My 45 Gallon gateway back into fish keeping

[OrangeCones]

Also, to everyone, I would like your opinions. I live in an 4 plex on the second floor. a 97 year old lady lives below me. I currently have my tank in my garage ( which is on the first floor attached to my apartment ) because I am afraid to put the 45 gallon tank in the spare room for fear of accident. If there was an accident, it would ruin her apartment. My mother ( who lives over 1000 miles away) says its a very bad idea. What do you all think?

I had a 110gallon reef with a 40 gallon sump on a 3rd floor apartment for over 4 years with no issues (but they did make me buy a renter's policy that would cover water damage if the tank leaked, as well as for my waterbed).

The weight of a tank is spread out over a large area. With 45 gallons, and taking into account the rocks/sand, you will likely have about 600pounds total weight. If you and 3 friends can stand in the area that the stand takes up, I'd say you'd be safe, as long as the tank is level. If you are adding any large rocks, make sure there is no way they could shift and fall against the sides of the tank (common way to get cracks). Some people silicone them together.

Whether the 4-plex's owner will have an issue...that's another thing.

 

[bmoraski]

Hey OrangeCones
do you know how many gallons your water bed took ?
im just curious

 

[homebunnyj]

Yeah, a tank in an apartment is not a big deal as long as it is well-maintained and you don't live in a dump with rotten floors. Just check with management and abide by the rules... either they allow aquariums or they don't. Also, I tend to place tanks net to load-bearing walls. Hey, it can't hurt.

If you are doing a fish-in cycle you have to keep ammonia (and nitrites) below 1.0. It does take longer, but that is how you keep your fish alive. Killing the fish is NOT 'needed for the process'. I cannot disagree enough with that statement.

My advice is, first, leave the pH alone. Then, test daily for ammonia. Once it peaks and begins to subside, also test daily for nitrites. Do water changes as necessary to maintain fish health. When they are both down to zero, begin testing weekly for nitrates, ammonia, and nitrites. The nitrate test will help you ascertain the best water change schedule for your tank. The other two will alert you to problems developing in your tank.

 

[bmoraski]

My nephew put a water bed in his first apartment and floors ended up sagging leading to a major structural problem ! LOL
its funny now but it wasnt then ! lol
he obviously didnt talk to the owner and the owner wasnt to concerned until after the fact !
anyway
good luck

 

[Newman]

Who said fish should die for water cycling? I sure didnt...WAIT what am i smoking? i did say that, but i said what i didnt exactly meant. I mean to say if a fish dies, try to fix the problem, but it might just happen.

That should be better.

 

[bmoraski]

???????????

 

[MrParker]

What do you have wrapped around your intake ?

Its sponge or actually padding that you put in quilts. It filters out any sand/dirt big chunks getting into the filter that i prefer not to, while they are floating around. it'll come off soon.

 

[Newman]

LOL I gues i confused people even more by saying that. Let me simplify it even more: I DO NOT ADVOCATE KILLING FISH..for anything.What i said was just a vomit of words and should be ignored.

 

[OrangeCones]

Hey OrangeCones
do you know how many gallons your water bed took ?
im just curious

No idea. It was 20 yrs ago!

 

[MrParker]

I'll be the first to admit, I am very impatient when it comes to the setup process. But my little platy, is starting to come out from hiding more. And I just saw a long strand of poop hanging from it, so I know it's eating (when I'm not looking) I thought it was a he, but i think its a she, as it seems to have a growing belly. Although it might just look fat next to the tetras.

Anyways, when I had my old 10 gallon, I think I cycled it in like 2 weeks, with fish. That was 10 gallons though. I'm now feeding my 5 fish once a day, and there are some decaying plant leaves but my ammonia is at maybe .15, its hard to tell but its closer to 0 than to .25. For a 45 gallon tank, I dont know how many days/ weeks it takes for the ammonia spike to happen. I know its only been 3 days since the fish have been in there. Does anyone have a link to a cycle time chart?

 

[MrParker]

I setup two DIY CO2 reactors, and left for the weekend (sister feeding the fish) came back and they still had not produced any CO2? Is it just that the yeast is dead/ inactive? or could it be because the room temperature where they are is too cold? I'm hoping its just inactive yeast problem

 

[Newman]

Inactive yeast or a serious blockage in the line... My yeast reactor is constantly at colder than room temps. and its still producing bubbles at an alarming rate.

Check your recipe and try a different kind of dry yeast.

A way to sex your platy is to look at the anal fin. if its fan shaped and looks like the bottom two fins, then its female. if its sharp and pointy shaped, and kinda looks like a swordtail gonopodium, then its male. not as pronounced as swordtail though.

 

[MrParker]

Ok so here is the latest. This past weekend that I left hoping the CO2 would be working, I had also accidentally left the light on over night one night. So let me paint this picture for you.
1. Added API Plant nutrient (1/2 dose)
2. Hooked up the CO2
3. Left town, and my sister who is in town, couldnt get to the tank to turn off the light that night.
Anyone seeing what's happening?
perfect setup for algae bloom eh? yes dream come true. I came back to rapidly spreading/ growing brown algea, along with a little green here and there. The brown is mostly on the open sand substrate and glass in the side of the tank that has less water flow.

Tank stats before today:
80W 6700k lights
30-60 Aqua Tech power filter
sand substrate
1 small rock
4 neon tetras
some myrio
some moneywort

My solution for the algae:
+1 filter (15-30 gal Aqua tech filter) for extra filtering to handle a larger load + water movement
+3 oto's
+a large bunch of cabomba
+2 bundles of wisteria
+a 2L DIY CO2 (the first one was a 1 liter bottle)

And i will do a little over 25% water change tomorrow

Did I do a good thing? Does anyone disagree with what I have done? or have some more ideas?

Also another question i have is about my rocks. The reason I have waited so long to aquascape is because the big rocks i collected were from some random place, some containing spider web bits on them, lots of dirt clods etc. How extensive do i need to go to clean these rocks? i have some 75cent grill brushes (unused) would it be worth rinsing and scrubbing them with the brushes? or should just hosing and rubbing them down be good? should i soak them in water first? Suggestions? I really want to get my tank complete.

Second question is on the Cycling. I have:
.2 Ammonia
0 Nitrites
25 (ppm i think) Nitrates

This doesnt make sense to me, I havent gotten an Ammonia spike, nor have I gotten any nitrite readings ever, so how could I have nitrates?
What is a common reading for Nitrates that is good?

I hope none of these questions get forgotten. There are kind of a lot of them... Thanks for your help ahead of time

 

[tropicalcrazy]

dont know too much on the rest so dont wanna give wrong advice but what about doing another aqua 30-60 filter instead of a 15-30g one? i have 2 of those and it keeps my tank filtrated great. i have 1 on each side of my 55g. i know yours is only a 45 but that much more filtration may help you out more.

 

[MrParker]

Picture update

Second question is on the Cycling. I have:
.2 Ammonia
0 Nitrites
25 (ppm i think) Nitrates

This doesnt make sense to me, I havent gotten an Ammonia spike, nor have I gotten any nitrite readings ever, so how could I have nitrates?
What is a common reading for Nitrates that is good?

This is still a question i have. Hope someone out there knows something about it.

Yesterday, i got so fed up with the algae, i just sucked out the top layer of the substrate (with the algae). Then i scrubbed the rocks, and put them in. dropped in 2 bunches of wisteria, a large bunch of cabomba and my 3 otos.
Here is a picture of the tank now currently algae free

 

[bmoraski]

Tank looks great
10-20 ppm is good for nitrates.
im usually around 40ppm but have large bioload

 

[MrParker]

got the blue background on and some guppies, and a CAE

 

[Newman]

Looking nice dude. I wonder what that would look like with a pure black or whitish background...

 

[bmoraski]

got the blue background on and some guppies, and a CAE

Looks great. ive never seen a light backround like that. very interesting and different.

 

[MrParker]

So I just got some ghost shrimp as well (5 of them). I love ghost shrimp, they are funny little guys. One of them has eggs. Think it will be possible for it to hatch them? or how does breeding shrimp work? my bet is they might just end up fish food.