New tank build 10 days old - No fish

Good day,

I have a 54 gallon bow-front corner fish tank.
newly planted 10 days ago - no fish introduced into system yet.

Current USA SATELLITE FRESHWATER LED PLUS+ (mounted 6 inches above the tank run 8 hours daily) Tank is 21 inches deep, this give me 27 inches so the mosses have low light
Carib Eco-system complete substrate dosed with (ADA 5 Fertilizer Penac P+Penac W+Tourmaline BC+Clear Super+Bacter 100) before plants were planted and water added.
Fluval FX4 filteration used Fluval Biological Enhancer/Booster on initial setup

PLANTS:
Drawf Sagittaria (Growing)
Ludwigia Repens (Growing)
Anabis (Melted)
Alternanthera ReineckiI Rosanervig (Melted)
Boblbitis (50% melted)
JAVA Moss, Phoneix Moss, Xmas moss (some new growth)
Monte Carlo (Growing)
Wisteria (Melted)
Java Fern (Holding its own)
Red Sword (Holding its own)
Fzone Co2 regulator - is within the target range (I do not turn it off at night).
Heater - set at 77
Have done 2 water changes since setting it up, the first one was 75% and the second one was 50%.

Issues: The red plants have completely melted away including the roots, dose daily with fertilizer. No algae, but white fuzz on wood even though it was boiled (know what to do) can't remove wood so hopefully it will disappear in time. Really need to speed up plant growth before introduction of fish after 15 March 2020. Realize that plants grown emersed will die when submerged, but even the roots?

Should I attempt a replant of the reds again or leave alone? I totally forgot and planted my Java Fern in the substrate - is it too late to move it? it is not melting. Did I miss a step because I did not dose the tank with Ammonia? The water test shows all parameters where they should be

 

Nice tank! Will be following! Leave the reds. It isn't too late to move the java fern if it still looks the same. What are your stocking plans?

 

If you haven't introduced an ammonia source, then the parameters are where they should be because that's the readings you get from tap water. When you add an ammonia source, either ammonia itself (fishless cycle) or with fish (fish-in cycle), then the numbers will start to climb and you'll have bacteria start to grow to convert the ammonia to nitrites, and then the nitrites to nitrates. Since you have fish coming next month you'll be doing a fish-in cycle, and that's okay. Reading Fish In Nitrogen Cycle Simplified | Aquarium Nitrogen Cycle 414083 would be well worth your time. I assume you have a test kit since you said your parameters are where they should be, so after introducing the fish you'll need to test often, and do water changes when needed to keep the combined ammonia and nitrite readings low; ideally below 0.5 ppm, but definitely below 1.0 ppm. If you have a friend who has some old filter media you could put in your tank that will greatly speed up the process.

No one, least of all me, will blame you for not knowing about the cycle yet. I didn't when I started my tank, and I killed a fair number of fish because of it.

 

Nice tank! Will be following! Leave the reds. It isn't too late to move the java fern if it still looks the same. What are your stocking plans?

Nice tank! Will be following! Leave the reds. It isn't too late to move the java fern if it still looks the same. What are your stocking plans?

The Alternanthera ReineckiI Rosanervig which I planted (5) of them have melted down to and including the roots. The
Ludwigia Repens Red have taken off and are going wild, but are getting brown and stemmy down close to the substrate, going to trim and plant the tops tommorow. Will try again with the Alternanthera ReineckiI Rosanervig nana, I think its a beautiful plant and I need the red to offset all of the green and black substrate.
What I am planning on as far as fish goes, Amano Shrimp, cherry shrimp, NO plecos, Siamense alage eaters, Black Mollies (10), Cardinal Tetras (10), Glofish (danios) 10, daughter is begging for them - lol, and some Guppies from the Guppy factory in Purerto Rico (rather expensive so will see how far the money goes), no swordfish possibly some platties, kids love the livebearers. and the catfish. This is the second time I have built this tank, my 4 year old grandson called himself "feeding" the fish as he poured his entire can of coco cola into the tank about two months ago, managed to save a few fish but he virtually killed everything in the tank, so had to do a complete redo.... I will move the java fern tomorrow and glue it to some small rocks I have, thank you. Will post pictures in 5 more days, hopefully the melting will have stopped and it will have started to recover.

If you haven't introduced an ammonia source, then the parameters are where they should be because that's the readings you get from tap water. When you add an ammonia source, either ammonia itself (fishless cycle) or with fish (fish-in cycle), then the numbers will start to climb and you'll have bacteria start to grow to convert the ammonia to nitrites, and then the nitrites to nitrates. Since you have fish coming next month you'll be doing a fish-in cycle, and that's okay. Reading Fish In Nitrogen Cycle Simplified | Aquarium Nitrogen Cycle 414083 would be well worth your time. I assume you have a test kit since you said your parameters are where they should be, so after introducing the fish you'll need to test often, and do water changes when needed to keep the combined ammonia and nitrite readings low; ideally below 0.5 ppm, but definitely below 1.0 ppm. If you have a friend who has some old filter media you could put in your tank that will greatly speed up the process.

No one, least of all me, will blame you for not knowing about the cycle yet. I didn't when I started my tank, and I killed a fair number of fish because of it.

Thank you, went online and ordered some ammonia from amazon will be here tomorrow, will start dosing. I will read the article you suggested, haven't seen that one. All of my friends have saltwater tanks, they will be of no help to me - lol, but I have been reading a lot and it has also stated that I can put fish food in the tank to help with the fish less water cycle.

 

Beautiful tank!! Hope you share further pictures, it’s great inspiration.