Today Is The Day

[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

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

Wahaha! Well they really like it moist in the wild so i guess as long as you have a good aeration system going guess it'll live long enough

Looking great though!

 

[Blubble37]

nah, i've had them before, they died, i figured it was something in the tank, never knew i'd flooded the poor things xD

taking them out and potting them up

 

[Tongue_Flicker]

Wahaha! There was another member here who had the same plants before so don't worry lol..

 

[Blubble37]

Quick update:

EXT pump pressure is good, flow is good, canister not leaking and media functioning normally with nothing slipping past
HOB pump pressure is good, flow is good, no leaks or overflows, media already picking up tiny bits of dust
 
 
Tank looks normal, no blooms of anything, crystal clear water, will probably be a little yellow by tomorrow due to wood temp stable at 26.5C, ammonia=trace nitrite=trace nitrate is 50ppm due to water change
 
Kuhli loaches doing their normal thing and hiding *sigh* more fish due to be added tomorrow
 
Outlook: Fantastic.
 
As for the isolation tank holding my little tetras, i added some gravel to one side to give them something to do, a bare tank must be boring right? not very much gravel, 5 mm thick ish, just enough to make the tank look less boring. Patients are getting their colour and form back, loosing their emaciation and not showing any signs of irritation from protozin. Filters 1&2 are running at nearly full flow, both are in good condition and are cycled, using chunks of media cut from my canister. Heater is functioning normally, tank temperature is a snug 26C.
 
I have an overwhelming sense of joy c:
 
 
To Kirky, whilst i am out tomorrow i'll get the biomax media and see if there's an LFS with the floss pads i need. Considering filling the outlet side of my HOB with biomax too
 
Tongueflicker, that's fair enough, i'm getting some more vallis while i'm out to fill in a gap at the back of the tank, and i'll look into some replacement ground plants for where the magic plantshrooms were living

 

[Blondielovesfish]

Looks good!
 
Sorry if you already mentioned it, but what size is the tank?
 
If you want you kuhlis to be more active and less shy, add lots of hiding places and get them a few more mates, at least 3, making their school a total of 7  
Coconut caves work really well!

 

[Blubble37]

95 litres of water in the tank, a litre in the HOB and 5 ish in the canister
 
they have a lot of hiding spaces, i've planted with them in mind, also, the wood has caves underneath it for them to hang out in

 

[Blubble37]

Update:
Day two, all pumps working normally, tank still at a stable 26.5. Kuhli's being a little more active and exploring their new home, did a 40% water change to reduce the tanin levels and to check the inside of the external can & the seals. Made a modification to the outlet and shortened the spraybar in half to get a better surface flow across the tank, also moved the spraybar to one end so the water flows over the whole surface, looking for a gang socket to plug a little powerhead into to get a decent flow over the heater. Water is clear of blooms, no unpleasant smells, noises or leaking anywhere. Looking good c:
 
Hospital tank is doing good, the medication seemed to strip the oxygen from the water as the fish were breathing heavily, in any case, an airstone and a pipe into the venturi on one of the filters later, they look happier, breathing normal and are eating well. Temp is at 26C
 
Water stats are
95L - Ammonia=trace Nitrite=trace Nitrate=40ish
Hospital 60L - Ammonia=trace Nitrite=trace Nitrate=80ish
 
will be doing a PWC on the hospital tank this evening
 
So far, so good!

 

[Blubble37]

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

 
I finished this today, took me a while to get the money and get to the shops

the living room got re-arranged making the filter closer to the tank, reducing pipe drag, getting a better water flow now than ever

the order of media currently stands as

TOP
Sliver of foam and a tray full of biomax
Floss, foam, foam
Foam, foam
Bioballs and leftover ceramic
BOTTOM
 
Achieving 640ish litres an hour, 660 with the floss removed, but i'll be keeping it in. Pretty happy with the current setup, the two blocks of foams remove literally everything but dust, which the floss gets instead.

Made alterations to the internal filter i'm using to provide even flow too, there's a big block of foam with a little flodd ontop, then a layer of aquarium gravel (as i had no ceramics small enough left this was the next biggest surface area), then some more foam to stop it being drawn into the powerhead
 
considering putting a net bag of gravel in the s20 too, maximise bio space where i can. suggestions on that?