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Permalink Reply by Mr Puffer on May 24, 2012 at 6:19pm

1. That depends on how good the plants do. If they are still healthy in a week I'd say it's safe to add some hardy fish.

2. Absolutely. Running the filter is what gets it cycled.

3. Might be algae in the water, idk never had this problem myself. Since you just get it set up this probably is not the case.

4. If you are talking about the java fern then yes. I've had it planted in the gravel before but it looks a lot more natural when planted on driftwood.

6. You can get 6 in 1 test strip kits by Tetra at your LFS that tests nitrate, chlorine, hardness, pH, nitrite, and alkalinity. It tests everything you want in a freshwater tank besides co2 and O2. The most important of these 2 to test is probably pH and nitrite. What lots of people don't realize is that the pH scale is logarithmic, so 6 is ten times more acidic than 7 and 5 is ten times more acidic than 6 ect... A sudden change of 1 is often fatal. Nitrite is also very toxic for fish even in minute amounts.

7. Well since you got into planted tanks by dustin I can assume you have a dirted tank so that makes it a lot easier. I'd dose  seachem ferts regularly. Seachem has awesome products.

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Permalink Reply by Peter on May 24, 2012 at 6:22pm

So I'll try my best to help you the best I can. How soon can u add fish? U can technically add fish day 1 but it's not recommended some people add inexpensive fish first as tester fish for water. BUT it's typically recommended to add fish once your tank finishes cycling. 
Should you be running a filter while the tanks getting ready?   Yes run the filter it helps your water stay clean n put movement in your tank so your water isn't jus sitting. 
Filter turning tank brown after running for a day?   I really don't know how that happens sorry
Plants on driftwood? Yes those plants can be on te drift wood. But if you don't like them on it you can pull them off and plant them or If you do like plants on the drift wood you can tie java fern , moss, or crypts to it and they will grow on the wood.
What kinds of test on water? Well you need to test you water ph you waters hardness you waters nitrates and nitrites and for ammonia 
What to do to keep plants healthy? WATERCHANGES. 50% weekly or biweekly if you want you can dose flourish exel and flourish iron and photassium. Also when doing water changes make sure to use Declorinator 
That's all I can hunk of ATM. I'm sure the other helpful ppl on te forum will let you know if I forgot to add something or w/e

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Permalink Reply by MarkC on May 24, 2012 at 8:32pm

Ok, Thanks a bunch for the help guys!  Ill keep you posted with how my progress goes, I have to say I'm already really loving this hobby  :)

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Permalink Reply by MarkC on May 25, 2012 at 12:59pm

Ok, on day 2 after planting and running into a problem with murky water again, heres a pic...

I have been using Nutrafin Cycle as Gareth suggested yesterday when he was helping me on the chat.  Also I did wash out the filter because it looked and smelled terrible in there.  The good news is the 3 neons I added yesterday all made it though the night(!!), but only the smallest of them seems to be eating.  Hes going around being a champ and noming down pretty much everything while the other 2 kinda follow along, Im not sure if the others dont realize its food or what but they dont seem to be eating.  Also I did turn the filter way up to try and force more air into the tank to make sure the fish are getting enough air because the plant don't seem to be making much oxygen.. not nearly as much as an air stone does.  Anyways thats about all for now, any advice would be appreciated!  Thanks.

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Permalink Reply by Anthony Piti on September 23, 2012 at 2:56pm

Your tank is looks amazing.

As for the murky water... what kind of filter media are you using, how thick is it, and how dense is it?  I ran into a similar problem with my tank after getting it up and running.  It turned out that the aquaclear sponge filters I was using were too thin and had too many openings for the smaller particles in the water to get through.  I switched them out for polyester pillow stuffing.  My water cleared up and has stayed clear.  Not to mention it is very cheap at any Walmart for a nice sized bag.

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Permalink Reply by Kearean M on June 4, 2012 at 9:41am

keep it up mate i first started with three gold fish and i never done water changes etc.. so after 3 weeks they died lol but im sure everyone has killed a fish so...

now i have a 70-80 ltr tropical tank with some plants (need to get more ) but its been running since november last year and it looks good ill need to update my profile with new pictures ill try and help but i am quite new to fish keeping as you are.

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