it looks like such a nice little home for fishy

i hope to get more decorations but Sunny is going to get at least a decent startup!

need a lot more plants but importing water lentils in my area isn't cheap so one step at the time

oh hey how long have you had the tank up?

i have 5 fish tanks and happy to give you tips and general experience

Around a week!

NICE are you just going to be growing out the plants for cycling or are you doing the ammonia method?

my tanks all took wildly different lengths of time to cycle

Oh, so I'm rusty AF but I'm doing the ammonia method. I got strips and I'm waiting for the spike to know it's 'safe' to go?

if you can i'd get the full test kit because strips are sometimes not totally accurate

I think it's very personal for each tank? Also I added plants for filtering and all. I'm planning to get more to get rid of nitrates and all

oh? D: Really?

yeah, it'll miss the lower value nitrites/ammonia

(also I'm grabby hands and begging for fish pics)

SURE THING I'LL GET SOME hold on

Oh darn I gotta check it all then

my biggest tank is 55 gal

and like

they are all planted

YEY Pics! And wow that's big!

fully stocked tanks

oooh!

I haven't had ANY nitrates in years.

i water change once a week and nitrates are 10 ppm or less, it's insane

it took 2 months to cycle my 20 gallon-- let me get the pics

oooh sweet! And I can't really wait two months since I already picked my betta, buuuut I have at least a week more. If I have issues my aunt told me she can 'hold' onto him in one of her tanks. she knows more stuff than I do...

this is my heavily overgrown 29 gallon, it’s a 5 year old tank

there are lots of fish in there even if you can't see many LMAO

a school of 11 diamond tetra, corydoras on the bottom and a pair of apistogramma hongsloi

Platy tank + corydoras

LOVE the vegetarion

55 gallon

his name’s Henry and he’s an electric blue acara

oh the platy are fishes I fear, like the guppy. I heard stories about them breeding out of control (and I had guppies doing that long ago)

the 55 gallons is STUNNING

The platies bred a lot but actually their population kind of hits a level and stays there. and thank you!!!!!

ALSO wrt platies, i actually had a pair of predators in there

they recently passed away

THe blue boy is so pretty

nanochromic splendens. My blue boy is a smart guy

raised him from 1 inch and he's 6 inches now

Aaaaand yeah predators sound good. I know when I was MUCH younger i had an aquarium and 1) I accidentally introduced snails with a plant 2) got some female guppies. that were pregnant. the small acquarium couldn't handle the population boom

i have two ten gallons but they are less impressive and one doesn't have much in it at the moment. I had sparkling gouramis but they died, and i converted it to an invert tank so i'm starting a shrimp colony

THAT... HAPPENS LMAO

oooh SHRIMPS

i love little shrimps

I love shrimps but I just don't trust myself handling them

busy little guys

I hear you, they need a very established tank and thrive without fish tbh

we HAD a shrimp colony. they did really great. then i got sparkling gouramis and they became expensive fish food

so we're restarting the colony

i hope your betta enjoys their lovely new home <3

yeah. I spent forever without an aquarium so I'd rather not start with too many projects. I chose a male betta and I'm starting with him (it's a 10 gallons tank that I have)

10 gallon is PERFECT for a betta

I hope so as well. more stuff WILL be added when I can afford it.

it can get expensive!

just a single spoonful of water lentils is around 6 bucks PLUS shipping

is that hornwort in yours?

which personally I find insane......... so I'm looking around

in the corner?

Let me check the italian name...

OH YEAH IT IS

PERFECT. that is a fast growing stem plant

it will eat up all your nitrates.

Yep! And I hope it provides entertainment for the boy too, I heard bettas like a planted tank

they do!

(we call hornworth 'ceratofillo' here. That's why I had to double check)

'ceratofillo' is a prettier name tbh

I also have two marimo balls and I'm vaguely debating putting them in there

oh chickenfriend your tanks look so nice

my tanks both look like absolute garbage because I never replanted them after hurricane + move but I'm also getting back into the planted tanks journey

I've seen your tanks hydok and they're very nice. Or, well, I've seen one.

why isn't anything changing ever?

because cycling can take a looooooooooooong time

my 29 gallon took 3 weeks, 55 gallon took a month and a half

20 gallon took 2 full months

I am aware. I'm just hoping it doesn't take THAT long since I feel bad for leaving him in the shop's place. I did promise them I'll give them 10 bucks in a week or so when I get there but I still feel bad

OOF. That's a LOT of time. But yeah I'm not taking him home until I see the ammonia spike and all

also not sure on how to lower the KH

which is in range but a bit higher than the 'thumbs up' one

I used this thing to startup,

I'm doing a checkup every morning tho. And today I added the oxygen pumping thing to make sure the surface keeps moving so I don't risk 'bubbles' and all (IDK the name, but when the surface makes some gunk because it doesn't break enough and the surface tension increases and you see bubbles there)

No oxygen stone but I THINK it'll be fine as it is? I MEAN it's 40 liters with some air coming in ANd plants that should fill the water with oxygen. I'll look into a background too eventually

don't worry about kh and gh

kh is eaten up as the bacteria get going

sometimes the cycle stalls if there is no kh to eat through

Well, there was and it descended a bit, but it was never THAT high?