Fishless Cycling

[indir-emir]

You spend a long time looking at your fish too?

Haha, im constantly looking at the tank to see how Super Danios (had to give them a group name lol) and my BN's are doing lol. Hardly see the male though His been out alot today tho

Your fish are looking awsome though Your daughter have a tank of her own?

Regards,
Indir

 

[Thommo]

You spend a long time looking at your fish too?

Haha, im constantly looking at the tank to see how Super Danios (had to give them a group name lol) and my BN's are doing lol. Hardly see the male though His been out alot today tho

Your fish are looking awsome though Your daughter have a tank of her own?

Regards,
Indir

No, my daughter doesn't have a tank. She is almost 2 so a little small for a tank just yet. Maybe she can get one and I'll look after it for her until she is big enough

Yeh I could spend hours looking at the fish. They are just so interesting!

CHEERS
Thommo

 

[indir-emir]

Haha, yes Thommo. For her lol

Regards,
Indir

 

[waterdrop]

have to say thommo that is one of the most impressive first tanks i've ever seen. kudos to you. nice job!

completely agree!

 

[Thommo]

Quick reply after my daughter deleted my long one

Sad day yesterday found 2 dead fish, 1 rosy barb and an otto
Rosy was expected as I was keeping an eye on here as she was looking old even before I got her. The otto is another story. Long story short my old CO2 regulator couldn't handle the low bottle pressure and increased my reg pressure from 12 to 20 psi
Imediatly turned off the CO2 and upped the surface disterbance to get the CO2 down. I thought all the fish looked a little sluggish
Everyone is Ok now so panic is over. Have now ordered a brand new reg and hopefully should be here soon. My tank really needs it at the moment as the plants are stuggling to keep up with the clow loaches ripping them up
Alll water stats are still good with all 0's where required. Its great now that the tank doesn't keep crashing

On a side note I have ordered 2 external canisters to replace the hood filter as it is just way too noisy and the wife isnt that happy about that.

CHEERS
Thommo

 

[Miss Wiggle]

oh no! we had a similar CO2 regulator problem before.

 

[Thommo]

oh no! we had a similar CO2 regulator problem before.

Yeh, I'm just glad that the wife tested the PH and asked if it should be 6.2 Thank god I got it early otherwise it would have been an ugly incident.

 

[waterdrop]

Arg! Even though the onlookers may think otherwise, the keepers know that "tanks never sit still!"

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Miss Wiggle]

We came downstairs one morning, just sat having breakfast half asleep as per usual (I am really not a morning person) glanced over to the tank and noticed all the fish drifting around lifeless!! Saw the CO2 was absolutely streaming out of the diffusor, either the regulator went screwy or the cats knocked it in the night.

Obviously turned it right off and turned an airstone on straight away to hope it got back to normal. we actually didn't loose as many fish as we expected from it, we thought they'd suffocated but i think they'd gone into a sort of coma state as most of them came round shortly after.

Did loose a few of the more delicate fish though like the ottos

 

[Dave Spencer]

Yeh, I'm just glad that the wife tested the PH and asked if it should be 6.2 Thank god I got it early otherwise it would have been an ugly incident.

Without wishing to lecture, it should be a drop checker telling you your CO2 levels, not the tank pH. Still, even a drop checker is nowhere near as good as the fish for telling you when there is too much CO2.

Keeping on the theme of using your tank inhabitants as an indicator for all things being well or otherwise, keep an eye on your plants yellowing. Increasing growth rates via CO2, and running with low nitrates, you could be in for some N deficiency in your plants.

I am not sure what happened with your regulator, but it may not be broke. I know that JBL regulators dump the remaining contents of a CO2 bottle once the bottle pressure starts to run low. I tend to change the bottle once the running pressure starts to go down.

Nice looking tank, but lose the plastic croc.

Dave.

 

[Thommo]

Yeh, I'm just glad that the wife tested the PH and asked if it should be 6.2 Thank god I got it early otherwise it would have been an ugly incident.

Without wishing to lecture, it should be a drop checker telling you your CO2 levels, not the tank pH. Still, even a drop checker is nowhere near as good as the fish for telling you when there is too much CO2.

Keeping on the theme of using your tank inhabitants as an indicator for all things being well or otherwise, keep an eye on your plants yellowing. Increasing growth rates via CO2, and running with low nitrates, you could be in for some N deficiency in your plants.

I am not sure what happened with your regulator, but it may not be broke. I know that JBL regulators dump the remaining contents of a CO2 bottle once the bottle pressure starts to run low. I tend to change the bottle once the running pressure starts to go down.

Nice looking tank, but lose the plastic croc.

Dave.

Thanks Dave,

Yeh I've got a drop checker in there at the moment, which was a very light shade of green when I turned of the CO2. I just hadn't looked at it that morning when it all started to happen. Was only because the wife tested the Ph that I had a look. The reg is just an old one from work. It regulates ok but the pressure range I'm using it in isn't really what it was designed for. I thought it would be ok but I guess I was wrong

I'm also looking into EI. Just gotta get some dry ferts and away we go. I'm getting two external canisters shortly which I will hook a reactor into. I'm currently using a ceramic diffuser but I really should have 2 in there because of the way the hood filter is set up there isn't that great a flow. But once I get the 2 externals that should be all sovled. I was playing around with an internal forcing the bubbles around just before the CO2 incident.

I have noticed a bit of yellowing and that is why I have been looking at EI.

As far as the croc, that is the touch of the Wife. She likes it and I think it looks good to so it will have to stay there.

CHEERS
Thommo

 

[indir-emir]

Sorry to hear about your fish mate, hopefully it doesnt happen again

I agree with you about the croc looks like it lurking about getting ready to lunge, kinda like nature right? lol

Goodluck fixing up your tank

Regards,
Indir

 

[Thommo]

Thanks Indir, the croc is staking out which fish to half eat like the last one

I think I solved the mystery CO2 saga. I did a 50% water change today and went to replace the indicator fluid in the drop checker and found that the opening was covered in a film. I think that the film is from the stress type meds that I put in there when I first put in the fish. So the drop checker wasn't reading correctly as it couldn't get full surface contact. Which wasn't good as that was what I was using to set my CO2 in the tank. Mystery solved. I think!
All stats still am=0 ni=0 na=0(plants)

A few mods to to over the next few days. The new external canister filters turned up today so I have to modify the cabinet slightly to maximise the storage space.(and because I'm anal )Gettin rid of the hood filter, not because it doesn't work just due to the noise. I am actually impressed at the effectiveness of it. Its a good idea just a pain in the butt to get into the tank.

CHEERS
Thommo