Tizer
Team TetraTEC
Hola!
Well i've been using this forum for a few months now since getting back into Fish. My parents used to have some when i was younger and around November last year i decided i fancied having a crack. So i bid on a 240L Juwel tank on eBay and it all began from there.
The tank is now 4 months old and i've stocked it with some of my favourite fish, mostly Corydoras, Breeding Kribs, Neons, Black Neons, Bleeding Heart Tetras, Bolivian Rams and a couple of SAE's.
Since putting the Kribs in and having them breed i've noticed the vast majority of the fish move to the opposite end of the tank. I knew this would be the case if it happened but i didnt realise quite how much space they they would demand.
So basically, this new tank is going to be setup for the Kribs to allow my 240 to become a little more placid* for want of a better word and im going to have a crack at it with another favourite fish, Tiger Barbs.
So a few weeks ago i won a 90Litre Fluval Roma on eBay, got it home and gave it a really good clean up. This weekend just gone i filled it up and cleaned the left over sand i had from my big tank and dumped it in along with two bits of bogwood that were just looking out of place in the big tank :
Once this was done i bust open my 240's external 305 filter and nicked some white ceramic biomedia, i picked some quite dirty bits from the bottom tray, around 10 in total.
The Internal filter that came with this 90L requires 3 filter sponges, so i cut out the middle of the center sponge and sandwiched in the ceramic media, popped it into the filter and set it going.
I gave it a few hours then popped down to the localfish shop and spent about 30 minutes mulling over what to get, the Tiger barb's were the most attractive on offer, so knowing they were little nippers, i got 12.
Got them home plopped them into the tank (which was still cloudy):
They checked out their new home for a good 30 minutes sticking in a tight formation before they settled in and scattered around a little.
So,
Day 1: ammonia 0, nitrite 0
The next day i popped down to Pets at Home! Yey! (I dont use them for livestock, but in all honesty the local shop isnt too bad) and purchased some cheap backing from the tank to stop the light from the window coming through so much. Fortunately it never gets direct sunlight so no risk of heating the water up.
Backing on and the tank takes a little more form:
In the evening i did a water test so
Day 2: ammonia 0.25, nitrite 0 - did a 50% water change.
Its quite suprising how quickly such small fish can pump out ammonia.
Tonight, the water is very clear, although the glass is a little murky and the xmas moss on the bogwood has a new lease of life:
So, water test done and you can see the ammonia test in the middle is very very slightly green, not even reaching 0.25, the lowest reading on the API testkit. Fingers crossed the mature media is already doing its job.
The ammonia test on the far left is from my 240 tank, i wanted something to compare it to as the light in this room is a little dim. I also wanted to double check that stealing the media from the big tank wasnt causing a problem in there.
Day 3: ammonia 0.10, nitrate 0 - no water change done, going to let the bacteria have dinner, since this level of ammonia isnt going to have any immediate adverse effect on the Tigers.
For those of you who use the tests you might notice i've only half filled the test tubes, which means 4 drops of each liquid instead of 8. Handy tip if you want to make it last longer.
I'll keep this going in additional posts from now on when i get updates. I love reading peoples tank Logs, i hope this one proves interest to some of you too.
The general goal is to create a lightly planted tank, with several caves fit for breeding Kribs and to provide an attractive dither fish for the Kribs to feel safe (I dont really class Tigers as dither fish, like neons, but feh, you know what i mean). I dare say i will also boost the Tiger numbers up to 20 in a few weeks time. For those who feel this might be too many, you might be right and if i start to feel the same, they will get a home in the 240litre before reaching maturity.
When its finished cycling, i'll remove the filter and show you how it was seeded.
Well i've been using this forum for a few months now since getting back into Fish. My parents used to have some when i was younger and around November last year i decided i fancied having a crack. So i bid on a 240L Juwel tank on eBay and it all began from there.
The tank is now 4 months old and i've stocked it with some of my favourite fish, mostly Corydoras, Breeding Kribs, Neons, Black Neons, Bleeding Heart Tetras, Bolivian Rams and a couple of SAE's.
Since putting the Kribs in and having them breed i've noticed the vast majority of the fish move to the opposite end of the tank. I knew this would be the case if it happened but i didnt realise quite how much space they they would demand.
So basically, this new tank is going to be setup for the Kribs to allow my 240 to become a little more placid* for want of a better word and im going to have a crack at it with another favourite fish, Tiger Barbs.
So a few weeks ago i won a 90Litre Fluval Roma on eBay, got it home and gave it a really good clean up. This weekend just gone i filled it up and cleaned the left over sand i had from my big tank and dumped it in along with two bits of bogwood that were just looking out of place in the big tank :
Once this was done i bust open my 240's external 305 filter and nicked some white ceramic biomedia, i picked some quite dirty bits from the bottom tray, around 10 in total.
The Internal filter that came with this 90L requires 3 filter sponges, so i cut out the middle of the center sponge and sandwiched in the ceramic media, popped it into the filter and set it going.
I gave it a few hours then popped down to the localfish shop and spent about 30 minutes mulling over what to get, the Tiger barb's were the most attractive on offer, so knowing they were little nippers, i got 12.
Got them home plopped them into the tank (which was still cloudy):
They checked out their new home for a good 30 minutes sticking in a tight formation before they settled in and scattered around a little.
So,
Day 1: ammonia 0, nitrite 0
The next day i popped down to Pets at Home! Yey! (I dont use them for livestock, but in all honesty the local shop isnt too bad) and purchased some cheap backing from the tank to stop the light from the window coming through so much. Fortunately it never gets direct sunlight so no risk of heating the water up.
Backing on and the tank takes a little more form:
In the evening i did a water test so
Day 2: ammonia 0.25, nitrite 0 - did a 50% water change.
Its quite suprising how quickly such small fish can pump out ammonia.
Tonight, the water is very clear, although the glass is a little murky and the xmas moss on the bogwood has a new lease of life:
So, water test done and you can see the ammonia test in the middle is very very slightly green, not even reaching 0.25, the lowest reading on the API testkit. Fingers crossed the mature media is already doing its job.
The ammonia test on the far left is from my 240 tank, i wanted something to compare it to as the light in this room is a little dim. I also wanted to double check that stealing the media from the big tank wasnt causing a problem in there.
Day 3: ammonia 0.10, nitrate 0 - no water change done, going to let the bacteria have dinner, since this level of ammonia isnt going to have any immediate adverse effect on the Tigers.
For those of you who use the tests you might notice i've only half filled the test tubes, which means 4 drops of each liquid instead of 8. Handy tip if you want to make it last longer.
I'll keep this going in additional posts from now on when i get updates. I love reading peoples tank Logs, i hope this one proves interest to some of you too.
The general goal is to create a lightly planted tank, with several caves fit for breeding Kribs and to provide an attractive dither fish for the Kribs to feel safe (I dont really class Tigers as dither fish, like neons, but feh, you know what i mean). I dare say i will also boost the Tiger numbers up to 20 in a few weeks time. For those who feel this might be too many, you might be right and if i start to feel the same, they will get a home in the 240litre before reaching maturity.
When its finished cycling, i'll remove the filter and show you how it was seeded.
