Well, Seb and I have fully cycled our 55gal tank. Finally!
I'm happy to say that the water quality in our tank is absolutely perfect. I think this is the very first time we have ever had a properly cycled tank (which I am pretty ashamed to say, considering how long we have been keeping fish).
We used to make due with heavy and frequent water changes, which isn't really that great for the fish. It stresses them out a lot if you do it too often. But back then that was the only way we could keep the ammonia levels under control.
Our plants are showing a little bit of growth after just one week. I should have taken a picture to show a comparison, but I'm sort of embarrassed at my extremely poor aquascape. It has no shape, form or depth whatsoever. Even if the plants grew to their full potential where they are currently possitioned, it would still look horrific LOL.
So, we are definately going to have to work on that.
It will be a bit difficult I think, because whenever we purchase plants they never have a good selection, so we just sort of pick things we think will do good. And I should tell you--us thinking about plants isn't any good. We haven't the slightest idea what we aredoing when it comes to aquatic plants.
Maybe I'll upload individual pictures of the plants sometime and try and get some advice on where to place them.
I have been trying to figure out what each of the plants are. A lot weren't really labeled when we bought them, or they were omnious-looking mystery "bulbs" in dusty little packages with extremely vauge labeling.
I have come across some sites with pages on aquatic plants with some pictures and names of plants that fit the description of the ones produced from my mystery bulbs. I have also identified some others I have, like Dwarf Lillies (Nuphar stellata), Banana Plants (which is another type of dwarf lily), and Mondo Grass. Along with the plants produced from the wonder bulbs, those are what I currently have in my goldfish tank.
In with our guppies in the 55gal we have a few generous cuttings of Hygrophila difformis, which came from a huge specemin we previously had growing in the 55gal (where the goldfish now are. Goldfish did not live in that tank when we had the Hygrophila in there).
Which reminds me, I should try and do some more pruning on the hygro.
We have been so busy trying to get everything running smoothly with my goldfish tank this past week, we have paid very little attention to the guppy tank. confused
Oh well, I'll get to work on that asap. Shouldn't be nearly as much trouble as the goldfish tank. Since it's only a 29 gallon and not a 55 gallon, I wont have to practically climb inside of it to mess with the plants. (:
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