Today Is The Day

[Blubble37]

with all hopes, today is the day my little darlings are released into their new tank, filters are set to change tanks, new tank's at a cosy 26.5, the exact temperature of the other tank, PH of 7ish, no ammonia, no nitrite, 40ppm of nitrate
 
Pictures soon c:
 
Merry (belated) christmas to my little fishies

 

[Ch4rlie]

Sounds good!
 
Maybe a pic or two of your new fishes swimming in their new home might bring some Christmas cheer! 

 

[Blubble37]

Sounds good!
 
Maybe a pic or two of your new fishes swimming in their new home might bring some Christmas cheer! 

indeed c: i will once they're in, i'm keeping a few behind in an isolation tank as they're reaching their natural end, but i want to be completely sure nothing horrible gets into my new set-up

so, it's 4 kuhli loaches and 7 shrimp, then tomorrow i'm off out to get some new stock, thinking of 6 rummynose tetras and a BN plec to start with, wait a couple of weeks, then guppies&platy's (2female, 1 male of each)which will give me a total stock of 17, none of them are tremendously big fish, most are quite little (with the exception of the plec). I have more than adequate filtration to deal with the waste that they produce. I'm thnking of going to 23 fish in total, which would be 4 Kuhli's, 6 rummynose tetras, the guppies&platy's and i'm also looking into 6 little corydoras hastatus, which i have kept before with much success, and even breeding them

if you're wondering about filtration, the tank will have a TetraTec EX700. The bottom tray has been packed with ceramics, and then the standard sponge ontop, the next tray up is the bio-ball thingies, which are surrounded in little slivers of foam media and a few more little ceramics (namely fluval's biomax from the U series filters). Atop that rests my first bulk filter, double foams, and atop that rests another double foam unit, the extra foam goes where the floss and carbon would usually sit.
 
Instead of having the floss and carbon in the external, i have a marina Slim s20 that came with the tank, that i'll be using, you guessed it, floss and carbon cartridges. This HOB marina is intended as more of a fine debris remover than a biological filter, but i would imagine is would serve both.
 
I'm looking into a 2.3l All Pond Solutions Inline canister, it says to put it on the nlet, but i'm thinking more of the oyutlet and having it full of more ceramics tbh.

Anyway, off to take pictures, back in a tad
 
Rob
 
EDIT: Forgot to mention, the fluval biomax isnt in yet, havent gone to the shops, but what you see above is how it will be by new year's eve

 

[Blubble37]

 
The EX-700
 

 
Opened up
 

 
There's the current selection of ceramics, and my sock .-.
 

 
Refilled and ready to go again
 

 
And the tank as it stands currently, with the inlet&outlet pipes already put in. Literally will be plug and play for the changeover

 

[Tongue_Flicker]

Your plant seller scammed you hahaha. Plant with the red and white nettings on the leaves are called Fittonia albivenis and F.verschaffeltii.. Both are tropical land houseplants from the jungle floors of Peru.. It is used as a hallucinogenic by some indigenous tribes there.

Commonly and erroneously sold as an aquatic plants along with another land plant of the genus Pilea

 

[Blubble37]

Your plant seller scammed you hahaha. Plant with the red and white nettings on the leaves are called Fittonia albivenis and F.verschaffeltii.. Both are tropical land houseplants from the jungle floors of Peru.. It is used as a hallucinogenic by some indigenous tribes there.

Commonly and erroneously sold as an aquatic plants along with another land plant of the genus Pilea

oh bother xD

well, i'll be seeing unicorns tonight..

i wondered why they were potted in soil aha, i had my doubts but they re-assured me they were aquatic

 

[Blubble37]

UPDATE: after a 50% Water change and a surface skim to get rid of any gravel dust and refresh the water, i confirm the fish will be added within the day

 

[Blubble37]

FURTHER UPDATE:
 
External can plumbed in, running fine, gonna leave everything to settle down for an hour, then it's time to move the little wigglies

 

[Ch4rlie]

Looking good, am afraid Tongue Flicker is correct in some of these plants are non aquatic! I fell into this trap too when first set up my first tank!
Re-potted them, all growing fine!!
 
Oh well, these things happen just gotta remember next time when you buy plants to make sure.
 
Tetra Tec Ex 700, a decent filter, I have a TT EX 1200 

 
Cant wait to see when your new stocking goes in! 

 

[KirkyArcher]

I would urge you to reconsider your filter media arrangement, despite what the instruction manual is telling you, water flow with the Tetra Tec Ex700 like so many externals the water flow enters at the top and straight down to the bottom of the canister it's then drawn back up and through the media baskets. To get the best possible biological action and longevity from you ceramic media you need to have clean water flowing over it, I'd recommend putting the plastic Bio balls in the bottom tray for water disruption and heavy solid matter settlement, with foams/floss in the next tray and the remaining two trays filled with highly porous rough surfaced ceramic bio media and optionally topped with a final filter floss pad

 

[Blubble37]

Looking good, am afraid Tongue Flicker is correct in some of these plants are non aquatic! I fell into this trap too when first set up my first tank!
Re-potted them, all growing fine!!
 
Oh well, these things happen just gotta remember next time when you buy plants to make sure.
 
Tetra Tec Ex 700, a decent filter, I have a TT EX 1200 

 
Cant wait to see when your new stocking goes in! 

They're in and it's all running normally, finishing off work upstairs on setting up an iso tank and work RE the quote below
 

I would urge you to reconsider your filter media arrangement, despite what the instruction manual is telling you, water flow with the Tetra Tec Ex700 like so many externals the water flow enters at the top and straight down to the bottom of the canister it's then drawn back up and through the media baskets. To get the best possible biological action and longevity from you ceramic media you need to have clean water flowing over it, I'd recommend putting the plastic Bio balls in the bottom tray for water disruption and heavy solid matter settlement, with foams/floss in the next tray and the remaining two trays filled with highly porous rough surfaced ceramic bio media and optionally topped with a final filter floss pad

This is being put in place as best i can as soon as i hit the post button. Many thanks, that makes a lot more sense..
 
Would Bio Balls, foam, floss, ceramic comply with that?

 

[KirkyArcher]

Would Bio Balls, foam, floss, ceramic comply with that?

If that's the order of placement from bottom to top, yes

I Noticed that your ceramic noodles look very smooth from looking at the 3rd photo, this type of media is quite inadequate and will probably get more bio action via bacteria in the sponges (too many sponges will reduce flow rates quite significantly over that of using ceramic media), the Fluval biomax you intend to get is a much better option (though better stuff in my opinion is available http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?/topic/428001-biohome-mini-ultra-a-mini-review/ ) when you get your new ceramic media mix the old alongside the new rather than keeping them in separate trays

 

[Blubble37]

 
I Noticed that your ceramic noodles look very smooth from looking at the 3rd photo, this type of media is quite inadequate and will probably get more bio action via bacteria in the sponges (too many sponges will reduce flow rates quite significantly over that of using ceramic media), the Fluval biomax you intend to get is a much better option (though better stuff in my opinion is available http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?/topic/428001-biohome-mini-ultra-a-mini-review/ ) when you get your new ceramic media mix the old alongside the new rather than keeping them in separate trays

 

They are indeed smoothish, i roughed them with sandpaper, i intended on replacing them however i ran out of budget and became pre-occupied, they do their job fine for the time being however, i'm going to the LFS soon, so i'll be picking some biomax up, probably three or four boxes as i have a U series to fill aswell. While i'm there i'll get a fine pad or two also.
 
i'm off to go play with the tetratec, thankyou for the advice

 

[KirkyArcher]

welcome

 

[Blubble37]

right that's changed around, currently, and until i get to the shop, the order in the filter stands as
 
Bioballs, foam, foam, foam&ceramic
 
i'll probably change that to
 
Bioballs foam, foam&floss, foam&ceramic
 
and see how it goes.
 
I've got an iso tank set up in my room too atm because of an illness amongst the tetra's, shame i cant external that tank, but i'd have nowhere to put the filter, so it's running on two internals with a combined output of 500L/h