Author Topic: IT'S DONE YAY (Read 14604 times) 105 replies

Matt · « **Reply #20 on:** September 28, 2017, 09:16:24 PM »

How are your plants/filter flow/water cloudiness @Aquarius Barbara ?

Aquarius Barbara · « **Reply #21 on:** September 28, 2017, 11:50:12 PM »

Unfortunately, it was a big fail, I don't know what I did wrong as all tests were good. Then had a very very bad week with a poorly family member might get worse

. So it's all on hold again until the weekend.

But water clear snails still alive plants not too sure seem to be coming to bits. I will be back at the weekend as long as things do not get worse. Bx

Matt · « **Reply #22 on:** September 29, 2017, 06:17:57 AM »

Sorry to hear about this, all the best to you and your family.

Sue · « **Reply #23 on:** September 29, 2017, 10:11:54 AM »

The family is more important than starting a tank, that can wait.

Littlefish · « **Reply #24 on:** September 29, 2017, 04:28:14 PM »

My thoughts are with you and your family.
Take care.

Aquarius Barbara · « **Reply #25 on:** October 03, 2017, 11:41:12 AM »

Hi, All Thank you for your thoughts, She is still hanging on but still not good, I have an afternoon off so going to pick up some new plants, do a 90% water change (so the snails survive) take out all the dead plants and replant.
I have had the tank running all this time but the Ammonia level is far too high all others are ok. So hoping it will work out better this time.

Quick question before I go out. Plants can survive without using plant substrate I have just sand and gravel. but did put some fertilizer in. ?

Sue · « **Reply #26 on:** October 03, 2017, 01:32:07 PM »

I'm sorry to hear your relative is so poorly.

Plants that are rooted in the substrate need root tablets. Some are better than others. For example, the API ones are notorious for disintegrating and making a mess of the water. If you can find them, Seachem root tabs seem to be one of the best.
If you have any plants like java fern or anubias, they can't be planted in the substrate so root tabs are no use. these need a liquid fertiliser that is added to the water. Seachem Flourish, with nothing else in the name, is one of the best as it contains virtually all the trace elements.

Aquarium plants like garden plants need both micro elements (trace minerals) and macro elements, the NPK that garden fertilisers talk about. Once there are fish in the tank the nitrogen of NPK comes from the ammonia made by made by the fish, and phosphorus and potassium are in fish food. As the moment you have no fish, so adding trace elements won't help. Until you start cycling properly it may help the plants if you add a bit of fish food - this will need to be removed when it goes mouldy, and it will probably increase the ammonia reading as well.

Aquarius Barbara · « **Reply #27 on:** October 04, 2017, 07:17:27 PM »

I tested the water that was in the tank before I started the change,
PH: 7.4
Ammonia: 8.0
Nitrate: 5.00
Nitrite 0.50

Took out all but a few centimeters of water, all the plants as they were just mush, cleaned the filter in the old water, (a bit to much dead plant matter clogging it up). Replaced the water adding 1ml de-chlorinator per 4.5L I did not put anymore bi-carb in, replanted new plants. tested water

PH 7.4
Ammonia: 2.oo
Nitrate: 4.00
Nitrite: 0

Switched everything back on and tested after 30mins.
PH: 7.4
Ammonia: 2.00
Nitrate: 4.00
Nitrite: 0

Do I add more ammonia or leave it for a few days and see how it goes. Bx

Sue · « **Reply #28 on:** October 04, 2017, 07:24:06 PM »

Don't add any more ammonia if you have put new plants in. A lot of plant species don't like ammonia in their water. 2 ppm is fine for cycling, just start testing every third day till it drops below 0.5 ppm and nitrite is around the 2.0 level (I've said 0.5 ppm ammonia rather than 0.75 as in the how to article because you are starting with 2 ppm rather than 3 ppm)

Aquarius Barbara · « **Reply #29 on:** October 04, 2017, 07:27:15 PM »

what about my nitrate level should this be lower?

Sue · « **Reply #30 on:** October 04, 2017, 07:32:39 PM »

What is your tap water nitrate? That's the lowest a tank can be unless there are a lot of plants. Since you've just removed some dead ones, they won't have affected the nitrate (if any) that came with the tap water you originally put in.

Aquarius Barbara · « **Reply #31 on:** October 04, 2017, 09:21:48 PM »

I tested my water about 3 days ago and it read. Ph 7.0, Nitrate, 0, ammonia. 0.25, Nitrite 0.

The Only things I added to the water today were 1ml de-chlorinator per 4.5L then tested the water I have since put 10ml plant fertilizer into the tank. It was getting a bit dark when I tested it today, it looks like I have a full day at home tomorrow so will be able to do a good test in daylight.

The plants I have put in are, Cabomba, Ludwigia Repens, Cryptocoryne Parva. (no snails this time) LOL.

Sue · « **Reply #32 on:** October 04, 2017, 10:00:59 PM »

Depending on the fertiliser, that could contain nitrate. Have a look on the label.

Aquarius Barbara · « **Reply #33 on:** October 04, 2017, 10:08:08 PM »

ok, I will have a look thanks, (Love Fish Plant Food is nitrate and phosphate free). I have been looking at the fish to stock, the community this say this would be ok. 3 Cherry Barbs, Ember tetras 4 white cloud mountain minnow.
As I have a small tank it won't take much more than this will stock at 72%. I was hoping to have one or two showy fish but can't find any for a small tank.

fcmf · « **Reply #34 on:** October 05, 2017, 08:05:17 AM »

If your Aqua Nano is 40cm x 40cm x 40cm, then you might find the smaller species such as ember tetra best out of what you mention. Cross-check against seriouslyfish.com as it also advocates more detail on what the individual species require including minimum tank size dimensions, minimum shoal numbers, etc. However, with any of the ones you suggest, they're best kept in shoals and thus larger numbers than what you mention. If ember tetra were do-able, then keeping to the one species would create a very impressive display in the tank as they'd all show more natural behaviour by being kept in good sized numbers.

Hoping family situation is a little more settled - thoughts with you.

Sue · « **Reply #35 on:** October 05, 2017, 10:27:08 AM »

I would not keep white clouds with the other two species as they need a different temperature - white clouds are temperate fish while cherry barbs and ember tetras are tropical. And both white clouds and cherry barbs need a 60 cm long tank for the swimming length.
I know that the profiles on here say 30 cm is the minimum length for both cherry barbs and white clouds but to be honest they are quite out of date. I joined the forum in 2006 (on the previous host) and they had been written before that. I agree with fcmf that Seriously Fish is a much better source of up-to-date information.

A good sized group of ember tetras would be fine. If you could find any, green/false neons tetras would be OK. They go well with ember tetras - I used to have them both. They have less red and more blue than standard neons. The way to tell the difference in shop tanks is that the blue stripe goes all the way to the tail while the stripe stops short of the tail with neons and cardinals. These do need a mature tank though so they should be added after the tank has been running a few months. They aren't in the fish profiles so I used neons instead in the community creator but put 4 neons for 6 green neons as they are smaller.

I have also read something interesting by a fish expert. With these small fish, they need to be in bigger groups than just 6. They get more stressed by small numbers than bigger fish. But these bigger shoals have less impact on the tank than the minimum number because of the stress chemicals released when there aren't enough of them.

Aquarius Barbara · « **Reply #36 on:** October 05, 2017, 02:16:48 PM »

Been having a look but it is a bit tiring having to reload my tank dimensions all the time, also I have a poorly are (having an op next week) so cant do much browsing as it starts to hurt more. I like the idea of possibly having just Emba tetras and maybe a specimen fish might have a look at the specimen fish to see if there is anything suitable for my tank.

Sue · « **Reply #37 on:** October 05, 2017, 02:46:43 PM »

When you say reloading your tank dimensions, do you mean in the community creator? If that is what you mean, you can save the tank. You do have to register separately from the forum (I use the same password to make it easier to remember

) and log in to the CC each time, but it does save having to enter everything every time.

In a 40 cm cube, how about honey gouramis? These gouramis can be kept as a male/female pair.

Aquarius Barbara · « **Reply #38 on:** October 05, 2017, 02:50:05 PM »

It was on Seriously Fish but I have come off, for now, I must admit I have not worked out how the community thing works as when I try to log in it always comes up as an error and that they have sent me an email which I never get.

Sue · « **Reply #39 on:** October 05, 2017, 03:14:41 PM »

With the CC log in, the email thing is broken so you have to contact the site owner Robert. Hover over the word members (in the list under your user name at the top of the page), click on view members, then sort by position. Robert will be at the top, click on his email symbol. Just explain the problem and he'll sort it out.

IT'S DONE YAY

IT'S DONE YAY

Author Topic: IT'S DONE YAY (Read 14604 times) 105 replies

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