Stubedoo's 300litre Tank Log - My First Ever Tank

[stubedoo]

Happy New Year everyone... thanks for the encouraging comments, it is good to know a few people are keeping eye on proceedings. I thought I do a fuller set of water tests today, to make sure nothing unusual is going on (which it appears it isn't)

Day 16 (1st Jan) - 10:15am:

pH 6.8
Ammonia 4.0ppm
NitrItes 0
NitrAtes 0

 

[myrtle]

Frustrating time, isn't it? I hated all that waiting, not being a naturally patient person!
Re your background: just buy a tester pot of emulsion in whichever colour you prefer (Dulux do black too!) and paint the outside of the tank with it! Total cost for my two tanks (210l & 60l) £1.96!
Jo

 

[stubedoo]

Frustrating time, isn't it? I hated all that waiting, not being a naturally patient person!
Re your background: just buy a tester pot of emulsion in whichever colour you prefer (Dulux do black too!) and paint the outside of the tank with it! Total cost for my two tanks (210l & 60l) £1.96!
Jo

Thanks for your comments Jo, I did consider painting the background, and we tried a tester pot on a glass bottle. But we rang up Dulux (I think it was them, or one of the other large paint companies) and then said they wouldn't recommend using their paint for painting glass as it might peel off.

I know lots of other people have painted their tanks, but I'm a bit scared of the permanency of paint, so what we've decided to do is slot a piece of wood behind the tank, and paint the wood a dark blue. The wood will rest about 1cm from the glass. It isn't the cheapest option but hopefully it will look okay, and the plus side is if we want to do something a bit different in the future we can repaint the wood, or just slide the wood out and try something else.

I'll post pictures up for criticism when we get it done.

 

[stubedoo]

No new water tests today, but we did finally get round to sorting the background to the tank. As described yesterday we've painted a piece of wood that rests on the floor and sits behind the tank, I have to say I am very pleased with the results.

Here is a very quick photo I've just taken without a flash in semi-darkness. It provides an interesting comparison to the first picture at the start of this thread.

The decor/plants are far from complete, but I'm happy with how it is progressing (for a newbie!). Fingers crossed for some movement in the ammonia when I test it tomorrow.

 

[waterdrop]

Wow! That's a very even blue with a nice "fade" effect. Very nice background!

And your sand looks very nice. Nice start on the look of things for a beginner.

A nice source of "visual knowledge" about the various looks that good aquascapes can take can be had by studying the entries over the years in the AGA competitions, I believe some of the entries being from members of our own forums and at least one of the judges being active here in the TFF planted forum. Granted, these are serious "planted tank" hobbyists, almost a separate hobby in itself when practiced actively, but still a wonderful source of inspiration and ideas along with the pics sections of our own forum when the beginners wants to "grow" their awareness of aquascaping.

~~waterdrop~~
ps. just keep posting your test results on the ammonia not dropping as the members may eventually decide you might be a candidate for some baking soda, a water change kick start, or some other intervention -- its true you're having to go an awfully long time without evidence of A-Bac development!

 

[stubedoo]

Some more test results:

Day 18 (3rd Jan) - 10:15am:

pH 7.2
Ammonia 3.0ppm

Day 19 (4th Jan) - 11:15am:

pH 7.0
Ammonia 2.0ppm


I'm only going to whisper it very quietly but I think the ammonia might, only might, but still a might... be dropping. The API ammonia test kit I'm using has a very similar colour for 2.0ppm and 4.0ppm so it is very difficult to tell and often depends on the brightness of the room etc. Fingers crossed over the next few days I will see a more definite colour change, and we just might be on our way.

 

[andyhardie]

So after reading through Schmill's tank diary, I thought I should start my own, as I could really do with some help. (I wasn't sure the best place to put it, but decided on the 'new to hobby' section - mods feel free to move it)

Like Schmill I have the Aqua One Regency 120 (300litre) tank. It is my first tank, so my knowledge is pretty low, although I've been trying to learn over the past few weeks.

We've had quite a few problems to date, which I won't go into... so lets outline where we are now:

Contents of tank

Sand
Layer of laterite (beneath the sand)
1 * piece of bogwood from friends mature tank
5 * plants (need to be Identified -see below)

Picture of tank taken yesterday - please excuse the background... we're still contemplating what we are going to do with that.

I would be grateful if anyone could ID the plants in the tank.

Plant 1:

Plant 2:

Plant 3:

Plant 4: Edit - now removed & binned

Fishless Cycling:

I've been slowly adding ammonia since the weekend, originally using fish food, then household ammonia. The bottle of ammonia doesn't give a concentration, so it has taken me a few days to gauge its potency. Yesterday was the first day I got the ammonia level up to 4.0ppm.

Current water parameters: (Day 2 - 11:45)

water temp: 26C

pH: 7.5 (tap water tested as 8.0)

ammonia: 4.0
nitrtIte: 0
nitrtAte: 0

I shall leave it there for now, as there is plenty to digest already.

 

[andyhardie]

Hi
Plant no 4 I think is Chlorophytum laxum? I am an ex tropical plant gardener of old and it amazes me how many terrestial plants I see sold as aquatics? Dont bin it though, pot it up it makes a very nice house plant.
I dont know where you live but there is an excellent shop for plants on the side of the M1 junction with the main Chesterfield road, Chesterfield side at a place called Mastin Moor?

 

[stubedoo]

Thanks for the info on plant no.4 Andy, unfortunately it got binned some time ago, as it didn't last very long.

Okay... we have some super good news today:

Day 20 (5th Jan) - 10:30am:

Ammonia 2.0ppm
NitrItes 0.25

The ammonia was a very definite 2.0 today, and I also decided to test for NitrItes to see if they were behind the ammonia dropping, and delightfully I got my first positive reading for them, a mere 0.25, but a whole lot better than 0. So it looks like we are finally on our way.

 

[waterdrop]

Yes, your fishless cycle is finally giving you some feedback Stub. Just out of curiosity, how big is your filter? I sometimes have a bit of a feeling that filters with larger volume of media are slower to show a change but then pretty quick once the change comes.. not saying anything about yours one way or the other.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[stubedoo]

Waterdrop, the filter is 12litres (Aqua One Aquis 1250). I'm wondering if the cold weather is affecting things, as we are currently in the middle of a very cold snap. I realise the tank water / filter is kept at a stable temp, but maybe the air doesn't have the usual wealth of goodness that is needed for these things to grow (I have no idea, I'm just wondering)

Anyway latest results:

Day 21 (6th Jan) - 11:15am:

Ammonia 2.0
NitrItes 0.25
NitrAtes 0
pH 7.2

Day 22 (7th Jan) - 12:30pm:

Ammonia 2.0

Day 23 (8th Jan) - 11:55am

Ammonia 2.0
NitrItes 0.25
pH 7.0

So unfortunately no real movement in the test results, although today the ammonia seemed on the lower side of 2 (maybe 1.8/1.9), and the nitrItes seemed to be showing a tinge of the 0.5 colour... so I'm hoping it is still on the move.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

hiya stubedoo, just leafed through your whole thread, skimmed through a few early bits so apologies if i repeat anything that's already been said.

you do seem to be in the right track with your cycle even if it is a bit slow, glad the pH is up now as that concerned me in your earlier threads, for the process of cycing you could consider bumping it up a bit if you liked, generally the closer to 8 you get the quicker the cycle (although thats a very general idea and lots of other variables to consider).

another neat little trick which apparently speeds things up is to add some iron, you get plant foods which contain iron so look for one of those and dose as per the pack's instructions.

what you're looking to do is create the ideal 'soup' to grow your bacteria and while there's nothing glaringly wrong with yours like a v low pH you could maybe improve it and get some better results.

 

[Schmill]

Hey Stu,

Looks like things are progressing nicely, very similar to mine, although once mine started to drop it did drop quite sharply.
Hows the tank temp? Are you keeping it up around the 29-30 deg C mark, I can't remember?
If all else fails try a 25% waterchange, (with dechlor!), but I'd leave it at least another week before trying that.
Not sure if you've been popping over to my diary / log at all, but when you get near to the end of the cycle don't be too surprised if your nitrItes refuse to hit 0 in 12 hours. I'm not saying that they won't as you have the newer model filter, just that they might not. I was hitting 0 ammonia and 0.25 NitrIte after 12 hours a week or so before Christmas, and am still at that position.
Personally I've decided to call an end to my cycle and have ordered my fish for delivery next Friday as I thoroughly believe that the filter just can't do the full Ammonia->NitrIte->NitrAte process on 5ppm of Ammonia in 12 hrs. I'm not overly concerned though as I feel the 5ppm is equivalent of a quite heavy stocking, and due to the concerns we have both already raised about the filter being potentially undersized, I'll just be aware that if I do choose to stock 'heavy' in the future I'll probably need an additional filter, or a bigger one.
Still, that's a little way off for you yet, and I'll be keeping a close eye to see if you do manage to hit the magic 0-0 at the end

If your temperature is low, definitly turn it up for the cycle, but then turn it back down for the 'Qualifying Week'.
(It was actually after the 'turn down' that my filter doesn't manage to process the NitrIte in 12hrs, at the higher temperature it does it just fine! - lol)

Good luck matey!

 

[Miss Wiggle]

schmill, sure someone's probably directed you to it but in case they haven't then hop over to the scientific section and look for a topic i started called 'when is a cycle finished' which is just about your current situation. may be of use to you if you've not already seen it.

 

[Schmill]

schmill, sure someone's probably directed you to it but in case they haven't then hop over to the scientific section and look for a topic i started called 'when is a cycle finished' which is just about your current situation. may be of use to you if you've not already seen it.

Thanks MW, I had a browse of it just the other day, was going to post on it until I realised how old the thread was - lol
Very informative though, and it's pretty much what convinced me I had done right to just go ahead and order my fish