keeping tropical and cold water fish.

as snail forriage on decaying plantation and food, lettuce (older the better) will attract an abundance of them to it, snail eggs tend to get sucked into your filter media and hach in it then they work their way out, assassin snails would be good for a short period but due to the size of your tank, purchasing two and then returning them after they've done their work would be a good idea to do, so make sure you buy them from a retailer who will accept them back for credit note. the lettuce theory will take some time and patience, applying one when you just about to turn the lights off and go to bed weighted down with something not fo it to float then in the morning before you turn the light on open cover and reach in for the lettuce being carefull not to spill any snail off it, they will hide underneath the lettuce so wont be visible at first glance, repeat the theory untill there are no snail on the lettuce leafs for a week or so.

i will have to get photo's up soon of my tank, i have got a photo bucket account now so will upload and put the pics here sometime soon. i have snail in my tank i just let them carry on and squish when i need to there are quit a few in there ATM so will be doing the lettuce theory myself when the one in the fridge is starting to rot.

heres a diagonal shot.

ok i would suggest from your reading that the filter is filtering and would have built up a little bacteria, youve done a small water change (de chloranted?) add a small amount of ammonia from the bottle to start with perhaps say 5ml or 2-3 drops and test water after introduction, ideally you want an amonia count to begin with at say 2.0, you then test again after 12hours and if any bacteria built up it would have reduced bear in mind though your nitrite may rise allong with nitrate,
if your tests reveal that the ammonia is at 0.1 (will allways be 0.1 as ammonia will allways be present when fish is intorduced after cycling)nitrite and nitrate are normal your good to go! what temp do you have the heater. i crank mine up to 30-32oC if im cycling with established filter media this may work for you as no fish are in there but dont forget to turn back down day before introduction of fishies!! to a safe level.

if you nitrite and nitrate rise but ammonia drops just repeat the ammonia process, till they all read normal.

p.s nice little aquarium there and when your ready to go dont forget to build up your stock of fish nice and slow, spacing your introduction of fish. i.e start with two then two three weeks later add 2 more and so on till your stocked, this will prevent spike's of ammonia and nitrite and nitrate and have a happy aquarium.

even though those bacteria bottles are bigged up more than they really are worth there are some element of good bacteria in them, 9 days of added some wont hurt and may have contributed to the filter media! from here on in things cant go drastically wrong, so see what happens when you introduce the ammonia, after 12 hours.