Ok, so we've been talking about getting a new tank for our huge comet and soon to be huge catfish. Last night I became the proud owner of a shiny new 55gal aquarium. The only problem being that we had to move the two tanks we already have to different locations, since where they were is the only spot in the house that can handle a four foot long tank and all the weight that comes with it. I was really hoping to maybe get a tank with a stand, but eh, this works too.
I moved the 10 gal to its own endtable and moved the 29 gal over to the desk. Draining both to a small amount of water, moving and then refilling took most the evenning. That didn't compare to the time it took to just fill the new tank. I added 5 gal of water and it didn't even show above the gravel. Around midnight I had it full, filter up and running and the heater doing its job nicely. The water from the outside hose ended up being around 64 degrees so I had to wait until this morning to add a new betta to start off the cycle.
Looking at the tank today, I'm noticing there is little to no flow in the tank, so I'm going to add a powerhead with air inlet on one end to see if I can get some movement and added oxygen in there. Looking at the tanks now, I think they all need a background. Probably some black cloth or something. The new tank is completely bare as well. I'd love to start dropping live plants in there, but the comet would just eat them. Maybe a nice stone scape would look cool. I'll have to talk to some landscaping buddies and see if they have any slate laying around.
I'm planning on taking some pictures tonight once it gets dark in here, and actually using my tripod this time, so hopefully the shots will look nice and sharp. I'll also get around to finally showing the 29gal with all the moonlights hooked up.
Ok, so its been a couple weeks now since I last posted. Both tanks are still doing well. The 30 gal tank still has the ammonia issue no matter how many water changes I do. I can't seem to get it to not peg the ammonia ppm chart. I'm thinking maybe it is cycling but the goldfish are just too messy for the biological filtration. I'll have to check the nitrite / nitrate levels and see if there's any increases. I'm really half tempted to install a sump / external biological canister filter (DIY of course). At any rate, the fish are healthy and active, showing no signs of stress in the least.
The planted tank has seen quite a number of changes. I recieved some super new plants from the For Sale and Trade section of aquatic plant central . Gmccreedy there was a super guy to do business with, and sent some quality plants. I picked up some Alternanthera reineckii and also some Hemigraphis traian from him. He also sent along some freebies! Some floaters and also some chain sword. I'll get a photo up of the new plants here soon.
I also picked up 5 amano shrimp to act as a cleanup crew. They are loving the brown diatom algae I have while the tank is cycling. One shrimp has even molted already. Kind of freaky looking into the tank and seeing a broken apart shrimp exoskelly. They are great fun to watch for hours.
I was watching the harlequin rasboras school last night and noticed that there's only seven in the tank. I could have sworn there were eight. Looking around the tank, I saw no evidence of a floater or a sinker, so either there were eight, and the shrimp were really full for a couple days, or there was only seven to begin with. Dang, even writing this I was pretty sure there were eight. Oh well, life goes on. Well, for us, not for the lost fish. *salutes*
There has also been quite a bit of pond snail activity in the planted tank. As I see them I'm pulling them out and dropping them into a 2 litre pop bottle half full of water with a vented lid. My employee at work wants them for her turtle tank for some weird reason. I'm hoping that with the shrimp in there cleaning the tank up that it will hopefully deter the snails from wanting to breed at all. Any that I don't catch that is.
Was talking to the wife last night and was dropping hints that the 30 gal is getting small for the huge carp of a comet we have, and that we should start shopping for at least a 55 gal, if not larger tank. She sounded open to the idea so long as I moved out my little inside greenhouse there would be somewhere for the stand and tank (much to my glee). So now I've been browsing around and looking at nothing smaller than 74 gal. (evil laugh). With a larger tank with a sump in it, I'm hoping to finally get the amonia problem handled. I'm sure a large biological filter like that could handle it with ease.
I'll work on getting some new photos up of the planted tank and the 30 gal with the moon lighting up.