Speedburner's Planted 30 Gallon Wip

Hello everyone, just figured I would move my tank progress to this forum, building off of my original topic here: Help - Looking For Advice Setting Up And Stocking A 30-gallon

Here's a brief summary of things so far:

Size: 30 gallon (30"x 18.5"x 12.5")
Substrate: Floramax Classic
Lighting: USA Satellite LED on 9-hour daylight/moonlight cycle
Filter: Aqua Clear 70 with foam/polyfill/matrix/biomax
Heater: 100W Eheim Jager (not yet bought, tank is running high 70s with the summer weather right now, plan is to run with a controller)
Plants to date: Anubias, Java Fern, Anacharis, Water Sprite, with Flourish root tabs
Tap Water: pH 8.0, no ammonia, nitrates, or nitrites via API test kit, treated with Prime before filling
Fill Date: July 1, 2018
Last Plant Addition: July 3, 2018

Stock Plan:
12 x Glowlight or Cardinal Tetra
6-8 x Sterba's Cory
4 x Platy
10 x Amano Shrimp
4 x Nerite Snails

Possibly:
1 x Pearl Gourami
3-4 x Oto, if so will likely go with 6 Cory vs 8


So as of right now I have not yet started the cycle, as the ammonia I bought turned out to be the wrong type; Dr. Tim's should be arriving later this week as should my gravel vacuum, digital thermometer, and Flourish, among other supplies. I've read that it is better to dose to 1.0 ppm daily to protect the plants versus 4-5ppm, so I will probably be doing that. I think for now I will not be adding any more plants until I see how the current crop grows. I dunno if it's too soon to start dosing with Flourish either, particularly since there are already root tabs placed; regardless, the plants seem to be taking to the substrate well so far.

Stock plan is as above. Right now the tank seems to be running a little warm but this is purely off of the very old strip thermometer on the surface, I'm hoping the digital will be more accurate when I get it. pH I don't plan to attempt to adjust as at my skill level it will probably be more trouble than just keeping it stable.

One other thing I wanted to ask, obviously this is at least a month out based on how the cycle goes, but is there a set order to start stocking? I felt like adding snails/inverts, then the corys/otos and just kind of working my way up the water column seemed like it made the most sense. The tank decor is pretty much set so it is pretty much waiting for the cycle now.

Otherwise, I will definitely keep this thread updated as things progress. Hoping for some good feedback!

Pictures:

 

Looks good! I don't think it's too soon to start dosing flourish, anubias and java fern are water column feeders so they will need those nutrients instead of getting them from the root tabs.

Most of the time the digital thermometers aren't as accurate. Depending on what kind you get. I've found the marina floating ones to be accurate and they're only a couple dollars. That's a good way to see if your digital is accurate.

I wouldn't add the inverts first as they are more sensitive and will need algae to munch on. However, with your other fish, it doesn't really matter. Just the gourami last if you decide to get it. I would do cories, tetras, platys, snails, then shrimp.

p.s. smart choice on not trying to change the pH

 

Looks good! I don't think it's too soon to start dosing flourish, anubias and java fern are water column feeders so they will need those nutrients instead of getting them from the root tabs.

Most of the time the digital thermometers aren't as accurate. Depending on what kind you get. I've found the marina floating ones to be accurate and they're only a couple dollars. That's a good way to see if your digital is accurate.

I wouldn't add the inverts first as they are more sensitive and will need algae to munch on. However, with your other fish, it doesn't really matter. Just the gourami last if you decide to get it. I would do cories, tetras, platys, snails, then shrimp.

p.s. smart choice on not trying to change the pH

Thanks for the tips. Started with the full dose of Flourish on Wednesday evening, hoping the anacharis holds up since I've read some folks say that it sometimes has a bad reaction to the Flourish, but so far so good. Also went ahead and ordered one of the marina mercury thermometers as mentioned so I at least get a backup, they're cheap enough it's not really an issue.

Got the Dr. Tim's in yesterday and dosed to 1ppm last night to start, I'll check again tonight at the 24h mark to see if anything's changed. Hoping 1ppm is enough to cycle with the plants.

Was thinking out loud about adding a single female betta to the stock plan, but feel like that might be pushing it especially if I keep everything else unchanged.

Edit: Went ahead and checked the ammonia and nitrites before work on a whim, ammonia looks like it's already back down to 0.5ppm, no nitrites yet. Now I'm trying to figure out if I should be dosing to 1ppm daily or what.

 

Thanks for the tips. Started with the full dose of Flourish on Wednesday evening, hoping the anacharis holds up since I've read some folks say that it sometimes has a bad reaction to the Flourish, but so far so good. Also went ahead and ordered one of the marina mercury thermometers as mentioned so I at least get a backup, they're cheap enough it's not really an issue.

Got the Dr. Tim's in yesterday and dosed to 1ppm last night to start, I'll check again tonight at the 24h mark to see if anything's changed. Hoping 1ppm is enough to cycle with the plants.

Was thinking out loud about adding a single female betta to the stock plan, but feel like that might be pushing it especially if I keep everything else unchanged.

Edit: Went ahead and checked the ammonia and nitrites before work on a whim, ammonia looks like it's already back down to 0.5ppm, no nitrites yet. Now I'm trying to figure out if I should be dosing to 1ppm daily or what.

A betta could work, it just depends on the temperament of it.

Also, yes you want to keep adding ammonia so that the bacteria have something to feed off of. Otherwise, they’ll starve

 

Ammonia was back to 0 this morning, no nitrites yet, nitrates, I'm thinking was also 0, but it was almost borderline comparing the colors.

I redosed to 1ppm, I figure I'll keep doing this until I start getting nitrates in a significant quantity. Also discovered my first snail snooping around, figure there must have been eggs on the water sprite and anacharis.

 

Ammonia was borderline 0.25-0.5ppm this morning, I have a feeling tomorrow will be 0. Seems to be taking about 3 days to clear the ammonia at the moment, no sign of nitrates or nitrites still, I wonder if the plants have been absorbing it.

I'm trying to figure out if I want to just keep on doing what I'm doing, try dosing up to 2-3ppm instead, or try to expedite things by adding Safestart Plus or Dr. Tim's One and Only.

 

Day 22 update:

Committed to the Aqueon Pro 200w heater, which has been working well so far on default settings, tank has been holding steady at about 78F.

The anacharis have melted en masse which may have been from me dosing with Flourish before knowing that anacharis apparently are crazy sensitive to it. From further reading it would seem that anacharis are super hardy until they're not, and I've removed the bulk of them as they were making a rotty mess of the tank. I would have spared those with green tips but even the leading sprouts seemed to have melt and rot going on.

Ammonia has been holding steady at about 0.5 since last Tuesday, I am wondering if this is any way connected to the anacharis melt, both in terms of bio product and because they're no longer absorbing it.

Finally got nitrites and nitrates to show today after not testing for a few days, at 0.5 ppm and 5.0 ppm respectively. Will probably dose the ammonia back up today and see how it looks in a few days. I did end up adding a bottle of Safestart but not sure how much of a difference it has or hasn't made since.

Aside from cycling progress, debating whether to replace the anacharis with more of the same or try a different stem plant in that corner. Also debating whether to go with Pristella Tetra instead of glowlights or cardinals. The LFS around here have some very nice looking ones and they are supposedly hardier, but I feel like they get bigger so I dunno if a school of 12 will be too much versus the equivalent in cardinals, neons, or glowlights.