New tank need some advice

26 posts • Page 2 of 3

Discuss all topics related to freshwater and planted tanks.


Alasse
 
Posts: 993
Joined: Sun May 09, 2010 5:35 am
Location: QLD Australia

Re: New tank need some advice

by Alasse

If you thoroughly clean tank/filter/etc then yes you will reset it.

If you feel confident that the store has no bugs, then I would clean the tank, but leave the filter alone. When the tank is clean, vinegar will both sterilise and clean by the way, set it back up and put mature filter on, you may get a mini cycle but not always. It is a quick way to kick start a tank.

You don't need special plant substrate, it really depends how into plants you are gonna get. Sand will grow most basic plant, it will grow more advanced plants too with a bit of assistance (root tabs etc)


yudhas
 
Posts: 21
Joined: Sun Apr 20, 2014 12:38 am

Re: New tank need some advice

by yudhas

What about driftwood and plants. I just bought some of them from my lfs and they were already in their tanks for sometime. Can I put them straight in? or I should wash them first with hot water?

I'm thinking I can use the bacterias already present in those to help with cycling of my tank.

Thanks


yudhas
 
Posts: 21
Joined: Sun Apr 20, 2014 12:38 am

Re: New tank need some advice

by yudhas

Well this is my tank. It's no longer a 63 or 75 gallon, but an 85 gallon. Measurement is, in cm 120x60x45 (in inch 48x24x18). I'm currently running 2x150w heater and two filters. One of the filter is rated at 380GPH, the other one I'm not too sure. Although I'm gonna replace the other one in a few weeks as it seems to be old. I also haven't installed the lights and hood yet, that's coming on around tuesday or wednesday. However, chances are I'm going to switch to LEDs as the plant will be heavily planted.

I'm planning to add a few more rocks and a lot more plants. Under the gravel is about 1 to 1.5inch of onyx sand. I've put some Prime to dechlorinate the water and if all the equipment is functioning well, tonight I'm going to start cycling it.

The photo is in my profile.


yudhas
 
Posts: 21
Joined: Sun Apr 20, 2014 12:38 am

Re: New tank need some advice

by yudhas

The onyx sand I found here is a bit expensive. A bag of 7.7lbs is almost $30 and they had only two bags left. I wanted at least four, but i think I'm gonna put at least one more bag in once they get more shipment. I'm gonna put it in the hill at the back of the aquarium.

Another problem that I face here in Colombia is many of them don't even stock ammonia in the pet shops or hardware stores. And I had to go through a few chemical shops before finding one that is pure ammonia. They are the ones for cleaning lab equipments, so the strength is about 30%. Is that ok or not? I can't find like the ace hardware ones where is only 10%.

Testing kits are also close to impossible to find. The only one they got is for pH. After going through at least 6 shops I found one that have a test kit for ammonia. I still havent found any for Nitrite or Nitrate. The good news is that I'm traveling to San Francisco next week for a week, so hopefully I can find the stuff there.


yudhas
 
Posts: 21
Joined: Sun Apr 20, 2014 12:38 am

Re: New tank need some advice

by yudhas

I've added more plants, driftwood, and rocks. I've started the cycling, I don't have an exact test kit for ammonia. It's just a color comparison test kit, so far is reading at 4-5ppm according to the color. Hopefully I can get the master kit when I'm over at the US. Check out my new photos over at my profile.


yudhas
 
Posts: 21
Joined: Sun Apr 20, 2014 12:38 am

Re: New tank need some advice

by yudhas

I have a problem with the water temperature. Here where I live the temperature is constant throughout the year at about 80-82. Sometimes it can get hotter or colder. During the night it gets slightly colder, maybe around 77. The problem is my water stays around 81. At first I thought is because of the heater, but then I turned it off. It went down to about 79 but then it stays there.

I know with some of the fish I like to keep that the temperature will be fine, but I've read that zebra danios likes it cooler. They say around 75. Will it be ok for the danios at higher temp?


yudhas
 
Posts: 21
Joined: Sun Apr 20, 2014 12:38 am

Re: New tank need some advice

by yudhas

Thanks for the answer. In the beginning I set the heater to the absolute minimum but then the temp stayed around 79, but in the end I just turned it completely off and now is around 77. Mind you I haven't installed the lights and hood yet, so I'm kinda afraid that the temp might jump up.

Since I now have a bigger tank I was thinking of adding a few more fishes. I really like German Blue Rams, but not too sure if they will be compatible with my other fishes. So far the plan is to have zebra danios, glowlight danios, sterbai corycat, rts, tiger barbs, harlequin rasbora.


yudhas
 
Posts: 21
Joined: Sun Apr 20, 2014 12:38 am

Re: New tank need some advice

by yudhas

What sort of lighting do use for your tank? T5, T2, Metal Halide, LEDs? What sort of color combination do you use as well? I'm trying to figure out what color to mix so that my plants get good amount for their photosynthesis.


yudhas
 
Posts: 21
Joined: Sun Apr 20, 2014 12:38 am

Re: New tank need some advice

by yudhas

How many K is your white? and do you use a co2 system?


Well an update of the status of my tank. I installed my hood/canopy on Wednesday and I got a T5 21W 6500K fluorescent in there. I probably will add some more lights. What sort of color combination suggestion is good for my plants?

Still cycling the tank and did a test today and showed ammonia dropped to 2ppm, nitrite increased to 0.25ppm. So everything is all good.

However, I found that my pH to dropped for some reason. From 7.2 to 6.6. Is that ok? Do I need to increase it again as I'm fishless cycling at the moment?


yudhas
 
Posts: 21
Joined: Sun Apr 20, 2014 12:38 am

Re: New tank need some advice

by yudhas

Thanks for the help dude. So I replaced my T5 6500K for a 10000K and I also installed a purple T5 25000K. Put them on a timer from 10AM until 8PM. This morning ammonia went down to 0.25ppm so I re-dosed it to 4ppm. My pH continued to go down, now is 6.3. Nitrite went up to 0.50ppm. I checked my KH to see what my buffer is, in turns out it is only around 2.2 degrees (40ppm). I guess thats why my pH is going down easily as there is no buffer.

I'm leaving for a week and my girlfriend is going to take care of it for that time (I just hope she doesn't mess it up). A question: I can see that my water is slowly evaporating, should I top it off? If I do top it off, should I put Seachem Prime on the top off? I know that Prime kinda binds the ammonia, so will that affect my cycle?

Or I should just wait next week when I come back to do a water change? When I do a water change during cycling, should I put Prime?

Thanks

New tank need some advice

26 posts • Page 2 of 3

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