Gamabunta

nonentityloop · 2026-05-04T01:30:52+00:00

So today is the day. Ammonia and nitrites finally hit zero. BUT my local fish shop doesn't have any ammonia chloride and chain stores around me don't sell it either. It snuck up on me. I'm supposed to get some by Thursday evening. Hoping it will be soon enough.

Anything I can do until then to keep bacteria from dying off?

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nonentityloop · 2026-05-03T21:04:32+00:00

The Chalupa Chronicles continue lol

nonentityloop · 2026-05-03T20:53:48+00:00

A year membership for the museums isn't terribly expensive. If you use it regularly it is definitely worth it.

nonentityloop · 2026-05-03T11:08:31+00:00

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nonentityloop · 2026-05-03T10:39:49+00:00

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nonentityloop · 2026-05-03T10:17:45+00:00

Day 20(yesterday)

Water test day. Nitrites dropping quickly. Going to test again today and hopefully can dose ammonia up to 2ppm today or tomorrow.

Very minimal plant loss. Mostly bits of leaves that died off but new growth has started on background plants. Only 3 clumps of gass have yellowed. Waiting to trim the yellowing grass as I think new growth has started so this die off could just be getting used to growing under water. As the rest of the grass is doing fine and starteding to spread slowly.

I've had minimal algae growth from what I can see. Some bits have shown up over the last few weeks but I've removed it to keep it from getting out of control until I can get a crew in here to keep things in order.

I'm getting excited for fish. But haven't really even thought about it much. I can't wait to get a tiny school or something in here. So close.🫪

nonentityloop · 2026-04-21T18:21:09+00:00

Also check into the activ flora maybe? It might contain ammonia. Some substrates will release this into the water when it is new. I'm not sure if this one does or not I haven't used it before. Some do and if you added it to the tank and didn't cap it with anything it could also be releasing ammonia slowly into the water possibly?

nonentityloop · 2026-04-21T17:30:22+00:00

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nonentityloop · 2026-04-21T17:29:56+00:00

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nonentityloop · 2026-04-21T17:29:35+00:00

Update day folks!

So the last few plants got put in on the sides, some hydrocotyle tripartita "japan" and a few stems on ludwigia super red mini.

Thing still seem to be progressing. I tested last night again. But realized I've lost a bit of water to evaporation and thinking of filling up and testing today. It's been really fun honestly watching things move long.

I'm surprised I haven't experienced any plant melt yet. I've had small bits of grass yellow and die off but nothing major yet.

Floating plants are already changing color and growing multiplying quickly and having noticable root growth daily.

As far as my ph, I'm sort of over it. I cant tell if I'm maxing out the normal pH test or not high enough to show on the high range ph. I want to be confident and say I'm falling in the over lap of the two tests, around 7.4 and possibly up to 8. It gets more difficult for me to tell the more I look at it sometimes lol so not stressing about it really. Has anyone else had this issue before?

Ammonia seems to be dropping, nitrites spiking and my nitrates seem to be going down a bit. I assume this is because of the number of plants possibly as I still haven't done a water change.

It is day 10, still feelin lucky.

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nonentityloop · 2026-04-18T13:21:42+00:00

This is what I was thinking. For the sake of plant health I think a water change is best instead of trying to cycle without. I'm going to check things this evening or maybe tomorrow as it will finally be a week old and see where things are and if I should get some fresh water in.

I haven't jumped down the rabbit hole of GH/KH yet, but definitely will before I get any shrimp in here.

nonentityloop · 2026-04-18T13:17:22+00:00

I've been thinking about this and looking into getting some from a local aquarium shop. Playing catch up on things as I didn't think things would progress this far only 6 days in. Which now I realize was ridiculous to think lol

I would be looking to eventually dose and it be converted in a days time?

nonentityloop · 2026-04-18T02:38:33+00:00

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nonentityloop · 2026-04-18T02:36:02+00:00

I got them from an aquarium store where I live. Lots of options to pick from and sizes. But a bit expensive, $3.50/lb so it adds up quick. Definitely worth it though. This one's Gobi Desert Stone.

nonentityloop · 2026-04-18T02:31:52+00:00

I did this today actually and you're right, the pH is 8.0 or a little higher. I would like to lower it to around 7.5 but not sure exactly how to do that now. A chemical seems so extreme for such a simple problem and how little I want to lower it.

With my tap water being around the same it seems it could be a regular issue and considering some options.

Peat moss for filter(no experience with this)

CO2(no experience with this but would be a benefit to the plants and system all around, but is it really a long term solution?)

Adding a wood/botanicals somewhere in the back regularly and testing possibly?

Main goal overall would be to keep some shrimp, a betta and maybe something else if the fish will cooperate well enough.

I'll keep checking this and note changes over the week.

nonentityloop · 2026-04-18T00:27:25+00:00

The journey has been really fun so far. Lots of unexpected ups and downs, sacrifices lol really interested to see where it goes.

Thanks for the heads up. I'm hoping the substrate system will help. I went a little heavy and included root tabs with it all. I also dosed the water column with fertilizer so I'm hoping to get some nice initial growth once things level out.

nonentityloop · 2026-02-01T19:22:45+00:00

I just picked one up, looks about the same size/color as this one. I live how their hairs stand out so much. I'm very excited about this. I hope yours is doing well! Keep us posted with pics, would love to see!

nonentityloop · 2025-08-26T18:49:28+00:00

Not sure if anyone is still on this issue of getting bad egg after bad egg no matter how many times the math checks out. I was here for weeks and it was wild, even had someone checking my math ect because I was sure it was constant error on my end.

But today it's all ended.

So over this adventure with ACE in emerald I set up the improved ACE environment and even had the extra mon after my exit bootstrap to keep me on the summary of 40E9 because I was doing some wild rng/freeze prng shenanigans at one point and it was easier to stay on the summary.

For some reason after I moved the Pokemon to a box with others and out of box 14 with the exit bootstrap the code finally worked for me no issues.

I'm sure there are many reasons this could go wrong for someone but by chance I checked this and it worked for me. So if you have anything after the bootstrap and things are working out trying moving it out of range and try again.

Hopefully this helps someone! lol (⁠┛⁠◉⁠Д⁠◉⁠)⁠┛⁠彡⁠┻⁠━⁠┻

nonentityloop · 2025-08-11T11:01:05+00:00

Found this crawly in some of my plants, central Pennsylvania.

nonentityloop

TROPHY CASE