New tank: August 26, 2002

D

doublethink

Small Fish
#1
Oct 22, 2002
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#1
I started my new 20H tank yesterday. I washed the fluorite, mixed it with 50% black gravel, and put my wood in place in the tank. The wood was soaked for four days, and now sinks! I set up my new power compact light (55W), set up the filter, and poured a little ammonia in the water.

I received mixed signals about doing this, but I did take a little of the water from my tiny 3G tube tank (with no filtration), and poured it into the new tank. We'll see how it goes.

I haven't measured ammonia levels, because that would be meaningless. I'll check the pH, etc.. in the next day or two.

Oh, plants should arrive today (the 27th), so I'll be planting them soon.

Water is very cloudy -- I should have washed the fluorite better. I think some of it is also the tannins from the wood. Really, I should have boiled the wood too, but this is at work, so I didn't have any means to do so.
 

RedTurquoise

RedTurquoise

Large Fish
#2
Oct 22, 2002
985
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Edmonton
photos.yahoo.com
#2
Better yet for cycling, take some established gravel or decoration to get the cycle going. Water itself from an existing tank will not help much as the bacteria is not free floating but colonizing somewhere. The cloudiness will disappear after a couple of days if caused by flourite. Your water will turn a little brown because of the wood but all in all, it will be fine. Patience is the key. *thumbsupsmiley*
 

D

doublethink

Small Fish
#3
Oct 22, 2002
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#3
August 27, 2002

The tanks looks so much better with plants in it!

I spent a couple of hours setting up the plants this afternoon.

3 corkscrew vals
10 echidorus tennelus (?)
13 or so dwarf sags.

I'm not sure I'm totally happy with the layout, but I can't think of any better way to do it. I'll put up pictures at some point.

The water is starting to clear up a bit.

RedTurquoise, thank you for the advice. The tank that I used the water from is basically a vertical tube of water, with only about 3G of water in it. There isn't really much in the way of decorations, gravel, or even filtration. There is an air stick, and that would be good to move over, but I think it would look ugly in the new tank, and I'm not sure I'd want to even move it over temporarily, because maybe it would harm the fish already in it. Perhaps I could take it out and soak it for a few hours in the new tank though. Hmmm...

Details of the tank:

Temperature: 78F (without heating right now, I'll turn that on soon)

pH: 6.6

Ammonia: Hmm, yesterday it was at .25ppm, and I added several tablespoons of pure ammonia. Today, the level is still .25ppm. I'm going to add some more ammonia now... Just added almost a quarter cup of ammonia. Hope that's okay..

Is there any reason to test for nitrate now. Anything else I should test for?

BTW: the reason I'm writing this is because I found it really useful to read somone else's account of the process they went through setting up their tank. I thought I'd do the same thing -- sort of an aquarium journal. I hope it helps someone else out. Maybe even me :)
 

D

doublethink

Small Fish
#5
Oct 22, 2002
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#5
August 28, 2002: Ammonia is down, add otos?

Ammonia levels are at .25ppm again. I wonder if the plants are just sucking it up. Should I continue adding ammonia, or should I just add my otos in. I do see just a little algae on some of the plants.

The water is still murky, but it's clearer than before. I can see lengthwise to the other end of the tank now :)
 

D

doublethink

Small Fish
#6
Oct 22, 2002
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#6
August 28th, 2002: introducing fish

I know this is bad, but I moved my six fish into the new tank.

My justification for doing this:

The tube tank is unfiltered, and has about the same ammonia levels. I've done twice weekly water changes, and the fish have survived okay for months in the tube, but they are obviously unhappy in that tank.

They seemed really stressed out for the first half an hour, but they seem cautiously happy with the new environment. Especially the otos.

I'll watch the ammonia levels carefully, and see how it goes.

The light sure heats up the tank. It's up to 79 degrees right now. Is that too high for otos and tetras and plants?
 

Matt Nace

Matt Nace

Superstar Fish
#8
Oct 22, 2002
1,470
1
38
Pennsylvania
#8
I would stop adding ammonia if there are fish in there now. Ottos wont produce too much, but adding ammonia while they are in there..well you might as well add fish then.

You got algae on your plants in a day? Are you sure it is not sediment from the flourite? What kind of algae is it?
 

D

doublethink

Small Fish
#9
Oct 22, 2002
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#9
Yes, I did stop adding ammonia. That would have been pretty tragic and funny if I had continued to add ammonia. *twirlysmiley*

I'm not actually sure that it was algae -- it may have been sediments from the fluorite, just like you say. However, the wood has started oozing out this ghostly, gelatinous looking slime, that I believe is alive. It starting coming out when I turned on the lights in the tank, although I think I saw a little bit before then. I regret not boiling the wood before I put it in, but it was at work, and inconvenient to do. So, I took the wood out today and I'm going to boil it this weekend before I put it back in.

I had to do some major cleanup today to get the slime out of the tank -- sucking it out during two 20% water changes.

The guppy and two black tetras seem to have settled into the tank better. The ottos seem happy as clams.

Temperature: 80F
Ammonia: probably lower than .25ppm, since I did two 20% water changes today.

The water is looking much clearer, even after all the disturbance today.

Thanks for all your feedback
;D
 

D

doublethink

Small Fish
#11
Oct 22, 2002
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#11
Okay, it's been a while since my last post.

Boiling the wood didn't seem to help as much as I wanted it to. It does seem to have helped with water clarity -- the wood isn't releasing as much tannins as before. But the clear/white whispy/gelly stuff came back. I talked to the LFS and they said it was fungi. I didn't know fungi looked like slime.

Hmmm, the otocinclus seem to be chewing on it. I haven't noticed that before. It's still overwhelming them, though.

The plants are doing okay. Many of them seem to be yellowing, despite the new lighting. Lots of leaves are disintegrating -- I need to trim them and pull them out.

I set up a DIY CO2 unit, with the two liter bottle inside a 5 gallon bucket with a lid. If it explodes, it will only make a mess inside the bucket :) I just set it up today, and I fed the air tube right into the intake on my filter. I can hear a little sound as each drop goes into the filter.

The pH was around 6.6 at 11:00 when I tested it. I'll check the levels tomorrow -- hopefully they haven't come down too far.

I noticed my first snail yesterday -- I'm sure it was a hitchiker from the plants.

Also, a new plant! Somehow I didn't notice it growing until recently. I think it's the dwarf sag. Except I was at the LFS yesterday, and the plant I though was a dwarf sag looks like something else entirely. I'll identify it later.

The fish seem pretty happy, although I have to watch the ammonia levels until everything cycles. I've been doing water changes twice weekly anyway, to get rid of the fungi on the wood.

Anybody else experience fungus on their wood? Is that what it really is?
 

D

doublethink

Small Fish
#13
Oct 22, 2002
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#13
I'm not fertilizing yet -- I thought this is something to do later. Thanks for the reassurance -- I wasn't able to find much info on the net about fungus on wood. I guess I'll just vacuum it during water changes, and not worry about it besides then.

THANK YOU!
 

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