First 55 gal setup thoughts?

[mmarx339]

i tried to get some pictures of the killifish today

 

[mmarx339]

I alternate back and forth 1 day is the blackworks, i have a very good person for them, then next day is flakes and veg discs. Ill take the advice on the color flakes i was thinking of removing that anyway but i think im going to do a light tropical flake in am and veg flake in pm feed (usually i did once a day). My fluval canister 407 has intake on one end and output on opisite end facing the intake (creating current at the top for exercise and what not then the plants and rocks break that up a little bit to make the left side calmer but thw left side also has the fluval 70 hob filter for surface movement on the left side, the waterfall is a air decor with a 40 gal sponge filter behind it for extra filtration on the right side of the tank and heavily planted bottom with plenty of cover for hiding and sleeping when not active. Everything gets along fine and my killifish prefer to eat from the substrate so i pipet them worms on worm day with my right hand while feeding fast rainbow eaters on opposite side at the top. I dont have anything to raise a fry and am not worried about breeding right now. I forget I forgot to reply to anything if i did let me know

Oh i was also going to mention that they were all born and tank raised in between 7.6-8.2 ph water my paramaters are just below 8 i live in an apartment which i was also going to mention I eventually do plan on getting a seperate tank for the killifish but im in an apartment and it was hard enough to convince her to let me have 75 gallons of water just chillin in her apartments.

 

[mmarx339]

My only problem with chemistry was that the plants weren’t eating nitrate fast enough to deplete it just enough to keep it at a constant 20ppm so i added more plants for the update picture.

 

[Retired Viking]

Tank looks good

 

[mmarx339]

filtration

 

[mmarx339]

Also my tap water has .5ppm ammonia in it. I live in fox crossing wisconsin zip code 54915 i have prime but have been buying water since this started any tips to not spend 10$ per 2.5 gallons of water?

 

[Retired Viking]

I have hard water like you but have one soft water tank for my tetra including red eyed tetra and spend 29 cents a gallon for RO soft water that I buy from Caligan. You could switch the tank to RO soft water tank.

 

[mmarx339]

I have hard water like you but have one soft water tank for my tetra including red eyed tetra and spend 29 cents a gallon for RO soft water that I buy from Caligan. You could switch the tank to RO soft water tank.

How do you get that water? And how do you aclimate to it. I am in an apartment if that affects anything

 

[Retired Viking]

Caligan sells it in 5 gallon jugs or you can bring your own containers, check with your local dealer. I bought 4-5 gallon jugs which I refill at their business place. I started adding it by mixing it with dechlorinated tap water. You basically increase the % of RO water to tap water each water change until you reach the hardness you want. I started with a 20 gallon water change in my 55 gallon tank with 15 gallons tap and 5 RO mix. I am now at 14 RO to 6 tap water mix.

 

[mmarx339]

Caligan sells it in 5 gallon jugs or you can bring your own containers, check with your local dealer. I bought 4-5 gallon jugs which I refill at their business place. I started adding it by mixing it with dechlorinated tap water. You basically increase the % of RO water to tap water each water change until you reach the hardness you want. I started with a 20 gallon water change in my 55 gallon tank with 15 gallons tap and 5 RO mix. I am now at 14 RO to 6 tap water mix.

How often do you do changes and how much. Also do you change based on water content or time?

 

[JuiceBox52]

How often do you do changes and how much. Also do you change based on water content or time?

Most of the members on here do 50-75% of the water volume weekly

 

[mmarx339]

Most of the members on here do 50-75% of the water volume weekly

But isnt the goal of a water change to maintain a certain level of different chemicals in your aquarium ? Ie your plants need atleast 20ppm nitrate to not have deficiency so why do a weekly water change if nitrate is at 10ppm at that point you just reduce available food to your fish

 

[mmarx339]

But isnt the goal of a water change to maintain a certain level of different chemicals in your aquarium ? Ie your plants need atleast 20ppm nitrate to not have deficiency so why do a weekly water change if nitrate is at 10ppm at that point you just reduce available food to your fish

Plants**

 

[Retired Viking]

I usually do a weekly water change of 50% (25-30 gallon) like @juicebox stated only I am currently doing 20 gallon each week as I am increasing the RO % and keeping
an eye on my GH and PH.

 

[JuiceBox52]

But isnt the goal of a water change to maintain a certain level of different chemicals in your aquarium ? Ie your plants need atleast 20ppm nitrate to not have deficiency so why do a weekly water change if nitrate is at 10ppm at that point you just reduce available food to your fish

@Byron is best at explaining this