Journey to CRS and Orange Neos! (CLOSED)

[maxwellag]

Originally Posted by rrastro

Don't wash the AS too much. Anything more than a light rinse is going to take off some of the magical AS dirt that helps the buffering etc....

I agree. It says not to wash it because you will be washing away the buffers. To avoid clouding when filling up for the first time, it says to fill extremely slowly. I filled my tank up fast when I first got it, and it was a mud pond. Haha! I drained the tank, covered the AS with cling wrap, and then slowly poured water in and it was much less cloudy.

[phoenixkiller]

Yeah, well, I pretty much ruined my Aquasoil. Poop. I do not feel in a very good mood right now.

Thankfully I have some Eco that I can use, no problems there. Tank to be set up tomorrow, on schedule.

[phoenixkiller]

And now... the moment we have all been waiting for!!

The tank, after 2-3 hours of hard work, has been re-set up! Got some pics throughout the process...




Stage 1:

This is after I placed the Eco-Complete (Yes, Eco, I messed up the ADA Aquasoil and had to throw it out... please don't discuss it with me, it depresses me... I'm not joking... ) into the tank, I have one more pic of this stage.





Stage 1






Stage 2:

Pouring in the water that was treated with Seachem Prime and Bee Shrimp Mineral GH+ (RO remineralizer). This is distilled water, which is essentially the same as RO water.





Stage 3:

Tank filled, a blurry picture, but it's the best I could do. Bit cloudy then, but my Purigen took care of that in under 15 minutes .









Stage 4:

Tank planted! I can't put in the DW or stones in yet, gonna boil them first. More pics to come!!







Going to cycle the tank by feeding imaginary fish (Breaks down into ammonia). I have established media, or I think it's established, but going to make sure it's cycled before I order any shrimp. If everything goes according to plan, I will order shrimp next week or something, unless you guys tell me why that would be a bad idea.

Thanks for your patience guys, your patience has definitely payed off!!

[Overgrowth]

Originally Posted by rrastro

Don't wash the AS too much. Anything more than a light rinse is going to take off some of the magical AS dirt that helps the buffering etc....

I don't think you should have thrown away the AS, because rrasto said SOME of the buffering material is washed off, and not all of it, but too late I guess. Sorry about the substrate.

[maxwellag]

Why were you sing Purigen? It's not necessary IMO-tanks clear up on their own, 95% of the time.

[phoenixkiller]

Originally Posted by maxwellag

Why were you sing Purigen? It's not necessary IMO-tanks clear up on their own, 95% of the time.

You misunderstand, I didn't put it in there to clear up the water short term, it just gets rid of nasties in tanks, it's just a useful, semi-cheap thing to have around.

[maxwellag]

Originally Posted by phoenixkiller

You misunderstand, I didn't put it in there to clear up the water short term, it just gets rid of nasties in tanks, it's just a useful, semi-cheap thing to have around.

I see. Are you using it as a conditioner also? Or are you dosing Prime in addition?

[phoenixkiller]

Originally Posted by maxwellag

I see. Are you using it as a conditioner also? Or are you dosing Prime in addition?

I still dose Prime. I may not need to, but I did anyway. There are two things that went into the distilled water, Prime and Bee Shrimp Mineral GH+.

[phoenixkiller]

Well, time for a long-overdue update. My darned cats ruined my laptop by urinating on the keyboard, I am currently using my parent's desktop. Hopefully a new laptop is in order for my birthday and Christmas!

The tank is in the middle of cycling currently, with the ammonia plummeting and the nitrItes skyrocketing. No nitrAtes as of yet.

Pics for Thanksgiving may be in order! Stay tuned!

[phoenixkiller]

Tank has been confirmed as cycled for a week or two now, and I added an Amano shrimp to decimate my thread algae. I actually bought two, but one was half-dead in the store (I didn't pick them out), so I expected him to die. Well, he did.

I'll get some pics up when I'm at home!!