New Aquarium

[InbetweenDreams]

Well the plants aren't doing too well...and the big problem I have right now is this massive ammonia spike... 8 ppm which is insane. One of the neons show some signs of gill burn so I need to get it down to like less than 1 ppm if I can. So one of the things I read is that ammonia is less toxic at lower pH, mine is sitting at 6.6 after a 50% water change but the ammonia is still at 4 ppm, so in order to try to get it under control I'm going to do two 50% water changes each day until the ammonia is down to 1 ppm and hopefully the bacteria will grow. I still have no signs of any nitrite so not sure what the deal is exactly but I suspect that either the plants are taking up what, if any, nitrite there is or the Maracyn killed off any beneficial bacteria there was because there were visual indicators of that. I do have some stuff on the way to hopefully help with the beneficial bacteria stuff hopefully.

That being said, here's some more pictures....

   

   

So here's the 55 gallon tank. Came with a filter, hood and a 200 watt heater...on sale at Petsmart for $129. I just need to make sure it holds water. Now the problem with the table here is that the plywood isn't completely flat. Well, my dad has been helping me and unfortunately took off too much on the corners and the tank doesn't sit flat...which is bad. It was a fair attempt, just was a home made table that I thought I could repurpose and save some money on not buying a stand...but I'm buying a stand anyway. Going to pick that up tomorrow, just hope that works out. Reading the reviews makes me feel unsure what to do, but we'll see. After all we're talking about ~450 lbs of water, plus the tank and whatever gravel and stuff you put in, so definitely has to be strong and has to be level.