Did you boil and soak your driftwood so all the tannins are out? Endlers like hard water. The driftwood tends to lower the hardness.
I've never heard before that driftwood lowers the water's hardness... only drops the pH of the water if enough tannins are released.
Thanks for the good advice everyone! There is a ton of information out there, and I appreciate how you folks have condensed so much for me here. I have a tank at home that has been up since 2005, and all I've ever done was top off w/ dechlorinated tap water and an occasionally vacuum the gravel. I have a few synodontis that have been in there for over 10 years. I was just blind to the fact that there was so much involved in starting up a tank, but I'm really interested in learning all I can, and having a successful planted tank.
I have an API master kit and Prime on the way from Amazon. By Wednesday night I should know where my water stands. My Endler is still w/ us.
-How long a day should I have my light on?
-What temp should I keep the tank?
-No water changes until the tank cycles?
-I assume it is a good idea to replace water lost to evaporation?
-Will I need a clean up crew? If so, snails and what type?
Thank You Everyone
You should be doing water top ups with RO water, water changes with whatever water is in the tank. If you always do water top offs, you aren't removing any "waste" or hormones out of the water and doing this can increase the hardness of the water which may not be good for the fish.
Imagine you had a glass of salty water. If you left it on the counter for several weeks, the water would evaporate, leaving the salt behind. If half of the water evaporates out of the glass, the water will be twice as salty as the full glass would have been. If you pour more salty water into the glass, you have thus increased the total amount of salt in the glass. Over time, it's going to be an extremely salty glass of water!
This is one reason why water changes are recommended.
The light should be on for 8-10 hours of the day. Some might even recommend 12 hours. Too much light can lead to algae growth, so either you need to cut down on how much light the tank gets, or split the hours up.... i.e. on for 4 hours in the morning, off at noon, on again for 4 hours in the evening.
I *think* the Fluval Specs have the light and filter on the same plug, so you can't put it on a timer, unless you remove the light and install a new light that can be put on a timer.
Temperature of the tank will depend on the inhabitants of the tank. You are probably looking at at least 75-80° F?
If you remove the fish, no water changes and dose the tank with ammonia.
If you don't remove the fish, do water changes as suggested (every 3 days) and do not add ammonia. This may result in the tank taking longer to cycle, though.... Waste from the fish will help to feed the bacteria that will establish the tank, however, before the bacteria can get established, the waste can build up higher amounts of ammonia, nitrites and nitrates. These can kill your fish... hence, doing water changes during the cycle.
You can replace water lost from evaporation using RO/DI water...... or do water changes.
As for a cleanup crew... if you want one. You don't necessarily need one.... you could choose nerite snails or mystery snails and maybe one or two amano shrimp. (hopefully, a non-aggressive one other than stealing food!)