Last Few Start Up Questions

[Stykman]

I'll be ready to start the cycling this Weekend, my Son is counting the hours down until he comes home from school tomorrow...LOL Here are the last couple questions I have for the group:

Background: 125 Gal. Live Plants. The plan is Angels, Corys, and a few different species of Livebearers.

1 - Using Eco-Complete for substrate. I am also using some fairly large Rocks in the aquascape. Can I put these Rocks down directly on the glass Bottom? Or should they be on top of the Eco?

2 - Speaking of Eco...I read somewhere that I don't have to Vacuum it. Is this True? If I do have to, referring back to question #1, the rocks I am using are heavy enough to be a PITA...thus I want to put them directly on the bottom, so I don't have to move them to vacuum.

3 - If I find that I am going to need more Eco, can it be added say, next week?

4 - I am putting in a Bubble Wall in the back, purely for asthetics, because the Plants will provide the O2...Will the Bubble Wall inject Too much "air" into the water? I am I just being paranoid?

5 - The Rocks I am using I got from outside, around my house. I did the Vinegar test, and then put them all in the same 5 gallon bucket with Tap water. There might be only 2 to 2.5 gallons of actual water in there. They have been in for exactly 7 days now. The Initial pH was 7.2. Today it has come down to 6.6. The question is, Does the pH of water drop over time like this? Or are the Rocks brining it down?

Thanks Guys, I look forward to the knowledge.

 

[alter40]

1. you can bury them

2. You don't have to vacuum them. Just clean large stuff you see off the top when you do a water change.

3. I would say if it is still cycling it shouldn't be a problem. You probably wouldn't want to do that with fish in there though so figure that out as soon as you can.

4. I don't think you can really have too much air in there as far as the fish go. If your injecting CO2 into the tank for the plants then it would reduce the amount of CO2 in the water and kinda defeat the purpose I think.

5. The Ph usually goes drops some from the time it is initially setup from what I have seen, but the rocks could also be doing this as well. I think as long as your able to keep the Ph stable in the tank then the fish shouldn't have any issues with it.

 

[Stykman]

Thanks for that info Alter.

I am going Low Tech with this one, so there won't be any CO2 injecting. But if I do ever go that route, I'm going to axe out the Air injection, and stick with CO2 only.

 

[Stykman]

So I added the Live Plants, Water, Eco-Complete, Rocks...you get the picture.

I am following MissFishy's Guide to Fishless Cycling.

But about 24 Hours after I put the water in, I'm showing 10 ppm of Nitrates.

Is this Possible? If it is...this tank is going to cycle in about 5 days.

Does the "Amazon Black Water with Nitrifying Bacteria" in the Eco-Complete have something to do with this?

 

[Helena21]

I think most tap water has about 5-10ppm of nitrates anyway. Test some water straight from the tap

 

[Airborneguy]

Like Helena said, its your tap water. I tested mine as a base before starting my cycle and came up with about 5ppm.