post the pic of your plant for identification.

This one sounds too dodgy. Can't understand what you mean by those spiky things? Can you pls reword them?

jsm11482

Sorry, they're BioBalls that they had in their system. Is it possible that it is a really done cycling after only a week? I never noticed a spike in the NO2 and I never added ammonia. Is it possible that I just missed the spike? I will post a pic of the plant when I get home.

Planning on starting with a bunch of Discus but that tank wont be ready for a while...what do you think about getting Discus from a local person who is not a 'breeder' but has a bunch of Discus, all different sizes? How do I know if they are healthy, etc?

crazie.eddie

(Message deleted by poster)

jsm11482

Ok so I will try to pick up some ammonia today. How much should I add to a 15gal to start with? I know you are supposed to add until 5ppm but how quick will the ammonia test pick up on the added ammonia? 5 mins? 1 day?

jsm11482

Thanks for all that info eddie! And blue: here is a pic of the plant. No idea how you can identify it at this stage but here ya go:

Lupin

Josh, I spoke too soon. Its appearance is hard to identify.
I'll just have to wait until it reaches maturity.

Agree with everything Eddie has posted.

I have to add that for juvenile Discus(below 4 inches in size), pls make sure they're not that fully-colored yet. Full-colored ones are usually dyed ones.