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.
So last night I installed the first half of the moon lights to the 30g tank. It looks awesome. I love watching the tank while I fall asleep, and having it moonlit is even better now. I need to run a second light to the other end of the tank and it will be all done. Luckily they both fit into the existing light hood with almost no modifications needed. I had to drill a small hole to fit the cord into it, but thats about it. A little hot glue holds it in place. I'll get some photos of it tonight when its dark enough to see the effect.
Did water changes on both tanks today, and the ammonia levels are still huge on the 30g. I really would have thought that they'd be coming down by now. The fish don't look stressed out at all, so I dunno. I'm somewhat at a loss. I have some new plants coming in for the planted tank, and I think I'm going to have to put some in there to soak up all the excess ammonia. Damn messy goldfish. I'm really hoping to not have to change the substrate out, so I've got my fingers crossed that some floating plants will make the difference and bring the imbalance back in check.
Speaking of goldfish, I kicked the small one out of the planted tank and threw him in the 30g. He kept pulling up the micro sword, and we just can't have that. So after a trip to the local fish store, there's now 4 harlequin rasboras in the planted tank. I think I will probably add another 6 rummynosed tetras down the road. I got confirmation today that the plants I bought will be being shipped tomorrow. YAY! The forums at aquatic plant central are a goldmine for plants from hobbiests like myself at reasonable to super cheap prices. Not to mention super friendly people to help you out when you have no clue what you're doing.
I'll get the photo's up tonight or tomorrow.
Ok, so I had some trouble with the silicone that you use for sealing glass tanks, when I was trying to use it to seal up the air line tubing on the pop bottle caps. Go figure, eh? Yeah, so on the way home from work I picked up a hot-glue gun, and that did the trick nicely. Plus you don't have to wait for anything to set up, just let it cool down and there ya go.
So its bubbling nicely now. I don't have a good diffuser for it yet, I'm waiting since I can just get a nice little submersible pump next time I order shop stuff from one of my suppliers. I figure it still can't hurt to have it just running through an airstone. I put the lid back on the tank, so there should be a healthy amount of CO2 buildup across the top of the water in the tank at least.
Also in the planted tank I noticed that things are growing nicely. There's even a nice little new branch coming off one of the anacharis, and everything has this really healthy dark green to it. That stupid goldfish though keeps nibbling on things and pulling up some of the micro sword, so he might just have to fend for himself in the big tank if he doesn't knock it off.
Speaking of the big tank, the water is really getting clear. I didn't check the ammonia last night, so I'll have to do it tonight. I really really hope there is some sign of the ammonia going down.
Ok, the UV sterilizer is really working well on the 29g tank. The water is almost completely free of green when I do a water change. I use a white 5gal bucket so its easier to see if there's any color change to the drained off water. The water is really starting to clear up as well. At least now you can see the back of the tank. I'm guessing the remaining cloudiness is the result of the tank cycling. I didn't check tonight if the ammonia levels are decreasing yet, I'm just tired of it not showing any drop.
On the planted tank I added a DIY CO2 system. Just hooked it up, so I keep watching to see if there's any bubbles yet. I know, I know, watched pot, boiling, all that. So while I'm waiting, I'll fill you in on the plants. Still don't have an exact name on the bunched plants, but the micro sword is the brazillian type. All the plants are really liking the increase in light as well as the better soil than they had in the LPS. They have greened up considerably and are showing signs of being much stronger.
The CO2 is foaming nicely and bubbling into a secondary clean bottle / bubble counter. Its still pressurizing the line and pushing the excess water out, but it looks like my seals are holding and that it should work. I hope. Anyway, I'll get a pic up when its up and bubbling.
I've been doing a lot of tank maintenance, and this hobby has really grown to the forefront of my attention lately. A while back we picked up a new 29 gal tank for our three comets and since we had the room, we decided to pick up a few more. Some made it through the growing pains of tank maintenance, some didn't. What we have currently is 1 large comet, 1 dojo loach, 1 betta, 3 small comets, and 2 small catfish of indeterminate type.
In the same room is a 250w Metal Halide growing light that I use to propogate mint for our shop. Unfortunately, it also propogates green water. What a frustrating single celled organism. To make matters worse, my limited knowledge of aquariums led me to clearing out most of the beneficial bacteria in the tank, which led to a pretty crazy ammonia spike I'm still trying to deal with. That'll just take time for the tank to cycle. In the mean time, I purchased a UV sterilizer to deal with the algae and it seems to be helping. Just hooked it up yesterday, so we'll see.
As if the one tank wasn't enough, I decided to get into having a planted tank. I love plants normally, so plants underwater should be even better right? RIGHT? Well, the jury is still out on that one, but as you can see in this photo, the little 10g tank is sparsely populated and needs a lot of decorating still. Its a work in progress. That aside, I'm really loving the planted tank. I think I spend more time with it lately than my large tank. Anyway, here's the promised photo.
I'll work on getting a shot of my 29gal tank up as well.
Oh yeah, the planted tank has one comet (that I'll move to the other tank) and one oto catfish. I'm sick of goldfish, so I think on this tank I might go for something like tetras. The plants are micro sword and 2 random bunch plants that I've been trying to identify. EDIT: They are anacharis.