Since things have changed, I am re-writing my post:
I am attempting to cycle a 2 gallon jar since September 18th, but feel unsure of what I'm doing. I'm all at sea! Neither the nearby PetSmart nor PetCo know anything about brackish water and are unable to help.
I used a 1:1 mixture of "Imaginarium Pacific Ocean Water" and distilled water. I put in aragonite sand and a few black lava rocks and some lava gravel. At first, the water was clear, but after a few days, it began to look like "a London fog in aquatown" after a few days. I see some pale translucent clouds swirling in the water. A thin layer of translucent "stuff" has accumulating on the glass and a film has formed on the top. There is a white precipitate that looks like a snow globe when the water is stirred up. The water smells musty to me.
I put in two Nerite snails on September 22nd. I was told to feed them "algae crisps" (not crisp at all - they are rock hard disks of fish food), bits of nori, blanched spinach, and spirulina. But they ignore it all and it all just falls to the bottom. I sent for the macro-algae and the algae ball that you all recommend in hopes that the snails will be tempted to eat some. If I put the snails on the bottom, they STILL ignore the food and snail-race back up the walls of the glass.
On October 8th, then 9th, little Stella and little d'Oro died (they were still alive in the photo). The next day, Petco tested the water for me -
ammonia = 2.6 ppm,
nitrite & nitrate = 0,
salinity = 1.012.
They suggested that I leave the dead snails in the water to increase the ammonia and stimulate the good bacteria, which I have done. (A test kit was $50 - out of reach at the moment.)
Anyway, I am unsure about what I'm doing. Any suggestions will be welcome. ^_^
I could really use a step-by-step guide to cycling a brackish tank, with video images of each step along the way - something like:
* On day 1.............;
* On day 4.............;
* By week 2............;
* By week 3............;
* PS: If the water smells like ___a swamp / roses / musty / a corpse flower ___, then throw everything out and start over.
-- that kind of thing. (Aquarimax - are you willing to help out struggling newbies with an illustrated step-by-step?)
Thank you for your time; I appreciate it.
