The Beginning Of Something New (with Pictures)

[NeonWater]

Straight back into the hobby after I (for some reason) got rid of my old tank around 5 years ago, I recently brought a Fluval Roma 125L tank, i originally wanted something bigger but decided against it as I feel 125l's is enough for now

First adding the plant food which will go under the gravel. 1-2cm thick.

Then adding the washed gravel 2-3cm thick.

Fill her up!! With Dechlorinated water.

The stage im at so far 18/10/09

So what do you think so far? Everything going great?

Water is still very cloudy at the moment. Just orderd a bunch of plants and soon a test kit. Borrowed a friend’s filter media to speed up the cycling process Hopefully after the water has settled and I’ve added plants it should be looking nice.


A few questions

Can i upgrade the lighting in the Roma 125L so that the plants will have a better shot at life? ( I shall be using a DIY C02 kit allso)

I want to get rid of the Fluval 3 filter and replace with a Fluval 205 external, Good idea or not??

How would I go about switching filters would I put the media from this one into the new filter?


Many thanks!

 

[waterdrop]

Nice looking tank!

Have you found your ammonia yet?

~~waterdrop~~

 

[NeonWater]

Nice looking tank!

Have you found your ammonia yet?

~~waterdrop~~

Hi thanks for the quick reply, im yet to get a test kit but will be very soon So i wouldnt be able to tell you what it currently is hehe

thanks

 

[waterdrop]

No, I meant the ammonia you need to use to grow the Nitrosomonas and Nitrospira bacteria in the filter media to create a biofilter. It takes a couple of months of work before a filter is functional and ready for fish.

Have a look in our Beginners Resource Center at the 3 articles: The Nitrogen Cycle, The Fishless Cycle and the Fish-In Cycling Situation. The liquid-reagent base test kit is just what you use to run the tests to see the extent to which the bacteria are eating the ammonia you are feeding them. Once they can eat a relatively large amount of ammonia in a relatively short number of hours, you know they are ready to handle the first stocking of fish!

A working biofilter is probably the single most core aspect of the hobby and our beginners section members are really good at helping get this all going right usually. During the process, while you are waiting, its a great time to also tackle the long process of creating a good stocking plan.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[drobbyb]

It's funny, keeping fish isn't about fish after all. It's about bacteria.

 

[JenCliBee]

Looking good so far

Gonna sound like a really daft question now lol, but the radiator behind the tank, do you have it on alot?, just curious as it may cause some big water fluctuations which is never a good thing long term

 

[NeonWater]

Looking good so far

Gonna sound like a really daft question now lol, but the radiator behind the tank, do you have it on alot?, just curious as it may cause some big water fluctuations which is never a good thing long term

Nope its never on, hehe the room its quite warm most of the time from the computer and the boiler which is nearby, I did think about that though and its about 4 inches away from the rad but in the pictures it looks like its placed straight up against it, its off anyway so no need to worry about that. I’m getting a digital thermometer to keep a close eye on that though thanks for the comment

No, I meant the ammonia you need to use to grow the Nitrosomonas and Nitrospira bacteria in the filter media to create a biofilter. It takes a couple of months of work before a filter is functional and ready for fish.

Have a look in our Beginners Resource Center at the 3 articles: The Nitrogen Cycle, The Fishless Cycle and the Fish-In Cycling Situation. The liquid-reagent base test kit is just what you use to run the tests to see the extent to which the bacteria are eating the ammonia you are feeding them. Once they can eat a relatively large amount of ammonia in a relatively short number of hours, you know they are ready to handle the first stocking of fish!

A working biofilter is probably the single most core aspect of the hobby and our beginners section members are really good at helping get this all going right usually. During the process, while you are waiting, its a great time to also tackle the long process of creating a good stocking plan.

~~waterdrop~~

I have a friend’s filter media inside of my filter this should speed the process up allot. I’ve read through the articles already he he well ahead of you there water drop ill read through them again tho

Thankyou

 

[waterdrop]

That's very good! Mature media definately is one of the few things that can speed up a fishless cycle, but are you feeding the bacteria? Usually its better to already have 5ppm of ammonia flowing around in there before the mature media go in, so that they won't die off. Also, you'll want your temp to be up at say 84F/29C.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[NeonWater]

I wish my API master kit would hurry up haha then I can get to checking Ive added a pinch of flake food when I started her up earlier today too give it a boost, just upped the temp from 27 to 29 thanks!!

 

[waterdrop]

The pinch of fishfood will not hurt but it may not be fast enough acting to really keep the bacteria alive. What happens is that the food is composed of larger, complex organic molecules and it is slowly decomposed by a different class of bacteria known as "heterotrophic" bacteria (heterotrophic meaning they eat other forms of organic life as opposed to autotrophs, who don't, who eat inorganic materials.) These heterotrophic species, which exist throughout all fresh water, will break down the organic molecules and ammonia (NH3) will be one of the resulting small molecules.

Waiting for these heterotrophs to "do their thing" gives you far less speed and control than simply dosing pure NH3 directly into the water for your autotrophs (the two beneficial bacterial species I mentioned earlier that live in our filters.) This is why we aquarists are always heading out to the hardware store on our personal search for the right type of pure simple household ammonia. Its a bit of an adventure finding the right stuff so we all like to tell each other stories of where we found it. Sometimes people even take pictures of the bottles to help each other find it faster next time, lol.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Dogson]

I rate the Fluval 3 filter. I have one in my roma 125. with a UV plant light and daylight bulbs! I also use a DIY co2 kit and its great! I think i'm more obsessed now by planting than fish stocking! LOL

 

[NeonWater]

I rate the Fluval 3 filter. I have one in my roma 125. with a UV plant light and daylight bulbs! I also use a DIY co2 kit and its great! I think i'm more obsessed now by planting than fish stocking! LOL

I allso like the filter but im looking to get a better external to save space and better filtration overall as im soon to be planting the filter is going to have alot to do, hehe

 

[craig855s]

you need to feed the bacteria in your filter or they will just die off,use liquid ammonia OR add a couple of fish ASAP

 

[K-Holed]

Yeah. I'd second that. Get everything up and running and settled, then get the mature media to swap out just before you add a couple of fish. The mature media should house enough bacteria to cope with the bioload of the initial residents. You can then slowly increase you stocking. As long as there's nothing in your tank providing ammonia, your filter will be dying relativly quickly (Well the bacteria in it! ).

 

[NeonWater]

Thanks for the advice guys!!! Means allot thankyou

Added some plants today! Shall be testing water later!!