Intro And My Fishy Project - Cora

If I were you I'd take one of the sponges from the 70L and squeeze it into the new tank. This will transfer far more bacteria than a 'quick-start' product.

You could place it below the water surface and pointing up. This will give you water disturbance without noise disturbance.

If anyone's interested, here is a list of plants for my tank, most of which I already have.

With one exception all plants' requirements are low CO2, low light. Most are medium to quick growers.

I intend to dose with liquid CO2 and a tiny amount of plant food during the cycling process.

Alternanthera Rosaefolia (red) x 1 focal point (requires more care)
Amazon frogbit (floating)
Dwarf water lettuce (pistia stratiotes)  floating
Moss balls (Cladophora) x 10 (front surface)
Cryptocoryne willisii x 2 (short creeping / foreground)
LIMNOPHILA SESSILIFLORA x 2 (fore/mid ground)
Vallisneria spiralis x 10 (tall straight / background)
Anubias heterophylla x 1 (focal point mid/background)
LINDERNIA ROTUNDIFOLIA x 2 (medium height, fore/mid)
CABOMBA CAROLINIANA x 10 (mid/background)
Amazon Sword ( Echinodorus bleheri) x 10 (background)
Elodea densa (background)
Guppy grass ( Najas Guadalupensis) (foreground / on wood)

I'm going to see what works and what doesn't. I want a very natural and dark theme - bogwoods and greens against black. The Alternanthera Rosaefolia will provide the only non-green plant as an off-centre focal point.

mmmm..... I don't think you want 10 Amazon Swords, there'll be no room for anything else!

There are literally 10 blades, I should clarify; not ten entire planted Amazons.

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I intend to dose with liquid CO2 and a tiny amount of plant food during the cycling process.

You have just reminded me of something I read recently. With very soft water like yours, adding plant fertilser helps with cycling as it contains trace elements for the bacteria as well as plants.

That's great to know, cheers!

The bicarb and inline heater will go in this evening, after I've done a substantial water change to purify it (it's still very cloudy).

.....and I hate to be a pedant.....

No you don't!

The "spiralis" part is the flower stem. My Vallis arrived with the remanant of a flower stem and it was very spirally.

Tank almost filled with dechlorinated water after setting up the plants and wood.

External filter - one whole tray filled with bacteria and gunk from my sister's established tank.

Filter re-activated and working perfectly. Inline heater activated shortly after and set to 30 degrees celsius.

My sister removed the carbonate stone from my filter by accident. Not wishing to restart the whole thing I've just put the rock in a filter bag and hung it in the water. Water was initially slightly acidic but is rising slowly.

Liquid CO2 and fertiliser added to water in slightly above-regular doses.

6ml of ammonia solution (Jeyes Kleen Off) added to water. After 30 minutes a reading of between 4-8 mg/L was recorded. Will test again in 24 hours for ammonia and nitrite.

Shared Google album updated with more pics: https://goo.gl/photos/ZLx8Za9jsMGSnhJ78

The water isn't very clear just yet but I'm pleased with the layout and when the water clears and it gets dark tonight I'll take another photo. Got plans this Friday evening guys? Cancel them! PROJECT: FISHY 185 is up and running! 

After 30 minutes a reading of between 4-8 mg/L was recorded. Will test again in 24 hours for ammonia and nitrite.

If it is still that high, I would do a water change to reduce it. You only need 3ppm for cycling. The reason this amount is used is to stop nitrite getting too high. [And mg/l is the same as ppm]

1 ppm ammonia is turned into 2.7 ppm nitrite. Once the ammonia eaters start to eat the ammonia, nitrite goes up quickly. At around 15 ppm, nitrite inhibits the growth of the nitrite eaters. The problem is that most test kits can't measure that high, and doing tests on diluted samples needs a source of pure water and very accurate measuring equipment. The old methods of fishless cycling took ages because of the way ammonia was dosed (it used to be add ammonia every time it drops to zero) because those old methods made a huge amount of nitrite. The chap who invented the fishless cycling method I wrote up on here used amounts of ammonia that will never make enough nitrite to stall the cycle if the method is followed to the letter.
You'll still find those older methods on websites. Some have you dosing ammonia to 5 ppm but it now known that a suitably stocked tankful of fish doesn't make even 3 ppm in 24 hours. It used to be thought that the bacteria would die if they went for 24 hours without food - it is now known they can go for much longer. After a week or two they become dormant, only dying after several months. It is this newer knowledge that allowed the chap to devise the fishless cycling method on here.

Sue, many thanks once again for your advice

Following your progress with enthusaism, Cora, good luck with the fishless cycle... Similar to my own which was fairly straightforward and relatively quick. I'm a bit envious of your arrangement of plants. And that is a stunning tank 

Considering I am learning so much from scratch (when I kept fish as a teenager I was oblivious to so much I should have known), I am really pleased with how I've planned this tank and the plants I've bought. I do think the aquascape looks very nice, and when the water clears I'll send another pic - I can't wait.

On that subject of ignorance, the fisherkeeper from whom I bought my initial batch a few weeks ago -- there was no consideration at all of water hardness and carbonates, and yet the subject turned to this immediately on this forum. Why would a professional fish breeder and seller not advise (or know) that mixing soft water fish with hard water fish wouldn't be a problem, or even worth mentioning?

I think this website and the forum should be required reading for aquarists everywhere! I'm just glad I was directed here and learned as much as I did before I put any (more) fish through distress or worse. And now I know better I can give the lucky occupants of Project 185 I good home. Soon