Advice needed for water cycling and others

[zeek_fon]

Hi all, need some advice from you all.

I intend to set up a 1.5ft tank. Will be using either Magic/GEX soil with GEX HOF.

Questions:

(1) Understand that I need to run the tank for at least 2 week. In between the period, should I do any WC? How many percent? 20-30%??
(2) Is flat 2 weeks sufficient if I were to intro in Shrimps/OTO?
(3) Should I add in plants during the cycling period?? What plants should I buy??
(4) Is 5kg of soil sufficent for a 1.5ft tank?
(5) If I were to shift the tank to another location after 2 weeks (I will need to syphon out 3/4 water), can I re-use the water again? What's the after effect if I were to intro in Shrimps/Zebra OTO/faunas into the tank straight after shifting is completed in another location?
(6) Must I re-cycle the tank again for another 2 weeks?
(7) Can I know what are the low maintenance plants I can use besides Nana, Java (normal/narrow leaf) fern?
( I have a clip on light think is 11W, is this sufficient??
(9) Must I still on the light for at least 6-8 for a low maintenance tank?

Thanks for all your advice & time reading.

Cheers.

Regards

[uklau]

Hope this would help.

Hi all, need some advice from you all.

I intend to set up a 1.5ft tank. Will be using either Magic/GEX soil with GEX HOF.

Questions:

(1) Understand that I need to run the tank for at least 2 week. In between the period, should I do any WC? How many percent? 20-30%?? First week 50% 3 times a week. 2nd week, twice a week. IME, 2 weeks is achievable with the help of commercial beneficial bacteria.
(2) Is flat 2 weeks sufficient if I were to intro in Shrimps/OTO? I tried this with Oto after 2 weeks without any casualty.
(3) Should I add in plants during the cycling period?? What plants should I buy?? I start planting on day one. You can make use of floating plant to take up all excessive nutrients.
(4) Is 5kg of soil sufficent for a 1.5ft tank? Very much dependant on the thickness of substrate & slopes you intended to have.
(5) If I were to shift the tank to another location after 2 weeks (I will need to syphon out 3/4 water), can I re-use the water again? What's the after effect if I were to intro in Shrimps/Zebra OTO/faunas into the tank straight after shifting is completed in another location? It is not a good idea to shift a tank with water, unless you are shifting it by shifting the cabinet/stand. I usually empty the water, use back half & top up with new water. The wet substrate contribute to a substantial weight. I would not introduce those fauna that are known to be sensitive to water parameter change.
(6) Must I re-cycle the tank again for another 2 weeks? No
(7) Can I know what are the low maintenance plants I can use besides Nana, Java (normal/narrow leaf) fern? Moss, Cryptocorynes, Echinodorus, hairgrass, just to name some of them.
( I have a clip on light think is 11W, is this sufficient?? Plant selection will be limited to low light plants.
(9) Must I still on the light for at least 6-8 for a low maintenance tank? Yes

Thanks for all your advice & time reading.

Cheers.

Regards

[pepetj]

Hi all, need some advice from you all.

I intend to set up a 1.5ft tank. Will be using either Magic/GEX soil with GEX HOF.

Questions:

(1) Understand that I need to run the tank for at least 2 week. In between the period, should I do any WC? How many percent? 20-30%??
No need to perform water changes at all if you are cyclin fishless.

(2) Is flat 2 weeks sufficient if I were to intro in Shrimps/OTO?
If you start from scratch (without help from seeded media filter or substrate added to the tank) I would say 11-13 days. If you start with "external help" (seeded media filter and/or substrate), I would say 8-11 days.(Timeframes based on my personal experience only. I have cycled 5 tanks).

(3) Should I add in plants during the cycling period?? What plants should I buy??
I allways add plants from day one. Just add the hardiest of plants, don't worry about them getting dirty, you'll clean them once the cycle is done.

(4) Is 5kg of soil sufficent for a 1.5ft tank?
The volume of the tank is what I use to answer this question. I couldn't find what Magic/GEX soil with GEX HOF means. (sorry I'm a newbie)
I know about two rules of thumb:
1) 1lb of gravel per gallon; 2 lbs of sand per gallon.
2) thickness of substrate should be in the ranges of 2-4" (5-10cm)

(5) If I were to shift the tank to another location after 2 weeks (I will need to syphon out 3/4 water), can I re-use the water again? What's the after effect if I were to intro in Shrimps/Zebra OTO/faunas into the tank straight after shifting is completed in another location?
You would need to empty your tank to protect the bottom from cracking (if glass tank; acrylic is more resistant, might handle your idea). There's no use in putting that old water in, most beneficial bacteria lives attached to surface in filter media, substrate, tank's walls, decor, plants. What you need to protect most is the filter media and substrate not getting dry and receive some aereation if your moving takes too much time -say 2+ hours. I'm not sure what you mean by Zebra OTO, but if you mean an ottocinclus, they are too sensitive to not stablished tanks, I would wait a few days to make sure water parameters are steady. Shrimps tend to be hardy -in my limited experience with Ghost Shrimp, but check on the ones you intend to stock with. Same applies to faunas (guess you mean fish) depends on the species.

(6) Must I re-cycle the tank again for another 2 weeks?
Not likely if you manage to keep your bacteria alive (substrate, filter media). However if a good portion of your bacteria colonies die, you might go through a "mini-cycle" since the type of bacteria that brakes down Ammonia into Nitrites is hardiest than the one that brakes Nitrites into Nitrates (Ammonia present but not in spike, and Nitrite spike), if you are still fishless, it should take 4-6 days to "recycle". If you are allredy stocked, it will take longer and require some effort (daily partial water changes)

(7) Can I know what are the low maintenance plants I can use besides Nana, Java (normal/narrow leaf) fern?
I assume by low maintenance you mean not needing to trim often and that will do OK without CO2, in low light and sparing use of nutrients. Anubias Barteri is a slow growing hardy plant. Check these sites for other easy to keep low-light plants:
www.plantgeek.net
www.plantedtank.net

( I have a clip on light think is 11W, is this sufficient??
Unfortunately with the info on tank lenght only I cannot figure out your WPG. What is the volume of your tank?
I have extremely low to low lighting. 0.27 to 1.8 Watts per Gallon

(9) Must I still on the light for at least 6-8 for a low maintenance tank?
Plants do need some light. I only have lo-tech lo-light planted tanks (no CO2, standard aquarium fluorescent lights). Since I live in the Caribbean, I give my tanks 12 hours of light per day. But 6-8 will probably be OK.

Thanks for all your advice & time reading.
Your welcome. Double check what I say, I'm a newbie at fishkeeping.

Cheers.

Regards

Pepe
Santo Domingo

[Morgan01]

buy feeder shrimps or fish and dump them into your tank. this helps start the life cycle...well these are expandable anyway.

[k3nlim]

Fishless cycling works well (no need to expend any lifes),will takes around 2 weeks or so to cycle the tank. In my opinion,why don't you start your tank until you're ready to move over to the new location, that will certainly save you lots of trouble.

[feide]

yeah, agree with fishless cycling. patience is a virtue you attain in this hobby.. or just add in aged water / used filter media to accelerate the process

[beetlejuice403]

Personally, I guess the best is to cycle the 'fishless' way as this will not waste any life forms of any kind...

Unless you are sure that you have other uses of the fishes you intend to get for cycling (either transfer to another tank or pass to other people), if not waste $ also...

What's 2 weeks of cycling compared to the longer span of maintaining the tank when it's ready for livestock?? Can train one's patience also... If really cannot tahan looking at a tank without fishes, maybe can go buy those plastic floating fish & throw some in the tank... serves as deco also...