New Aquarium

[InbetweenDreams]

Well the plants aren't doing too well...and the big problem I have right now is this massive ammonia spike... 8 ppm which is insane. One of the neons show some signs of gill burn so I need to get it down to like less than 1 ppm if I can. So one of the things I read is that ammonia is less toxic at lower pH, mine is sitting at 6.6 after a 50% water change but the ammonia is still at 4 ppm, so in order to try to get it under control I'm going to do two 50% water changes each day until the ammonia is down to 1 ppm and hopefully the bacteria will grow. I still have no signs of any nitrite so not sure what the deal is exactly but I suspect that either the plants are taking up what, if any, nitrite there is or the Maracyn killed off any beneficial bacteria there was because there were visual indicators of that. I do have some stuff on the way to hopefully help with the beneficial bacteria stuff hopefully.

That being said, here's some more pictures....

   

   

So here's the 55 gallon tank. Came with a filter, hood and a 200 watt heater...on sale at Petsmart for $129. I just need to make sure it holds water. Now the problem with the table here is that the plywood isn't completely flat. Well, my dad has been helping me and unfortunately took off too much on the corners and the tank doesn't sit flat...which is bad. It was a fair attempt, just was a home made table that I thought I could repurpose and save some money on not buying a stand...but I'm buying a stand anyway. Going to pick that up tomorrow, just hope that works out. Reading the reviews makes me feel unsure what to do, but we'll see. After all we're talking about ~450 lbs of water, plus the tank and whatever gravel and stuff you put in, so definitely has to be strong and has to be level.

   

   

[Emiliano]

What are the fishes' names?

[InbetweenDreams]

@"Emiliano" I'm terrible with naming pets. Took me a while to come up with one for my cat. The neons all look alike though. Need to come up with one for the betta.

[Alakazam]

Name him Alpha

[InbetweenDreams]

Name him Alpha

I suppose that could work.

Well... One of the neon tetras doesn't look good, wasn't schooling with the rest and was swimming in the same spot in the tank and is much smaller than the others. I don't see any physical problems, no spots or anything that would seem out of the norm other than it's size and behavior. So I moved it to the other tank which is finally cycling... I don't think that fish will make it. Neon tetra also can get neon tetra disease which is a parasite and not much can be done about it and hope that's not what I'm dealing with because it can kill all the other fish...so keeping an eye on it but given some of the trouble I've had with ammonia and whatnot it is not that surprising...

The good news about the tank is that I'm finally seeing some nitrite and ammonia hasn't gone up anymore so hopefully the tank will cycle and can get the fish back in the 10 gallon... Since I won't be able to do much with the new tank for some time there's no since in running two tanks until then unless I need to quarantine them....

[Cridders88]

I absolutely love that Betta! I have 3 females myself in a community tank with peppered cory's, praecox rainbowfish, silvertip tetra's, black mollies and a BN Plec. Have you managed to get the Ammonia down to 0 now? I might have have missed something but are you doing a fish in cycle or was the tank already cycled? As for treatmsnt for bacterial infections I swear by Esha 2000 and Esha Exit, I have had no problems at all with that chemical and it always solves the issue pretty quick and has never risen the ammonia levels (8.0ppm is pretty lethal).

As for the plants I have gotten away without root tabs. I dose weekly with TNC complete fertiliser and the plants are doing really well.

Here is a fairly recent pic of my tank, it's a 200 litre:

   

And an earlier pic (sadly the male fighter is no longer with us):

   

And of course the pictures are sideways, sorry about that!

[InbetweenDreams]

@Cridders88 So here's how the 10 gallon went, which is really small and makes things go bonkers in a hurry....

I initially set the tank up at the beginning of September with only live plants. My mistake, unknowingly at the time, was not feeding the tank, so no food or ammonia was going in thus no cycle ever occurred. I added fish about 3 weeks ago maybe and then I started seeing the ammonia. Some of the neons did get ich and I finally got rid of that when I got Ich X, the Jungle Ich Guard did not work for me after 5 does. After I cured the ich I did a round of Maracyn...The Maracyn in my opinion killed the cycle because it is an antibiotic and I could visually see that the bacteria (in this case what is commonly thought of as brown algae) was dying off and that's when I started having bad ammonia problems.

I did start using API's Ammo Lock which is supposed to make the ammonia non-toxic to fish for 48 hours. Kind of a bad habit to get in and I did do water changes to keep it at a less lethal level. I had API's crappy test strips which are hard to read and inconsistent. I got a better picture when I got the master test kit in and could more accurately see what was going on. So I just got a 55 gallon (189L) tank and had it filled up with water and seeing the ammonia was really high I moved the fish in that for the time being. Right now the 10 gallon has about 2ppm of ammonia and now seeing some nitrite so it is finally starting to cycle. I don't think 6 neon tetras and a betta will cause a huge ammonia spike in that large of a tank but I am checking for that and I did condition the water so I should be good for now and since I ran into Bambi the other morning it will be a while before I can do much with the 55 gallon.

[Cridders88]

You mentioned Corydora's, they really are so rewarding, especially if kept in a larger group. Feeding time is very amusing. I have a group of ten peppered ones, here is a pic of some of them chilling

   

As for your tank, cycling is always a pitfall that I fell victim to aswell when I first set up around 15 years ago. To do it fishless you must add an ammonia source, even if it is liquid ammonia direcrly to the water. I didn't know this and added one of those bottled bacteria quick start things (I was young and naive and trusted bad advice) which half arsed the cycle and when I did add fish it was ammonia spike time. Frequent water changes are the only option in that case, a fish in cycle is hard work but it is doable. I have used ammo lock before too, and with the frequent water changes too I got by without any fish loss until the filter finally matured. Hang on in there, once everything is stable it is plain sailing then generally. I now do a 40% water change once a week, vacumming the gravel to remove the water, and keep on top of the filter maintenance and, touch wood, haven't seen any real problems with ammonia for a good few years now. Plants do really help with the building nitrates you get in more established tanks too. It is a rewarding hobby like you say, as long as you keep on top of things and do research on the fish you want . Just got to be prepared for deaths every now and again, tropical fish aren't as hardy as they used to be.

Edit: as for the testing kits I used to use API but found the nitrate readings off so I now use NT Labs, which test water hardness and carbonate hardness, another thing to bear in mind when selecting fish.

[InbetweenDreams]

Yeah I didn't really know. I kind of learned what I did wrong as I was doing it wrong. Like you said you either have to add ammonia or you throw fish food in it...All those products that claim to cycle your tank instantly is very misleading, the bacteria can help get it started say if there's ammonia already present but if you don't have a food source for the bacteria it is a waste....

I am planning on using Fluval Statum for substrate in the 55 gallon... The only problem is it buffers the pH down and some of the things I would like to have in the tank requires higher pH like snails and many species of shrimp (although some shrimp, like cherry shrimp like lower pH)...so while I could add crushed coral to raise the pH I feel like I'm just playing a tug of war. I did consider eco complete but there's a lot of mixed reviews about it. So I still need to hash that out...and I have plenty of time to figure out what all to get.

I do think I will most likely lose one of the neon's, something is definitely wrong but aside from being skinny and not really swimming around or responding to food I don't know what it is. I don't think it is neon tetra disease but it could be and if it dies definitely don't want it to be in the tank with the other fish. I am just wondering at what point something was wrong with the fish because I didn't notice it until I put all the fish into the 55 gallon and it was immediate. I'[m wondering if there was something wrong and didn't notice it since they were all in the small tank or if I've looked over something. Visually still has good color and all and none of the other fish appear to have any problems so I'm a bit lost... Going to post in the one of the groups I'm in and see what people have to say.

So I think the key thing for me is to keep the fish I have alive, I do think it will be easier in a larger tank especially being lower stock... As for the 10 gallon tank ultimately it will be used as a quarantine tank for a while and I would venture to say that the antibiotics will likely mean an ammonia spike. The catch 22 is when you medicate the tank with Maracyn you're not supposed to do water changes. Granted the treatment is only 5 days so hopefully is such a problem were to arise I can move those fish out of the 10 gallon and into the 55 and let the 10 gallon go back through cycling. Not sure, at any rate definitely want to avoid medicating a new tank as it definitely will stall the cycle as it appeared to do with mine.

The water hardness stuff.. Well turns out the Fluorite I used adds a lot of GH, not much KH as for about a month the GH was 120-150 and KH was none and I got into the line of thing I need that pH up to raise the pH...turns out I was probably reading the saltwater color bar and who knows what I was doing. The GH and KH is pretty low out of the tap. I measured about 54 on both with the API test kit (not strips). So perhaps crushed coral is a good idea or perhaps to mix it in with the substrate I want to use.

We do have a well and the pH is around 7-7.2, no nitrates or anything. I need to remeasure the GH/KH though, all the other water was out of the tank and I suppose the presence of fish, substrate, etc all can change that.

Anyway, I guess I better nail down what I'm going use in the 55 gallon, especially being that I want to do plants and possibly CO2.

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This was recommended on one of the Aquarium groups I'm in on facebook...

[Cridders88]

I find fishkeeping is a lot like that, lots of mistakes and quick lessons learned from them

As for the neon, it isn't the one that was showing ammonia burn is it? Is he gasping? I hope it isn't NTD but I reckon it may be that he just wasn't strong enough to survive the Ich and then the ammonia spike. Hoping he pulls through regardless.

The bigger tank will be easier for sure. Like you say it is a common misconception that larger tanks are more work, if anything the opposite is true, they are actually easier to stock correctly and keep the water stable. So yeah, I think you'll manage well with the 55 gallon.

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