# My first: 5 gallon



## Markalot (Feb 14, 2007)

Howdy,

I had a 5 gallon that was progressing through a fishless cycle so I decided to tear it down and go el natural for fun.

1 inch of cheap Lowes topsoil, straight from bag, did not air out.
1 inch of standard aquarium gravel

Moderately planted with everything I had plus I added a lot of hornwort to make up for the lack of plants.

Yesterday I tested the water and Ammonia was 4.0 plus I had .5 Nitrites.

This morning Ammonia was off the scale!

Is this because I did not let the soil air out before using it?

I'm going to take a picture tonight and post it here. Right now the plants look pretty happy, I know the hornwort is. SHould I do a water change to try and get the Ammonia down or let the plants try and take care of it? I'm in no rush.


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## Muirner (Jan 9, 2007)

The ammonia is the degassing of the soil. A way to prevent this is to air the soil out in say cardboard flats, that package stores get beer in. I aired mine out for about 1 week maybe 2, and i didnt have a real noticable spike. Then again, I didn't test the water until 3-4 days into it. but i had no noticable spike. 

You can do a partial water change, that will help, but i'd say to expect it for a few more days at least.


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## Markalot (Feb 14, 2007)

Thanks for the reply. I'll do some water changes and post the progress along with some pictures.


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## Muirner (Jan 9, 2007)

sweet, cant wait to see. Also if i may suggest fast growing stem plants will help you out as well


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## Markalot (Feb 14, 2007)

Ok,

here are the pics hot off the presses. This Canon camera makes me look like a good photographer.

front:









with flash so you can see my 1 inch of soil plus 1 inch of rocks:









from the left side:









from the right side:


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## TeutonJon78 (Nov 10, 2004)

looks like a fun little tank. Definitely a nice way to get addicted to NPT.


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## Muirner (Jan 9, 2007)

WOAH is that Red Cabomba on the left side? Looks great!


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## Markalot (Feb 14, 2007)

Muirner said:


> WOAH is that Red Cabomba on the left side? Looks great!


Not sure, it's Petsmart clearance Cabomba 

Ammonia is still way up there, but the plants are starting to show some good growth. Of course the hornwort has almost doubled in size since I added it. Amazing stuff.

So is my soil bad, or maybe stagnant from sitting in a bag for so long?


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## Markalot (Feb 14, 2007)

I did another 50% water change and my ammonia is still off the scale, almost black in color in the test tube.  My water is fairly clear, a little hazy but not filled with dirt or anything. 

When do I give up and start over with another brand of top soil? SHould this stuff be done gassing off ammonia soon?


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## Muirner (Jan 9, 2007)

Just keep with it, dont sweat it. Keep all the plants in there, and continue your water changes. You'll get through it fine. Your looking good visually, just no fish, in time you'll add the fish. Keep the hornwort in for sure. That stuff grows like crazy!!! I'm planning to try to anchor some today in my 55 but lol, you know how that goes.


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## littleguy (Jan 6, 2005)

I second that. As long as there are no fish in the tank, and the plants are healthy and growing, they'll clean up the ammonia/nitrite/nitrate. At some level, those become toxic (but I don't know offhand what that level is). You will know if you reach that level, because the plants will start to suffer, and that's when a water change would be good.

The ammonia/nitrite will eventually stop being released from the soil, and the plants will appreciate it as long as it's not too high.


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## Markalot (Feb 14, 2007)

Ok,

ammonia still very high, thread algae starting.



















Looks kind of neat, I like it. :mrgreen:


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