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211 Posts
Hey guys.. My 27 gallon hexagon had a UGF and blue rocks with a single HOB filter since the day I got it 14 years ago... Obviously I change the HOB filter when it gets clogged and dirty and so forth..
Anyway I started live plants like 3-4 months ago and I just got sick of the nasty blue rocks I had in the tank, so I removed the UGF completely and I removed all the rocks and replaced the substrate with floramax substrate which is supposedly good for plants..
In doing so it started a cycle on my tank.. Now I have like 28 fish in this tank... Mostly small fish like neon tetra's and glow light tetras, and white clouds, but I also have a few medium sized fish like Celebes rainbows and neon dwarf rainbows neither are fully grown yet.. The only big fish I have are 3 adult sized gold barbs.. Now since changing the substrate.. In the last 4-5 weeks my plants are literally exploded in growth and color.. My Red Nesaea has literally doubled in height and bushy-ness.. It looks like a forest now.. The color was long changing from red to green on the new growth however now that the plants are growing roots and growing really bushy and tall they are changing more to a deep orange color is really beautiful.. My Telenthara cardinalis "red" has tripled in size from the little packet I got it from in petsmart and its extremely bushy and much taller, and its a nice ruby deep red color on all the leaves....
Oh and please I don't need posts saying I have too many fish in the tank, I don't care for those opinions.. Its my tank and I will do with as I please.. I haven't had any fish die in like 7 months and prior to doing this my ammonia was 0 and because my tank is extremely heavily planted the fish have planty of hiding places and room to swim around
The problem im having though isn't the plants.. The problem is I have had 4-8PPM of ammonia in the tank for 4 going on 5 weeks now.. I haven't had a single fish die, nor any fish gasping for air or struggling or red gills and the reason why is because I put a capful of prime in the tank every 24 hours... But its getting expensive... I have gone through an entire 500ml bottle.. and I cant afford this... But then I cant afford replacing my fish either..
Soo... how much longer is this cycle going to take ?? I even put a filter from another tank in mine and it still didn't do anything.. I put a bottle of API bacteria in the tank and it didn't do anything either... I raised my temps to 82f and it still isn't doing anything... Could my UGF have really had that huge of an impact on my cycle ? Or is 4-5 weeks just not long enough yet to get a big enough BB colony for the fish I have in the tank..
Anyway I started live plants like 3-4 months ago and I just got sick of the nasty blue rocks I had in the tank, so I removed the UGF completely and I removed all the rocks and replaced the substrate with floramax substrate which is supposedly good for plants..
In doing so it started a cycle on my tank.. Now I have like 28 fish in this tank... Mostly small fish like neon tetra's and glow light tetras, and white clouds, but I also have a few medium sized fish like Celebes rainbows and neon dwarf rainbows neither are fully grown yet.. The only big fish I have are 3 adult sized gold barbs.. Now since changing the substrate.. In the last 4-5 weeks my plants are literally exploded in growth and color.. My Red Nesaea has literally doubled in height and bushy-ness.. It looks like a forest now.. The color was long changing from red to green on the new growth however now that the plants are growing roots and growing really bushy and tall they are changing more to a deep orange color is really beautiful.. My Telenthara cardinalis "red" has tripled in size from the little packet I got it from in petsmart and its extremely bushy and much taller, and its a nice ruby deep red color on all the leaves....
Oh and please I don't need posts saying I have too many fish in the tank, I don't care for those opinions.. Its my tank and I will do with as I please.. I haven't had any fish die in like 7 months and prior to doing this my ammonia was 0 and because my tank is extremely heavily planted the fish have planty of hiding places and room to swim around
The problem im having though isn't the plants.. The problem is I have had 4-8PPM of ammonia in the tank for 4 going on 5 weeks now.. I haven't had a single fish die, nor any fish gasping for air or struggling or red gills and the reason why is because I put a capful of prime in the tank every 24 hours... But its getting expensive... I have gone through an entire 500ml bottle.. and I cant afford this... But then I cant afford replacing my fish either..
Soo... how much longer is this cycle going to take ?? I even put a filter from another tank in mine and it still didn't do anything.. I put a bottle of API bacteria in the tank and it didn't do anything either... I raised my temps to 82f and it still isn't doing anything... Could my UGF have really had that huge of an impact on my cycle ? Or is 4-5 weeks just not long enough yet to get a big enough BB colony for the fish I have in the tank..