What to do from here?

[superchode]

My tank is still in the set-up phase. I filled it 3 days ago, and I used gravel from Lowe's (1/2 cubic yard, $2.99, filled my whole 55 gal). Here are my issues:

***CHEMISTRY (balance)***The brought about two problems: 1) It has raised my pH and made my water "very hard". 2) It is a little coarse in places, and some of my rooted plants seem to need a finer substrate. As a solution, I added a few bowls of peat, trying to keep it in patches, rather than spread out, so I can plant my rooted plants and grasses in the peat. It did fan out, and my tank is really muddy and cloudy. I anticipate this to settle down and then I'll check the chemistry. But if the peat and the stone nuetralize each other, will there still be too many contaminents in the water for healthy fish? will regular water changes be enough?

***AMMONIA / CYCLING*** I assume I'm still early in the nitrate cycle, I haven't tested too much yet, but I put in my first half-capful of ammonia today. I'm concerned because this ammonia did have a surfectant in it and I wonder if it will harm my tank. I've looked at 2 hardware and 2 grocery stores and neither have pure ammonia solution. They all have surfectants or more additives. should I keep using this stuff?

***LIGHT*** I have 80w of florescent (2 40w bulb strips) for all the plants listed in my signature over 48" * 15" surface area. some require very high light. will it be enough?

***THE SHRIMP COLONY*** I hatched brine shrimp this morning, and I want them to colonize my tank before I introduce fish to stablize the ecology / chemistry. will ammonia poisen them? can they live in freshwater, or are they salt only? maybe I'll hatch another batch after I do the ammonia thing for a few days.

OK have at it ! answer some or all, any advice is greatly appreciated.

 

[seastaar88]

brine shrimp are SW and will require phytoplankton to sustain them. they will most likely die after a little bit in FW. you can feed them out in FW, but they're not nutritious at all, btw. you can enrich them.. they're good as live food as treats.

 

[FroggyFox]

Ok first, I'd personally scrap the idea of the brine shrimp. Brine shrimp will not live in fresh water, let alone colonize in it. Any shrimp hatching etc will have to be done separately from your main tank.

You didn't mention a filter...what kind do you have on the tank or are you looking for suggestions?

On the ammonia, have you tested the level of ammonia in the tank? Surfectants won't necessarily harm anything, I think you'll be ok to use it, but if you're planting the tank heavily then generally you don't need to worry a whole lot about adding ammonia and doing a traditional cycle. I'd focus on getting it set up the way you want it, planting, getting those plants happy, pearling, growing etc and getting a handle on the chemistry part of the whole thing. You need to read up on pH balance and plants, decide if you're going to inject C02 or not. The plant folks will be able to help more with your level of light. I'm not sure that the light you have is enough...80 watts on a 55 is less than 2 watts per gallon. You might browse the planted forum and see what other people have setup on their 55's?

THEN when you are confident that you have your plants growing like you want them to, get a few fish and start stocking your tank slowly.

 

[superchode]

i have a side hanger rated for 60 g and a power head rated for 20 g with a filter attached (not into a UGF, but just submersed). both run through carbon.

 

[seastaar88]

i would remove the carbon. it removes nutrients that plants need. any ferts you add will be taken right out by the carbon. carbon is only really needed when you need to remove medications. Just use some filter floss or the sponge attachment for bio/mechanical filtration.

 

[superchode]

yea I will take out the carbon. my tank was really muddy b/c I put some peat in it and I was trying to filter out some of the cloudiness.

I think I might add another strip of 2 40w bulbs for a total of 160w....
then maybe a DIY CO2 apparatus....
need to figure out the dosage first.

 

[superchode]

160 / 55 = 2.9 watts per gallon.

otherwise I'm stuck at 1.45 with one strip of lights.

 

[seastaar88]

it's really all about trial and error w/ CO2.. check out the sticky in the plants forum on DIY CO2.. i believe there are some posts about dosing a 55gal.