Added initial stock of eight juvenile yellow labs, eight juvenile cobalt blue zebras, and one bushy nose pleco. I am still looking for one more compatible species to add.

View August 31, 2013 13:40

Ready for fish. 50% water change to remove nitrates complete. Tomorrow I will start shopping. I will either get the fish online or at my LFS, depending on selection.

View August 30, 2013 20:23

The tank is cycled. After a 2 ppm dose of ammonia, ammonia and nitrites were both 0 ppm after 24 hours. I will continue to dose ammonia every other day until my fish arrive. I am somewhat concerned about the pH of my tank, which is about 8 using the API kit but 7 using pH strips. I need a real pH meter.

View August 27, 2013 18:34

Ammonia and nitrites have decreased to undetectable levels after 48 hours. I think the tank is almost cycled, which will make me a believer in SafeStart. I re-dosed ammonia today to approximately 2 ppm, and will re-check ammonia and nitrate tomorrow. If they're at zero, I'll order my fish.

View August 26, 2013 19:39

The SafeStart has definitely done something. Nitrites are off the chart, and ammonia is zero. I have a small amount of nitrates. I will continue to add ammonia to approximately 2ppm every other day, and test ammonia and nitrites until both are regularly at zero.

View August 23, 2013 21:28

Switched powerhead. The new Koralia seems to move a similar amount of water but the "stream" seems less focused and, for now, it seems to blow my sand around less. Had to add approximately 10 gallons of water due to evaporation, and added some Prime to dechlorinate. I will consider sealing my tank cover this weekend.

I will re-evaluate ammonia levels tonight and re-dose as needed to achieve 2-4 ppm. I purchased 250 mL Tetra SafeStart, which contains nitrifying bacteria. I believe it cooked in the UPS truck during delivery. I will add it anyway, after reestablishing my ammonia level.

View August 21, 2013 20:03

Added ammonia to 4.0 ppm to start fishless cycle. According to the results obtained using my API test kit, the brand of ammonia I used was much weaker than is frequently reported with the Ace hardware brand. I also added some Seachem Clarity as an experiment to see if residual cloudiness from addition of sand resolves.

View August 18, 2013 20:12