Back to the Glass Box - Starting Again After 3 Years Away

[Mincher183]

Hey All,

Been away from the hobby for a few years after moving house and, as tends to happen, life just swallowed the time and space for a proper setup.

I used to run a fairly sizeable Malawi tank, which was loud, aggressive, and brilliant in its own way. Recently took my 20-month-old to a local Sea Life Centre and watching her face completely light up in front of the tanks was enough. That was the moment I knew I was coming back, If I can recreate that look of wonder everytime she wanders into my office, then perfect.

I’ve picked up an AquaOne AquaNano 60, running it around the 100 litre mark, and I’m going down the lightly planted route this time. Currently somewhere in the messy middle of a fishless cycle. Temporarily got surface skimming filter just because of the plant melt and film from the wood settling.

Historically I always used the API Master Test Kit, but this time I grabbed a JBL Pro kit and, if I’m honest, I’m slightly regretting it. The nitrite test only reads up to 1ppm, so once you’re past that you’re basically guessing how bad things really are. At the moment ammonia has dropped to basically negligible, nitrite is very high (all I can confidently say is above 1ppm), and nitrate is steadily climbing, which at least tells me something is moving in the right direction.

This is also my first proper attempt at plants. Obviously not something you bother with in a Malawi setup unless you enjoy watching expensive greenery get shredded. We’ll see how it goes. Learning curve incoming, no doubt.

Either way, good to be back.

 

[GaryE]

Welcome back.

What does your test kit tell you about your water straight from the tap? Getting that sorted out can save you a lot of trouble at the start.

 

[MattW]

Welcome back

 

[Mincher183]

Welcome back.

What does your test kit tell you about your water straight from the tap? Getting that sorted out can save you a lot of trouble at the start.

Hey Gary,

From the tap, nothing interesting really, roughly 20 nitrate, which is in keeping with the local reporting of our tap water quality. Ph is somewhere between 7 and 8 I think, but again the testing included in the JBL kit isnt ideal, so i'll pick up a more accurate one for above 7 and see if I can pin it down.

 

[GaryE]

To me, living in a different environment, a nitrate reading starting at 21.4 is troubling. My reading from the tap is 0.2. You're going to need to watch for advice from regional fishkeepers and people in agricultural run off zones, mostly in the midwest US. Ignore the people like me with clean water from the get go.

You can get a lot of bad advice from well meaning people who don't realize that added issue you'll have. I mean, I'd tell you to do emergency water changes at a reading of 20. That wouldn't do much good. Try to filter them out and find who lives in agricultural zones. There are lots of work arounds. @gwand has dealt with this.

 

[Mincher183]

To me, living in a different environment, a nitrate reading starting at 21.4 is troubling. My reading from the tap is 0.2. You're going to need to watch for advice from regional fishkeepers and people in agricultural run off zones, mostly in the midwest US. Ignore the people like me with clean water from the get go.

You can get a lot of bad advice from well meaning people who don't realize that added issue you'll have. I mean, I'd tell you to do emergency water changes at a reading of 20. That wouldn't do much good. Try to filter them out and find who lives in agricultural zones. There are lots of work arounds. @gwand has dealt with this.

Yeah it's certainly higher than where we lived previously (<2.0), also harder water than it was previous. The general advice from people with experience of it (10-40 is average in the UK), (the legal drinking limit is 50ppm in the UK), has been don't chase it down. If 20 is the baseline and the tank has plants, then 20-50 is completely acceptable long term, they said 50+ isn't ideal, but also not an emergency, and anything above 80 would then require some fairly urgent water changes.

The other element is plants using the Nitrate as a fertiliser. So the advice has been over 50 or 60, do a water change. It'll be a case of figuring out what the cadence of that is once it's stocked.