Hello All!

Gooey

Hello all,

I'm really excited to finally get back into keeping fish. Its been a few years since i had to sell my old tank due to space restrictions but now I'm back.

I recently picked up an AquaOne 620T tank (not sure what the forum rules are regarding talking prices, but got it at an AMAZING price).

I love the height of this tank, giving 130l capacity in a small foot print and can't wait to see how it grows.


I hope my boss never finds out how much work time I spent looking for the right piece of wood for the tank. My kids couldn't understand how happy i was when i found it. It has deep cavities that form complete tunnels and is so striking IMO.


The tank has only been up a week but i think its shaping up nicely. I planted it out mid week with bunches of Ambulia and tied the Anubias to the Golden vine myself (first time I've attempted that.

Currently its stocked with a small 4cm Shubunkin to start the cycling. I have 2 larger 8-10cm comets in a pond i was also bring in to 1) finish cycling and 2) live while i replace the damaged pond liner.

Eventually i will convert it to being a tropical tank with lots of schooling tetra's etc. I haven't really decided on the tanks final inhabitants yet so any ideas will be appreciated.

Anyway let me know what you think.

Gooey

Heintz.G

Hi Gooey and welcome

I really like what you have done so far with your tank when the plants take hold it will look amazing.

Now to fish, if it was mine it would contain a small school of Cardinal Tetras (11) Rummy-nose Tetras (9) and an Albino Bristlenose, or you could substitute the Bristlenose with 3 Otocinclus Catfish.

I also like a good piece of gold vine.

Cheers.
Heintz.G

Frayk

Welcome Gooey, its obvious you are '"with it" when it comes to cycling, and a good looking tank aswell. What type of filtration are you running? Hard to tell from photo, my eyes are going even with glasses

Gooey

Hello Frayk,

The tank has a built in filter running through the lid. Charcoal filter, sponge and ceramic noodles. It's not quiet as effective as a canister filter but from talking to lots of fish shop people they say its still pretty good. If it doesn't work out quiet right I'll switch to a proper canister filter.

Time will tell.

Gooey.

Gooey

Thanks for the advice too Heintz.. I didn't realise i couldn't reply directly to your post.

That's sort of the type of fish I was thinking of.

Gooey

Heintz.G

I forgot to add, if you do get the Otocinclus make sure your tank is fully cycled they are a bit touchy when first added to a tank.

Frayk

Yeah right, cool. Id ditch the charcoal and replace it with some fine filter medium. Just my opinion, love the Anubius btw.

Gooey

The shop that sold me the tank told me to ditch the charcoal filter too... since that's an ongoing revenue stream makes me think they might be a good resource.

I'll get some more noodles to add to it shortly and i think and leave the thin sponge provided to collect the larger particles.

The Anubias has started to put on some growth already which is great. Not so sure about the Ambulia. Its not going brown or anything, just pessimistic that its firmly taking root.

The Shubunkin, now named Baldrick, is starting to have an effect on ammonia, now at .25ppm, just waiting on the nitrite/nitrate to appear.

Should I be concerned that some white patches are appearing on the Golden vine? It sorta looks like Ick, but there is nothing on the fish, and i wouldn't have thought Ick would appear on wood.

Gooey

Heintz.G

Gooey said:

Should I be concerned that some white patches are appearing on the Golden vine? It sorta looks like Ick, but there is nothing on the fish, and i wouldn't have thought Ick would appear on wood.

Gooey

Nothing to worry about it's only wood fungus, give it about 3 months and it should be gone, Gold vine is notorious for it. If it bothers you forget the Otto's and get the Bristlenose mine used love eating it.

Gooey

Thanks again..

Gooey

Getting great growth in the plants, this photo is less than a week than the last.



Would all that growth explain a Nitrate drop? 5ppm yesterday to probably about 2.5 today??

Gooey

Bob

Unless you added "mature" media to your filter you should not be seeing nitrate in your readings at this time. Filter needs exposure to ammonia initially, you then have colonies of nitrosomonas bacteria establishing on the media to break ammonite down into nitrItes. Both ammonia and nitItes are toxic to fish. After some exposure to nitrItes nitrobacter colonies become established breaking nitrItes down to nitrAtes which can be used by plants. Cycling a new tank generally takes around six weeks.

Gooey

Thanks Bob,

That was confusing me. I did some testing and i found my tap water has Nitrates in it naturally, so that explains its early presence.

Cheers,

Gooey

Heintz.G

Don't forget you're doing a fish in cycle not a fishless cycle, which will give you give you a nitrate reading as well.
On a side note how's the goldy doing in the tank.

Gooey

Goldy is fine. I brought two in from the pond and all three are good, lots of water changes to make sure of that.

Ammonia is staying manageable, not had a reading above 2ppm and the plants are soaking up the nitrate (Ambulia has grown a good 4-5 inches)

Still not getting nitrite though.

Cheers,
Gooey

Mooo

Welcome to the forum lovely bit of wood Don't worry we understand, It had to be just the right piece

Gooey

I haven't posted in here for a while so I thought I should give an update.

My tank has been fully up and running for about a 3 weeks now. Its stocked with 10 Neon Tetra's, 4 Bronze Cory's and 2 Honey Dwarf Gourami's.




I'll get the proper camera out soon and get some better pics.


It took 3-4 days for the Gourami's to overcome their shyness but they are now being more confident and exploring the tank. The Golden vine in the tank has lots of crevices and openings and you often see them swimming through it.

I bought the Bronze Cory's mainly as a clean up crew but they are honestly now my favorite things in the tank. They are so fun to watch. Always busy, always moving.

They have also been spawning.. lots.



I actually though it was the tetra's to begin with but then I saw one of the Cory's deposit eggs onto the front glass. I left them there initially as I knew they would soon get eaten and I didn't really want/need more fish in a new tank.

However I saw a Breeding net cheap at one of my LFS today and thought it would be interesting to try and get the eggs to hatch.

I'm not sure what I'll do with the fry if I'm successful. I'm developing a relationship with a new LFS where I bought all my stock and I might be able to trade them in for future credit but not sure about that just yet.

Also the Ambulia has been growing prolifically. I need to trim it at least once a week. If anyone locals wants/needs it I can supply (north east suburbs, Melbourne, Australia).

Anyway that's it for now.

Gooey

Bob

Good to see Gooey,

Wouldn't worry about the Cory eggs, they are pretty tough and you only have small fish in there anyway. If you haven't seen the eggs being eaten, and they have disappeared, check your filter after a few weeks to be sure you don't have fry trapped in there.

Do the small white lines on your glass move? If they do it is probably planaria which occur with overfeeding and not using a "gravel" siphon for removing waste. Keep an eye on the "Blackbeard" Alan which is starting to decorate the edges of your anubias as well.

Looking good, thanks for the pics and update.

Cheers,

Bob

Gooey

Thanks Bob,

The white streaks are just artifacts in the photo. I've had planaria before in tanks and haven't seen any sign of them in this tank. Gravel is being vacuumed with every water change.

I wasn't actually aware the blackbeard algae had a name, or just how pernicious it can be.

It appeared on the golden vine during cycling, when i did have very high nitrate readings. It covered all the vine and the leaves of the Anubias. I figured the Cory's would clean it up when i introduced them and for the most part they have.

They didn't touch the BBA on the Anubias leaves, instead i used a toothbrush.

What you see now if the end of the infestation (hopefully).

I've been reading up on it today and peroxide seems a reliable way to treat it. Any thoughts?

I was thinking I could remove the vine and Anubias from the tank and put them in a peroxide/water mix bath. I believe 3% is the recommended concentration. The trouble is I don't know how long they should be left in that, and if they could then be simply rinsed and put back or if they need to be quarantined?

Alternatively dosing the tank directly was suggested in some of my reading but I'd be nervous about that. Would it disrupt the nitrous cycling at all?

Thanks again,

Gooey

Bob

Hi Gooey,

Don't know how expensive hydrogen peroxide is, I imagine you would need a fair quantity to immerse your vine and anubias in a 3% mix. Not sure on duration of immersion either, have never done it.

If you loaded the peroxide into a syringe and squirted it onto the algae that should give you good control, immediate contact then dilution. Remembering that you are only using a small amount of H2O2 in H2O it is not going to impact much on your chemistry or cycle. I would turn off filtration for longer contact on the plant but only for a few minutes.

As I said have never tried it. There are some videos available on YouTube that are worth a look at as well.

Cheers,

Bob

Heintz.G

Here's an easy way that I swear by to keep BBA under control and a good one for Snails, any bleach or chlorine will do just make sure it's plain and has no additives.


Bleach (Chlorine) Dip

This is a more effective and sure-fire way to kill algae. It is also very easy to kill the plant in the process. Regular household bleach (i.e. Clorox) is diluted to a 5% (19 parts water to 1 part bleach) solution in a bucket. It's good to have a second bucket filled with rinse water containing 3X the normal dechlor. Dip large leaf plants for 3 minutes, immediately move to the dechlor rinse water, then rinse under running tap water for a few seconds, if you still smell chlorine, repeat the rinse process again. For small delicate leaf plants and mosses dip for only 2 minutes in the bleach. To be safe, add dechlor to the tank after adding the plants back. Also, if your dipping a lot of plants you may need to add more dechlor to your rinse water.

Remember, the bleach dip is a last resort solution. It can and may kill your plants! Use the same caution handling bleach as recommended for Potassium Permanganate.

Alum Dip (Pool Flock) for bloody Snails.

The Alum dip is more for killing microscopic bugs. Use at 1 tablespoon per gallon of water. Soak the plant for at least an hour, longer soaks of 2 to 3 days are needed to kill snails and snail eggs. For snails and snails eggs a 2-3 hour soak in a stronger solution of 3 tablespoons per gallon of water is a better choice. Alum isn't nearly as effective as the prior for killing algae.

Gooey

Thanks Heintz,
I actually pulled my driftwood out of the tank and wiped down the Anubis leaves with a cloth soaked in 3% Hydrogen Peroxide. A few of the leaves had some furry BBA on them and i just removed them. I used a blade to scrape away the few BBA patches on the wood and then wiped that surface down with the peroxide as well.

So far the tank looks clear of the stuff so hopefully it stays that way.

Thanks everyone for the advice.

Martin