RO+DI unit installed and working now. Now I need a guinea pig to taste the water

All the other equipment will be in by Wednesday as long as UPS is on time.

Sounds like you have it all comming along nicely now Dont forget to keep us informed Also some pictures would be nice

What are you asking for it?

All of my new stuff arrived last night, including a half leaked 2-liter of Flourish Excel all over everything.

And apparently Eco-Complete has water in it so when it leaks, the box it comes in doesn't work very well anymore since the UPS guy dropped it in the driveway.

Picked up the stand from mpp last night and also bought the tank. Now I need a background and I'm all ready to go. Pictures will be forthcoming once I get something put together.

My camera is on vacation but I'm tracking my fishless cycle now:

Current water params:
Temp 80 degrees (To help cycle)
pH 7.6
KH 1 (2nd drop turned the color on the API kit, I have a Salifert kit I haven't used yet)
GH 3 (Used 1/2 tsp of Equilibrium)
Ammonia 5.0
NitrIte 0
NitrAte 0


I bought some muriatic acid to lower my pH if necessary. I'll probably wait until I get some nitrites before worrying about that.

Fishless cycling!



So with my seeded filter I went from 5.0 ammonia to .5 in a day, I will do another 10 drops tonight and see what it is tomorrow morning. Still no Nitrites or Nitrates though.

I also bought a glass bell diffusor instead of the bubble ladder and it sucks, with 3 2-liter bottles it doesn't even push any bubbles through. I thought my bottles were going to explode yeast and sugar all over everything.

I like your catfish

Tank is cycled, I really like the pure ammonia route because I can build up a huge amount of bacteria quickly.

I am now trying to get my pH to stay at 6.6 using muriatic acid. Apparently this will take a week or so to get to stay because the buffer will bounce it back up.

First attempt:
pH 7.8
5 drops
pH 7.6

Second attempt:
pH 7.8
6 drops
pH 7.4

Third attempt:
pH 7.6
8 drops
pH 6.8

Now this morning it is back to 7.5 so the tank is getting tired of fighting me.

Well I have been constantly adding acid and changing the water. I am pretty sure I have a bad batch of Eco-Complete that is raising KH. I have emailed the company to see what they think since it is supposed to be inert.

If I don't do anything at all it is back up to 7.3-7.5 the next day. I should be able to manipulate it with 4-5 drops and I am putting in 20-30 at a time right now.

I waited a week per the Carib Sea guyand my pH went up to 7.9 with a gross white film on the water. So they are going to send me replacement bags since there is something wrong with this stuff.

It is nice they are willing to do that, but it is annoying since I wanted this tank up the first week in October

I guess I will drain the tank and maybe rinse it for a while and see if I can get whatever it is to seep out.

It would be a good idea to rinse the tank out as you say, as that way you should not leave any contamination behind. As you say though it is good of them to replace, mind you its also the least they can do

Replaced Eco-Complete, also replaced Hydro V sponge with Hydro III sponge which is about half the size.



Almost done cycling again, I put one Endler in to make sure nothing is wrong. I'll put one of my Cherry shrimp in on Saturday and see how that goes. Should have my Crystal Reds on Wednesday.

Looks like its comming along nice. Are you going to put any more plants in the tank ?

yeah I'll be putting some Baby Tears in and maybe some more moss. Possibly a crypt. I dont want anything I have to trim regularly. I have a bunch of oak leaves soaking right now I will drop in there soon.