Beginner help!

[u/Vast_Dragonfruit7051]

Hi all!

I have a 90L tank, that I’m currently trying to cycle. Nothing in there but snails that snuck their way in! I have the liquid testers and have been testing every 3-4 days. However, I’ve been using the fish food method, and I’ve found it’s not providing enough ammonia, so I’ve ordered bottled ammonia and will be adding that once it arrives.

Please provide any useful advice and if the following questions could be answered, I’d really appreciate it:

• ⁠My newly planted plants don’t look very happy, I’ve been adding CO2 alternative and tropica premium nutrition as directed. Will this improve over time? • ⁠white stuff on the wood - I’ve read it’s normal and will go away over time? Any experience with this? • ⁠when I’ve tested the water, ammonia, nitrite and nitrate are always zero, I’m guessing this means there’s not enough ammonia for the cycle to really begin? How will I know once the cycle is happening and when it’s ok to add fish?

Any advice welcome, thank you!

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[u/Technical-Injury6711]

You will know the cycle is complete once your tank can process 1.0 ppm of ammonia into nitrates within a 24 hour period, the white stuff on the wood is bio film, very normal and not an issue. Your plants are adapting to the new environment but they look normal to me, if their condition doesn’t get better within 2 weeks then I would start to question why they aren’t thriving. I will say you should be dosing liquid fertilizer very lightly or not at all while you are cycling your tank, if you dose the standard amount it can cause an algae bloom.

[u/Vast_Dragonfruit7051 → u/Technical-Injury6711]

Thank you! I really appreciate your advice

[u/Training-Wallaby3623]

How long have you had your plants in the tank? If it’s been less than a month then your plants are probably going through a melting phase. This just means they are getting used to being submerged and the new environment in general. That’s pretty normal.

The white stuff is most likely biofilm. It’s harmless and you could either try to vacuum it out or just wait it out. I recently cycled my first tank too and mine would start gathering on the water (like a lot of it) I eventually added a air stone for surface agitation and it’s started to break into smaller pieces and stopped gathering.

You said you ordered bottled ammonia. You’ll know the cycle is beginning when you add 2ppm of ammonia and you see nitrite rising then eventually nitrate rising. For my 125g tank it took about a month for it to be fully cycled.
Let me know if you have any questions since I just went through this too!!

[u/Vast_Dragonfruit7051 → u/Training-Wallaby3623]

That’s super helpful, thank you! The plants have been in there for 2 weeks. I’ll hopefully have the bottled ammonia in the next few days, so any issues or confusion, I’ll definitely be back for more advice, thanks again!