"TYNK 7" wrote in message
...
Subject: Newbie -all readings high
From: "Carlos"
Date: 1/2/2004 1:59 PM Central Standard Time
Message-id:

my secret recipe that has work for me: stock the aquarium FULL of
plants for
a month or so. keep doing water changes as usual, no nutrients for
plants,
just water changes, 12 hrs lights, co2, then after a month add fish.
it has
work for me over the years. stop adding fish.

what kind of fish depends on the biotope you are trying to recreat.
if its
comunity maintain the stock level at one-two inches of fish per gallon
of
water, ph should be 7. if you have tiger barbs i would not add
anything
with long fins, they seem to like nipping at them. i would stock the
aquarium with a nice group of tiger barbs, and plants. remember good
lighting for the plants, 2-4 watts/gal.


take care and good luck.

So what was creating the ammonia for the nirtifying bacteria to
colonize during
this month?

I'd guess that with a mix of CO2 and strong light, the plants would grow
until exhausting their reserves, and their constraint would be
nitrogen-based ferts, so - any ammonia introduced would be soaked up in a
real hurry (sounds good in theory ;~). There isn't much in the way of
developing nitrifying bacteria, other than what was already attached
dormant to the leaves, feeding off of any plant matter which had decayed,
releasing ammonia back into the water column.

NetMax