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Did get a Dennerle Nano Cube 30L from my girlfriend for my birthday yesterday. A total suprise, but a good one. The sad thing is I have to work in Aachen for the next 2 weeks ( 400km away from my home in Stuttgart ).Not to bad because I can use those 2 weeks to cycle the tank.
So between breakfast and my party I rushed to the garden of the opa of my girlfriend to fill up some 10l water bottles with rain water. Did drive to a big pet (kölle-zoo) here, did bring a small sample of rainwater with me to get it tested. PH 5,5 – GK 0 – KH 0 – Nitrite <0,025 mg/l - Nitrate <2 mg/l - conductance 24 µS/cm. I was happy with the water parameters. Still in the shop I wanted to buy some plants and a 1 piece of wood so I could start cycle the tank. So i did come home with a Ceratopteris thalictroides , a Microsorum ptreropus and 2 cups of Taxiphyllum barbieri and a very small piece of wood.
After coming home I did cover the bottom with deponitmix and some black shrimp gravel that where in the aquarium-kit. Did fix the moss to the piece of wood with some fishing line and did set the other 2 plants very simpel on the bottom. Just want to cycle the tank so the place where everything is will change later.
Did fill the tank with 2/3 of rain water and 1/1 with normal drink water ( treated with water conditioner ). Filter and lights on ..... and now the hard part.... waiting.
For the next time I want to look for a Blyxa aubertii or B. japonica, get some more wood and stones to create some more hiding places, and look for a piece of wood that I can make hollow so my future paro's have a cave to place the eggs.
Hi, Jordy – and belated best Wishes!!
Even if you will change it later – don’t plant the Microsorum into the ground, it doesn’t like a covered rhizome.
And be careful with adding stones – I already had to change a complete tank, because the stones I had added increased the conductivity. (Some wood also does!!)
Why did you add 1 third normal tap water? The values of the rain water sounded perfect …..
The cube is only filled 2/3 total so the other 1/3 will be filled with some more of the same rain water later. In the shop they adviced me to ad only a 1/4 of the total volume with normal tap water els some of my values would crash. The next 1/3 of rainwater will be heated and is going through a coffee filter with crushed/shredded to get a the PH more down, something similar like running it through a coffe machine.
Don’t believe that crashing pH! Without any buffers pH can fluctuate relatively easy. In a normal aquarium you don’t want a low pH, so this isn’t a good thing. With paros however, the low pH is exactly the reason you use rainwater. With adding tap water you undo this advantage. I use pure RO water in my acidic tanks, without any problems.
Hello,
substrate for plants can stabilize pH around 6,5 or 7. I only use a thin layer of sand and if it must be clay balls (for Echinodorus in pot). Experiments with thick layer lava granulate went wrong (pH around 7). With sand-substrate, peat and pure RO water pH easily drops down under 5. Avoid carbonate hardiness, with KH the pH will not drop down and the Paros eggs can not exist.1/4 tap water means more than KH 2 and this result in pH higher than 7! And in my opinion you do not need aqua safe or other related products, because RO-water or rainwater is pure water without copper or other harmful metals/substances.
Greetings Patrick
I totally agree with bartian and PatrickG regarding the ph-crash thing. For years I was worried because everybody told you this could happen. Its not a problem in our kind of tanks, and mixing any part into it of ordinary water is contradictionary to what we are trying to achieve.
[quote=”Jordy” post=1700]PH 5,5 … KH 0 … Just want to cycle the tank [/quote]
Genuine question (because I have a special interest in this area):
What do you expect to happen, cycling-wise, with these parameters (which is close to what they’d be when you stop ‘cutting’ your rainwater with tap)?
And, with plants in the tank, what measurements will you perform that will leave you in no doubt that cycling has taken place?
Thank you people for the advice. Note to myself: only use RO or rainwater.
This is giving me some questions. Is it smart to empty the the tank till 1/2 or 1/3 of the total volume?
Total volume is 30L, at the moment it’s filled with 21L of water ( 14L rainwater and 7L tapwater ).
there are some plants and a piece of wood in it.What is a reliable testset for water parameters? One without strips please.
@Vale! : I don’t know what to expect. Just wanted a balaced tank with the right parameters.Was a bad idea to ad tapwater.
Will try to test my water as soon as I’m home at Friday.
@PatrickG: The plant substrate was at the aquarium kit that i got presented.
I only used it in a small amount, 1cm thick and only in a corner thst cover max 1/4 of the bottom the tank. The water threatment products where in the kit to, did only used the water threat ment for the 7L tapwater that i used, in mind thst it could not harm.Because I’m in Aachen for my work, I did a small walk in the city and found a cheap euro store that where selling small coffe machines for €5,-. So I picked 1 up for some testing.
I want to put some pulverized/shredded oak leaves in the filter section and run the machine on rainwater. Wanna test the water and wanna look if I can use it to tane the water en lower the PH.
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