10 Tank's fish and tanks

[10 Tanks]

Hello and a good Sunday morning to you. Three tanks to work on today. We have a 55, 100 and a 300 gallon tank that need half the water removed and replaced. Shoveled our way out of all the snow that fell over the last 24 hours or so. 12 to 14 inches is about what I figured. It was the real wet stuff, so the plants and trees should be ready for a growth spurt come warmer weather. We should have plenty of water for the tanks this Spring with all the snow melting and filling up the lakes and ponds around here. We'll feed the fish a little today. The outdoor fish are always active no matter what the temperature is outside.

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[10 Tanks]

Hello. It's Monday morning and we're another day closer to Spring! Can't wait for the nice weather and all the color. We had a couple of trees trimmed recently. I didn't know that the best time to trim trees is in the Winter, when they go dormant. So, we had a couple of large locust trees trimmed. They look so much better. Anyway, no tanks today. All the tanks are caught up on their water changes and the water is nice and clear. We moved some Dwarf Water Lettuce to some other tanks. This plant is easy to grow and a very good natural water filter. However, it is invasive and outlawed in some states. No problems with removing the sponge filters from the tanks. At least, I can't see anything that would make me put them back into the tanks. Hope you all have a good week.

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[emeraldking]

I can't wait for Spring to join in either... Right now it's sunny and clear. I really have the urge to work in the backyard and prep my outdoor tubs for this coming seaon.

 

[10 Tanks]

Hello emerald. If you've got that urge, then go for it. We have several inches of snow on the ground here. So, no gardening yet. It's been sunny, so we've had a lot of melting. So, the plants and trees should get a jumpstart once we get a little warmer weather. The moisture have been great, there will be plenty of water for the garden as well as all the fish tanks.

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[10 Tanks]

Tuesday morning. Four tanks on the schedule for today. The four will take about three hours to do. Not long. By changing out a lot of tank water, we've eliminated the need for mechanical filtration and need just a little aeration to maintain a healthy level of oxygen getting mixed into the water. Though, the action of the new water splashing into the tank will provide enough oxygen for the tank inhabitants. Keep the tank water a bit cooler and the oxygen level in the tank will remain higher than it would in warmer water. When you adopt an aggressive water change routine, you maintain a steady water chemistry. This really is all the fish require. Add to this, a small variety of freeze dried foods they get three to four times a week and you'll have a healthy tank. There are some other things you can do if you like to go to the effort. Some are: vacuuming the bottom material, trimming or adding plants and possibly keeping the front glass cleaned of anything like algae that may develop on the front glass. Remember not to over populate your fish tank. This could be adding too many fish or having a lot of other live inhabitants like snails. Both will overload the water with waste material and foul up the water chemistry. Change half the water every few days and you'll have few, if any tank problems.

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[10 Tanks]

Wednesday. "Hump Day". Light tank work today. Just have the government's 55 gallon tank. Will change out and replace half the tank water. This will take about 30 minutes. Tank has been running since May and though we lost a couple of fish early on, the rest are doing well. Have never had any fry. The Nerites have laid some eggs, but since they're in fresh water all the time, none of the eggs have developed. This is just as well. We have a good number of fish and don't need more to add to the bioload.

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[10 Tanks]

Thursday. A little bit of a late entry. Changed the tank water in four tanks. Providing the outside weather is good, will change half the water in the outdoor 300. Have a side post about cycling a fish tank, so you can enjoy healthy fish very shortly after setting up things. It boils down to changing half the tank water twice a week, so you never allow fish waste to build up and pollute the tank water. It's not like cycling a tank with a hardy fish species, that's cruel. This is about keeping the tank water free of dissolved nitrogen. Anyway, I've done this many times when setting up a new tank.

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[10 Tanks]

Friday morning. No tanks today. I'm getting to like the new schedule of changing half the tank water every five days. I'm sure the fish are liking the near nitrogen free water. When you change out so much water, so often, there's no need to invest in testing supplies. You'll always know the water chemistry is near perfect for the fish. Plus, if you keep the number of fish to a minimum and don't feed daily, keeping fish is really a simple thing. Large tanks are also the best to keep. By putting a small number of fish in a lot of water, you can miss a water change and not have to worry about toxins building in the water. A small number of fish, fed a little, aren't going to produce enough waste material to pollute a large volume of water. So, again, large more frequent water changes will remove dissolved waste material long before it has a chance to build up to anywhere near toxic levels. Just change most of the water every few days, no excuses. Have a good day!

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[10 Tanks]

Saturday. It snowed a little last night and it's cold this morning. Changed out half the water in the 100 gallon and 55 gallon tanks. Will work on the 55 gallon that belongs to the government people. We'll clean the sponge filters too. Pretty easy today.

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[Oldspartan]

Probably a dumb question. Is there really such a thing?

I was browsing your journal and noticed that you send your water from the tap directly to your tanks. How do you control the temp?

 

[10 Tanks]

Hello. Thanks so much for reading my posts. So, as long as the incoming water is within a few degrees of what's already in the tank, the fish are fine. Actually, I put a mark on the faucet, so I can set the outgoing water to within a few degrees. I do check the water by feel and adjust the faucet a little if needed. It's not an exact science, but the fish are fine with a temperature change of a few degrees. Now, this procedure may not work with more sensitive fish, I keep hardy species. Thanks again for reading.

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[10 Tanks]

Sunday morning. The cold just keeps hanging on most mornings. We should see warmer morning temperatures in a day or two. So, today, we'll change out the water in the outdoor 300 gallon tank. No food today for the fish. They ate yesterday. The Platy fry are growing and are starting to develop the Mickey Mouse markings of the species. Always thought that was a funny thing to develop in a fish tail. On a side subject, I've been trying to find a simple hobby that I could do sitting down in my easy chair in the evening. I found some adult coloring books and some crayons online and found just sitting and coloring (inside the lines) kind of relaxing. I'll post a picture of my first "master piece" in my next post. Have restful Sunday.

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[TwoTankAmin]

Of course none of us pay anything for water- it's free. And we do not have to pay any electricity bills for running pumps to refill or empty tanks. Plus we don't have any chlorine/chloramine in our water supply for which we need to use dechlor every time we change water.

Here is another amazing fact. In a river the water is changing conctantly 24/7 and at a munch greater rate thanwe will ever do in a tank. Yet in nature there are plenty of microgranisms that process ammonia, nitrite and even nitrate. All that water doesn'y preven them from colonizing.

His tanks are being fish in cycled. In the end there are enough microorganinsms and plants (assuming there are some in the tanks) to handle the nitrogen compounds. With no plants, than any nitrate must be manually removed the way we all do it, a 50% weekly water change.

As long as there is any ammonia in a tank, the mircoorganisms will come. And if one adds live plants, they host the bacteria as well.

The thing about nature is it works whether or not we want to believe it.

And then there is the fact that to get a decent view of the microrgaisms at work requires magnification of at least 2,000 times and to see individual cells it is more like 93,000 times.
https://www.researchgate.net/figure...th-magnifications-from-2000-93_fig2_272641034

The only clue we have that these things are in our tanks in the millions is we do not test ammonia or nitrite. If we have live plants involved and media which ultimately develops denitrification, we never see nitrate either.

The one thing to which we still must be alert is that the water parameters for our source water change. In the 23+ years I have been using well water the pH range has been 6.9 to 7.4. The TDS range has been as low as 53 ppm and as high as about 115 ppm. However the averages have been 83-105 ppm for more extended periods. I do not use dechlor as we have our own private well. On the down side I have the most expensive electric utility in the country in a major area. The water if free, getting it out of the ground and in and out of my tanks is not.

Btw- I change 50-60% of the water weekly in all my tanks and have for the last 23+ years. I also cycle them or the filters for them as well. I mostly also stock heavily. A lot of this is due to fish spawning. The only tank I ever cycled with fish in it was my very first tank.

 

[10 Tanks]

Hello. Nice posting and very informative. You've been at this hobby longer than I. I must say that you've explained things for me quite well. I've cycled all my tanks the same way too. I just treat the tank with conditioner and bacteria and allow the tank water to settle into room temperature at 72 degrees. I can add a few small fish and just change enough water and often enough to never allow dissolving waste from the fish to accumulate in the tank. After a few weeks or a couple of months, I can add a few more fish and ease up on the water changes a little once the bacteria colony is established. But, I'll always change most the water every few days, so toxins never build up.

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[10 Tanks]

Monday. Happy Presidents' Day. Actually, this is supposed to be a day to honor all leadership people, not just presidents. So, today we'll work on four tanks. We don't do anything special, just remove and replace half or more of the tank water. With such an aggressive water change routine, we don't use filters, don't need to deal with algae so such and never need to test the tank water. Once you get the right equipment and all the chemicals arranged, there's not much work involved with keeping multiple tanks. Just enjoy the fish!

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