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Post by billyk on Jul 17, 2016 8:00:08 GMT -5
Hey!
Welcome to my blog/journal. Here I will try to keep track of and recount my trials and triumphs as I begin my journey into some serious fish keeping. As you can see from my other tank blog, it started with some small tanks and evolved into the "Nano". Well, I now have the bug again and it is fairly serious. I don't have much of a plan in mind but some amorphous dream of many things. Right now I am working on a tank rack type of thing for the basement. It will reside just outside of my garden room. It will have a few 20gal and 10 gal tanks. I hope to use it for hospital, plant, shrimp, etc. etc. Then when I get the rest of the basement cleaned up ( as I have been promising for years) I would like a nice big tank, like say 125, 175 gal.
At any rate let's see where it all goes!!
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Post by billyk on Jul 17, 2016 8:25:51 GMT -5
7/17/16
To start I will list my fist tank in this "journey".
I started a 10 gal using the gravel, filter, and decorations from their old tank. There are three large zebra and one large albino cory. They lived in a 5 gal bucket for a few days. I was running a sponge filter in there. I used 5 gal of water to which I added prime, replenish, and stability. Then I added water from the bucket. After everything was matched temp wise and the test strips looking identical, I moved the fish and most of the rest of the water to the tank.
This morning things look pretty good if a bit cloudy. Test strip showed good numbers.
GH 140 or so, KH 30, pH 7.2, Nitrite 0, Nitrate 20. The ammonia test was through the roof so I naturally started to freak. Fortunately calmer heads prevailed and I remembered something about Prime and ammonia testing. False positive!! (I so hope!!!). Logic is something like this. Although it is new and I am unsure of where the cycle is I think it's OK based on the rest of the tests and observation. Nitrites are zero, nitrates are reasonable so some biological activity is present and functioning. After all I did use a lot of the previous tanks stuff so as to preserve the bio-goodies. Observation shows relatively calm fish with good color and no signs of heavy breathing and neither frantic or lethargic behaviour. I have 5 gal of water on standby all made up and at the right temp. I will do small changes throughout the next few days just to be sure.
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Post by billyk on Jul 18, 2016 5:01:13 GMT -5
7/18/16
Tank looks a bit clearer today. I think the bacterial bloom is dying down as the heterotrophic dye back and the nitor-crews grow. Test strip needs to be done yet today. Boy these are big fish! Not used to that, the zebra danios I remember were just an inch or two. These kids are large.
numbers looked good
GH-140
KH- 20
Nitrites 0
Nitrates 20
pH 6.8
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Post by billyk on Jul 20, 2016 4:54:14 GMT -5
7/20/16
Looking good in fish town.
Zebra tank got a water change. 2.5 gal. Looking good cloudy almost gone.
Numbers are still good and about the same.
Guppy tank the same a small WC, looking crystal clear. Added a bit of wonder shell. Numbers are great. GH still a bit high at 180+
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Post by Carl on Jul 21, 2016 16:54:36 GMT -5
7/20/16 Guppy tank the same a small WC, looking crystal clear. Added a bit of wonder shell. Numbers are great. GH still a bit high at 180+ I actually keep guppy tanks with a higher GH; usually 300+ Carl |
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Post by billyk on Jul 22, 2016 5:53:34 GMT -5
7/20/16 Guppy tank the same a small WC, looking crystal clear. Added a bit of wonder shell. Numbers are great. GH still a bit high at 180+ I actually keep guppy tanks with a higher GH; usually 300+ Carl Well I did not know that!! Something to add to my book of knowledge! Thank you. Also will try to boost it a bit. The wonder shell does fade fairly quickly. |
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Post by Carl on Jul 22, 2016 9:14:01 GMT -5
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Post by billyk on Aug 29, 2016 12:10:27 GMT -5
8/29
Here's a question for you experienced keepers. The sponge intake covers, how do you go about cleaning them? Or just replace them? I have noticed that once the clog they are hard to get back to original flow rates. Replacing is not to terribly expensive but it does seem wasteful. I love using them they really cut down on filter maint.
Thanks!
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Post by devonjohnsgard on Aug 29, 2016 14:33:00 GMT -5
8/29 Here's a question for you experienced keepers. The sponge intake covers, how do you go about cleaning them? Or just replace them? I have noticed that once the clog they are hard to get back to original flow rates. Replacing is not to terribly expensive but it does seem wasteful. I love using them they really cut down on filter maint. Thanks! During my water changes, I just pull water from the tank to a bucket. Take the sponge off and squeeze it then let it suck in water and do that like 10 times. My water will usually turn dark brown. The sponge does still have build up in it, so it does slow flow, but you want that good bacteria deep in the sponge. It doesn't slow the flow that much though. A sponge should last 1-3 years. |
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Post by billyk on Aug 31, 2016 8:30:28 GMT -5
Hey!
Thanks, That would work but changing the intake filter is quite disruptive in my small tank. The bio-filter action of the sponge is not that important as I have a huge bio-filter attached to the canister filter. It is there to keep the shrimp and others tiny critters out of the intake. It worked for a few weeks, then two weeks and now about 10 days is all I can get before it clogs. I think I will change the intake to one of those stainless mesh screen types. That will be easier to remove and clean and take up a LOT less of my small tank.
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