Sin's Planted Tank Journal

[ShadowedSin]

So anyway, I'm putting together a simple single species tank for Spike-tailed gouramis.

The tank once down will be, two simple open ended filters with airstones.

A 15 gallon pump, I can control the vavle on it.

Black rounded gravel for the bottom.

A soaked piece of driftwood.

And some pieces of quartz or shale.

I'm setting up the tank for cycling tonight and I also plan to buy the plants. If necessary they can be floated for a bit in my community tank. IT's got a nice large 4ft GLO high end light.

I'm looking at about 2-3 gouramis. They only group to be about 1 inch long. So this should be perfect. I'll have pictures in the future.

 

[ShadowedSin]

Bought a new 29 gal tank.

And I'm going to town on it.

 

[ellena]

Sounds cool Can't wait to see pics!

 

[ShadowedSin]

Basically I'm going to get a decent light strip.

I live on a VERY rocky Island, so I'm thinking some large quarter rocks arranged with some water logged drift. Thinking of arranging the rocks into a sort of cave system. I have some pastic castle pieces so I'll put that on top. So a sort of lonely castle among the mountains look with some vallis and perhaps some ferns.

It's going to be cool, I'm using a dark rounded gravel. And a decent sized flowing filter. I'll update over the next few days, still trying to decide on my gourami types.

 

[ShadowedSin]

This might seem impatient, but I've been switching water from my established tank into my new one. I'm moving about 5 gallons a day into the established tank over time.

My dad's been into fish keeping since he was a kid and he figures we could have some fish in the new tank by Saturday possibly.

 

[ShadowedSin]

Solved my problem with an extended cycle, took out all of the still wet plastic plants from the established tank, and I'm soaking them in the water for the current tank.

 

[ShadowedSin]

Got a new canister eco eheim 35 filter. And it's planted up a bit, doing a Fish-in cycle now.

Trying to get my hands on a working camera still.

 

[waterdrop]

This might seem impatient, but I've been switching water from my established tank into my new one. I'm moving about 5 gallons a day into the established tank over time.

My dad's been into fish keeping since he was a kid and he figures we could have some fish in the new tank by Saturday possibly.

Ah yes, its often the old-timer aquarists (know these types 'cause I'm one) who find it hardest to swallow this new-fangled idea from 1980 of "fishless cycling" or the concept that gills and nerves are really getting damaged during cycling, since the fish don't actually speak up and say ouch! Definately hard to go against dad and not recomnended! Water from old tanks contains an insignificant amount of autotrophic bacteria, so contributes nothing towards cycling.

The (modern) goal in a fish-in cycle is to always keep both ammonia and nitrite(NO2) -below- 0.25ppm as measured by a good liquid-reagent based test kit. You have to be a detective, doing your tests twice a day, and decide what percentage and frequency of water changes are needed to acheive this. For instance, if you come home in the evening and find upon testing that nitrite or ammonia has risen above 0.25ppm, then more frequent or larger water changes are needed in your daily regime.

You should be ok if you keep after it, testing and water changes are the key to keeping the fish alive in this situation. I'm not sure how I'd compare the hardiness of spike-tailed gouramis to, say, rasboras or zebras or platies, which usually have pretty good ammonia/nitrite tolerance, perhaps some other member would have a feel for that.

Like your visual ideas, they sound like fun!
~~waterdrop~~

 

[ShadowedSin]

As of the last week I did add a few feeder guppies (they are sacrificial) And they are doing fine.

The water has been dosed for anti fungal to just make sure because I caught a strange bump on one of the guppies. He's swimming fine though.

The tank is heavily planted and I am doing daily 5 gallon water changes.

This is a massive update on the diary.

Ph: 6.8 - That will work perfectly for spike tail gouramis.
Kh: 107 ppm - This is being lowered via daily doses of neutral regulator
Ammonia: 0 ppm - Very good!

The nitrates spike heavily and hopefully with the water changes and increased light to get the plants growing things are going to look up! I'm picking up the Nitrate and Nitrite tests tomorrow!

Pictures

My LFS says that this cycling can usually take about 4-6 weeks. So half way done and almost there!

The water I'm using for the water changes is actually rain water. I live in an heavily acidic area because of my well, and had to switch to collecting the new water in buckets. So far it has resulted in a very large reduction in pH and it seems to really be lowering my levels of the big three, Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate.

 

[ShadowedSin]

Bump.

 

[ShadowedSin]

Ph: 6.8 - Same as Yesterday, within my needed average!
Kh: 6 drops on the test, 107 ppm - Still trying to understand this
Ammonia: 0 ppm - Very good!
Nitrates: 40ppm OUCH!

Was the safe level about 20 or 10 ppm on nitrates?

 

[CKutz]

i've heard 40 ppm = overstocked tank.
with a planted tank, you shouldn't have nitrates that high..many people with planted tanks have very few nitrates.
hmm...
how bout testing your rain water's params. just so you know what you're putting in the tank.
also if you put tank water from your old tank into your new tank, you'll be adding nitrate.
also, are you using a liquid test kit? they are wayyy more accurate than the strips, most people regard the strips as completely useless.
they sell a test kit, which includes ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, ph. a common one is API master test kit, and it's usually the cheapest. buying that kit is cheaper than buying the individual tests.

4-6 weeks? guess what, you could be done in 1-2. take a little bit of filter media out of your community tank, put it in the new filter. this adds the bacteria to the new filter..it will then spread onto the other media in your new filter, and if you must, you can take it out after ehh...4 weeks to be safe probably..and put it back in your original tank, but by then you're original filter's bacteria will have reproduced enough to make up for the loss. i believe it reproduces at a high rate once it is established..i forget the actual number but it's like 2 or 3 days.

also, you don't have to use the guppies. you can pick up some ammonia (the only ingredients should be "ammonium hydroxide", nothing scented either) and go that route. look in the New to the hobby section "beginners resources" for a link to that. adding 5 ppm ammonia, is way more then those little guppies will create, doing this will make your bacteria colony much bigger and stronger for when you had your gouramis.

having a high kh level can be a really good thing..i'm not sure what is high in ppm, but with the other system of measurement (i think it's dH) a 4 is a very good level to have. kh helps your water resist changes to the ph.

your tank is looking awesome,
and i love your gourami idea. I can't wait to see it!

 

[RadaR]

i've heard 40 ppm = overstocked tank.
with a planted tank, you shouldn't have nitrates that high..many people with planted tanks have very few nitrates.

Depends if they are keeping the tank properly. Plants need nitrates, therefore we dose nitrates. Ofcourse it depends on how much light you have and the plant biomass, but generally we aim to keep nitrates at 20ppm. Dosing 2x or 3x this amount though is not uncommon and does no harm.

40ppm is fine in my opinion. Some places in London will have this coming out of their tap.

 

[ShadowedSin]

Thanks Radar, I'm only asking, since it seems the tank is cycling faster than expected.

 

[ShadowedSin]

Ph: 6.8 - Same as Yesterday, within my needed average!
Ammonia: 0 ppm - Very good!
Nitrites: 1 ppm
Nitrates: 20ppm OUCH!

Seems the Nitrite spike has begun, this means that since the Ammonia is gone that that part of the bacteria has settled. THIS IS GOOD!