Intro And My Fishy Project - Cora

If you use a soil substrate that will provide fertiliser.
Plants also use ammonia, nitrites and nitrates all of which will result from the cycling process.
Adding fertiliser to the water may simply increase algae, which is often a problem in the beginning anyway.
Plants also need Calcium and other elements in small amounts, hence the need to add some of the sources mentioned by others to increase hardness.
I've never found any need for added carbon dioxide, but others disagree, I prefer the "keep it simple" concept unless it's absolutely necessary to add extras, which it rarely is. Tap water conditioner is the only thing I've ever added to my water, apart from fish food.

my life would be fish, axolotls, puppies, kittens and sunshine on a daily basis. 

Sounds like a life well-lived Good luck with that last one though...

With largish tanks (and 180 litres is at the bottom end of large) there are two ways of stocking them.
The first is the minimum number of lots of different species, the second is lots of a few species.

I used to be in the first, now I'm in the second group  If you look at my signature, the microdevarios and ember tetras are the remains of larger shoals, but I have 12 pencilfish and when I replace the recently deceased cherry barbs, I'll get at least a dozen of one species.

Does anyone have experience of Bolivian Rams - based on my experience with GBRs, I wonder if three pairs in a tank this size would be maximum as they'd form territories on the bottom...

I have had Bolivian rams in the past and I too have been surprised when sites say they should be kept in groups.

My experience with them -
I bought 2 Bolivian rams for my old 125 litre, 82 cm long tank. I bought the two most different ones in the shop tank. They got on OK, no squabbling but no sign of spawning either. As they grew up, I realised they were two males. Six months later, I was in another shop where they'd just had a customer bring in some of their home bred Bolivians, and they were full grown. You could see the breeding tubes in over half the fish. I got 2 females after checking that I could not only take one of the females back but also one of the males I already had if it proved necessary.
As soon as I put the girls in the tank, world war three broke out. The two males went from being quite friendly in a platonic way to trying to kill each other. I had to put one of them in the quarantine tank to prevent a blood bath.
The remaining male divided his time between the two females - a few hours with one on the left of the tank, then a few hours with the other on the right side. I bought the girls on a Saturday; by Wednesday morning, the male had paired up with one female and they were making life difficult for the second female. She went into the QT with the other male. I had to wait until the following Saturday to take the rams in the QT back to the shop, and while we were out, the two in the 125 litre spawned. I came home to find eggs all over a rock.



Cora's new tank is bigger than my 125 litre. Not only in volume, but it has a bigger footprint, which is important for bottom dwelling fish.
But given how difficult it is to sex young Bolivian rams, I would suggest getting 6 to 8 of them but make sure the shop will take some back if they do what mine did. This is common advice with cichlids - buy several juveniles, let them chose their partners then rehome all but one pair. Cichlids that choose their own partners make better mates than any female and any male put in together. They are less likely to squabble - it is not unknown for one of them to kill the other if they didn't make their own choice.

Yes, but it's not ideal. They do prefer some company.

Patience is not my strong point, and I have also fallen foul of the cloudy tank issues when rushing to get things done. Everything will settle and I'm looking forward to seeing your pictures. Seeing someone get a new tank is almost as exciting as getting a new tank myself. 

Hi Sue, that's a great shout - many thanks.

Here is a link to a public shared folder of Project Fishy 185   

https://goo.gl/photos/ZLx8Za9jsMGSnhJ78

I'll add more frequently.

Hi Colin, I got the tank off eBay and can vouch for the seller and delivery time and quality. I think the tank is unbranded, and considering it comes with the stand included, the price is unbeatable.

Here is a link to the listing. The 185l is now sold out but there is a selection:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/86L-133L-185L-235L-Aquarium-Nano-Fish-Tank-Tropical-Coldwater-LED-Light-Cabinet-/222101955770?var=&hash=item33b64ee4ba

For the first week or two, the ammonia level won't change much. Just make sure it's not above 4 ppm, and 3 is better.

If you want to use a bacterial starter Tetra Safe Start is the one to go for. It doesn't work every time but it does have the right species of nitrite eating bacteria.
 
But don't you have a smaller tank? The best way to kick start a cycle is by using mature media. If you take up to a third of the media from another tank, that will significantly reduce the cycle time. Swap some new media with old media from the other tank.