Setting Up A 125 Gallon Malawi W/pics-going To 75 Usg Now

[kj23502]

I sent a pm to Ferris and this is his reply:

hi all I have to do to my 125 is add sand and water and get the 2nd filter set up. My question is....when can I move my fish from the 29 to the 125? I'm guessing that I can as soon as all my ammonia and nitrite levels are fine in the 29 b/c that would mean my bacteria colony is established and everything should be ready to go, right? (I also added a sponge filter rated for a 30 gallon tank that I can move over to the large tank as well).

Thanks, Korrine

ps I'll add this and your reply to my post for other people to read also!

Hi,

You should be fine to transfer fish and filter(s) as soon as the 29 has stable water parameters assuming that you are moving the filter(s) over aswell (or at least the filter media).

Any small ammonia/nitrate spikes should be diluted by the much larger water volume, especially given the size and number of current fish and the waste they will produce.

F

Thank you, ferris. Yes I plan on moving the eheim and the sponge filter to the 125 gallon tank.I just did a 40% water change. That's all I could do because Ian (my 7 mo. old) started crying so I had to wrap it up and get it filled again. The ammonia was probably between 0 and .25 this morning. My husband says I'm color blind and he wasn't here to help compare! I had to compare between a yellow (0) and yellow green (.25). It wasn't completely yellow green, but not plain yellow either. So there was just a touch in it. The fish are still actively swimming and chasing eachother. They seem as though they are "handling" it ok.

Thanks again, Korrine

 

[kj23502]

I just saw that two of my tiny fish have red gills. They are the tiniest in there!

---edit---

I also read to not keep the regular feeding schedule when there are spikes in ammonia. Then they won't create as much waste and there should be a lot less leftover food. I doubt there's very much leftover food. What the fish toward the top don't eat, the ones hiding in the rocks will zoom out and get them! I'm feeding once a day for right now.

 

[wslinky]

I just saw that two of my tiny fish have red gills. They are the tiniest in there!

---edit---

I also read to not keep the regular feeding schedule when there are spikes in ammonia. Then they won't create as much waste and there should be a lot less leftover food. I doubt there's very much leftover food. What the fish toward the top don't eat, the ones hiding in the rocks will zoom out and get them! I'm feeding once a day for right now.

I think you could probably cut back to feeding once everyother day, and do at least a 25% water change a day. Try and keep NH3 and NO2 as low as possible.

 

[kj23502]

I just saw that two of my tiny fish have red gills. They are the tiniest in there!

---edit---

I also read to not keep the regular feeding schedule when there are spikes in ammonia. Then they won't create as much waste and there should be a lot less leftover food. I doubt there's very much leftover food. What the fish toward the top don't eat, the ones hiding in the rocks will zoom out and get them! I'm feeding once a day for right now.

I think you could probably cut back to feeding once everyother day, and do at least a 25% water change a day. Try and keep NH3 and NO2 as low as possible.

Thank you! Will try! Hopefully it all works out. I should've listened to Ferris when he said only to keep 8 in the 29. Then I would've only added 4 fish and it probably would've been ok.

TO EVERYONE READING: seriously....when mods and experienced ppl give advice...listen. I didn't and ordered extra fish b/c there was no extra shipping charges when you order more(trying to get more bang for the buck) and now I could lose some or ALL of them anyway!!! Newbee's like I was..... TAKE NOTE!!

 

[kj23502]

Ok, I'm spazo paranoid . I checked for ammonia again. I think it's really close to 0. i couldn't tell for sure if there was any in it. I tried both the tests. One that goes from yellow(0) to blue(8.0). and the other is clear(0) to orange shades(highest being 7.3). I can't tell for sure if the water in the first test is pure yellow or has a tiny tinge to it. Same with the second kit. Can't tell if water is clear or has a tiny tinge??!! I held the tube against the white paper like your supposed to. I even walked to a sun shiny spot in our house to try and get better lighting!

Color blind....MAYBE ! I'll check again in a few hours, when my hubby gets home from work and see what he thinks.

-edit--

my nitrites are 0 and nitrates are about 15-20ppm. if ammonia's going up nitrites should be going up and then down after the tank can handle it again

 

[kj23502]

I pm'd ferris again.....

Hi again...i read that plants can use ammonia directly from the water. What do you think about adding a couple more java verns to help? Or would you not recommend it? My other plants seem to be alright. I have 2 java fern and a couple blobs of Java Moss. I've heard of them digging them up. I could put in potted ones and then I could move them to my 125 when I move the fish over.

or is there other kinds of plants you'd recommend?

thanks again for your patience with my questions and for continuing to help me even though I got to many fish...Korrine


Hi,

Plants will make little or no difference to water parameters unless you heavily plant the tank and Mbuna will normally uproot them anyway. Plants don't tend to last very long in African tanks - adult Mbuna especially will make short work of them. Its certainly not a good idea to rely on them for water quality - that needs to be handled by mechanical and biological filtration.

No problem with the questions

F

 

[kj23502]

I walked up to the tank and they all swam out from the coral rocks. They just sat there at the front of the glass staring at me. I grabbed ahold of that opportunity to do a quick head count. It appears that all of them were there. My pleco and snail are still alive also. I'm still lucky for now. We'll see!!

My readings earlier were similar to now. Hubby said that there was tinge of color. Just barely. So it's pretty close to 0, but not quite. That's good. I'll see what it is in the morning. I want everything to stabalize in my little 29 gallon so I can swap two of the filters and the fish over to my 125 gallon....patience....I tell myself!!! I'm not to good at patience!

 

[wslinky]

My readings earlier were similar to now. Hubby said that there was tinge of color. Just barely. So it's pretty close to 0, but not quite. That's good. I'll see what it is in the morning. I want everything to stabalize in my little 29 gallon so I can swap two of the filters and the fish over to my 125 gallon....patience....I tell myself!!! I'm not to good at patience!

Not sure how you are trying to judge color, the best way I have found is to use the whitest light I have and hold the tube against something white, this will give you the best chance of seeing the difference in colors.

I have the same problem with patience, especially right now since I have to have the lights on for the plants, it was ok when I could leave them off. You and I seem to be about the same place right now, in the next few weeks we both should be able to add fish, Good Luck Waiting!!!

 

[kj23502]

This morning ammonia was around .50 so I changed 30% of the water. The fish followed and chased around my siphon hose! It's great. I love them. It's almost like I added a whole bunch of kids to my family . They're also starting to pick at my jave fern and java moss! I was wondering how long those would last!

The rest of the readings are:

Nitrate (n03) 20ppm
Nitrite (n02) 0
Total hardness 300 ppm
Alkalinity 300 ppm
ph 8

 

[kj23502]

I was wondering???....should I get some ammo Lock or Prime
Or would that mess up my test results too much? And since i have soo many fish in there, will there always be some ammonia present? I was wondering also. The eheim and sponge filter should be bacteria ridden after a couple weeks, right? The only other filter in the 29 is a Whisper Power filter 30 (hob). Thinking about moving fish over to 125 with the eheim and sponge filter....

 

[Larissa]

From what I know - and that's not very much - Ammo lock = bad and Prime = good. I think ammo lock starves your filter of ammonia so the bacteria has nothing to feed on. As a result your tank never cycles. Prime on the other hand does not do this so it is fine. I might be wrong about all of that though so perhaps someone could clarify.

 

[kj23502]

From what I know - and that's not very much - Ammo lock = bad and Prime = good. I think ammo lock starves your filter of ammonia so the bacteria has nothing to feed on. As a result your tank never cycles. Prime on the other hand does not do this so it is fine. I might be wrong about all of that though so perhaps someone could clarify.

thank you for sharing your info. I think i answered my own ?. I did a search for each one and the dr foster smith website says this about ammo-lock:
"Works instantly to help remove deadly chlorine and chloramine from tap water. Locks up toxic ammonia produced by decomposing plants, algae, fish waste, dead fish, and uneaten food. Ammonia is converted to a non-toxic form to eliminate ammonia-related fish stress while biological filtration further breaks it down into nitrite and then nitrate. Safe for all fish, invertebrates, and plants and can be used with all medications including Methylene Blue, Malachite Green, and Acriflavine. Will not alter pH or deplete oxygen levels. Does not contain any copper or formaldehyde.

Each dose of Ammo Lock will detoxify 3.0 ppm of ammonia, 7.0 ppm of chlorine and 5.0 ppm of chloramine."

This is about Prime:
"No other aquarium water conditioning product is required to make tap water safe. Prime removes chlorine and chloramine (even in high chloramine levels), and detoxifies ammonia and nitrite. Provides essential ions and stimulates natural slime coat. Prime also detoxifies any heavy metals found in the tap water at typical concentration levels. When used during cycling, Prime enhances nitrate removal and does not cause a pH drop or overactivate protein skimmers. Great for setting up new aquariums, or when adding or changing water, or to remove nitrate." I'm not sure if it allows for the bacteria to continue to break it down or not. It doesn't say for sure like the other description did?!

Anyone have any experience with it?

---edit---
Maybe I don't have to worry about it so much?! This afternoons test turned up less than .25 ppm of ammonia/nh3. My hubby said he would call it 0, but I want to air on the side of caution. I'll try to take an overall pic of the tank tonight....when I won't have to worry about glare. I have the slate set up in the 125 and I'll take a pic of that too! It's not enough and the pieces weren't big enough to do much with, but I can change that later!

 

[newfishy]

can you just get some Bio-spira and ingore all that other crap that the lfs wants to throw at you while your cycling. I used it when my 29 went into the never ending mini cycle from hell and it worked really well.

just make sure the shop you buy it from has had the product constantly refridgerated...real live bacteria wont live if it gets too warm, or if it gets super cold.

its made by marineland labs and if it has been handled properly I SWEAR it helps shorten your cycle.

 

[kj23502]

I might have to check into that bio spira.

Here's my 125 gallon.

My hubby did this. I started and got tired of it!!!! I don't like sodoku(sp) or things like that as well!!! That's basically what it was. Put a few pieces on and bump test it and rearrange sometimes.
Like I said earlier....we found out that in the long run we'll need way more rocks!!! Hoping it'll work for now. Hopefully the landscaping places and DIY home stores will start getting the garden landscaping junk in. And hopefully we can find more slate so we can have BIG pieces. A lot of the pieces we had were fairly small.

Here's my fishies!!! I love them. They come to the front of the tank when I come up to them. They really do seem to watch me!!

My whole 29 gallon tank!!

---edit---
I'm still waiting for my background to come in the mail!

 

[caboose_122]

i agree that you need more slate, but i think larger rocks like lava rock looks good with slate, thats probably what im going to do with my tank, but it does looks good so far!

placing rock can get tiring in deep tanks lol, i had to do it for my friends 75 gallon which was a pain cause it was full of water and fish to say the least i got soaked and the fish got the scare of there life lol