Author Topic: Intro and my fishy project - Cora (Read 39170 times) 306 replies

Fiona · « **Reply #240 on:** June 13, 2016, 12:21:42 PM »

azalea roots I have that in a couple of my tanks too. I know boiling or scalding wood speeds up the breakdown of the fibres but it also seems to speed up the rate at which it absorbs water. It goes a lovely chestnut red colour when its soaked

Cora · « **Reply #241 on:** June 13, 2016, 02:53:11 PM »

Sounds great! Can't wait to set it up.

Speaking of which, update:

ammonia: 0
nitrite: 0.5
nitrate 30-40

Now I need to add the full dose and see if it clears in 24 hours.

Cora · « **Reply #242 on:** June 14, 2016, 07:46:56 PM »

Update:

Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: >=40

You know what that means

Sue · « **Reply #243 on:** June 14, 2016, 07:51:31 PM »

Paddyc · « **Reply #244 on:** June 14, 2016, 07:58:31 PM »

Woop woop! Time for fishies!!

fcmf · « **Reply #245 on:** June 14, 2016, 08:02:42 PM »

Exciting stuff! Congrats!

Cora · « **Reply #246 on:** June 14, 2016, 08:31:58 PM »

Cheers guys and girls

Now, a sensible approach would be to wait until tomorrow before doing anything with the tank...

Littlefish · « **Reply #247 on:** June 14, 2016, 08:44:17 PM »

Wednesday is now officially fish day.......hooray!

ColinB · « **Reply #248 on:** June 15, 2016, 07:23:08 AM »

Quote from: Cora on June 14, 2016, 08:31:58 PM

Cheers guys and girls Now, a sensible approach would be to wait until tomorrow before doing anything with the tank...

OK.... we've had 7 hours and 20 minutes of Wednesday...... what fish have you got?

Littlefish · « **Reply #249 on:** June 15, 2016, 10:53:52 AM »

Now we've had nearly 11 hours of Wednesday.

apache6467 · « **Reply #250 on:** June 15, 2016, 01:49:18 PM »

Panda corys are lovely little fish and are best in a 5+ group. my 5 recently spawned in a PVC tube but only 3 eggs remains (the rest fungus-ed

) i hope your pandas will be as entertaining as mine!

Cora · « **Reply #251 on:** June 15, 2016, 02:45:59 PM »

Every day is like fishy day! (with apologies to Morrisey)

Ok, so last night the tank was drained, glass cleaned and some snails removed (thank you very much, Pets at Home).

Hose filled tank + 2 capfuls of Seachem Prime (not taking any risks with chlorine).

Aquascaping redone - some plants thrown out - most replanted in new areas. Lots of dead leaves and rubbish to net out, but the water was settled quite quickly!

The tank this morning looks so good. The water looks crystal clear and the the mix of wood and leaves, with stones around the base gives a very natural, freshwater stream look. Unfortunately I always have problems linking to image files here, but I'll do so later so you can see the tank.

I will do a set of readings later in order to have a baseline, then add the fish I already have.

Current fish are:
3 scissortails
6 penguin tetras

New fishies arriving in 1-3 days! See my signature for my wishlist. The ones confirmed are Bolivian Rams and Dwarf Rainbowfish. Panda cories are also a cert!

apache6467 · « **Reply #252 on:** June 15, 2016, 05:34:11 PM »

Yay! Pandas go ballistic for frozen bloodworm

Littlefish · « **Reply #253 on:** June 15, 2016, 05:59:14 PM »

I am very fond of my panda cory, who have been a delightful addition to the plakat betta tank. Quite a lot of character for their size.
I've got some penguin tetra as well, and I'm really glad I got them, rather than increasing my number of glass bloodfins in that tank, which was my other option. I like the way they move, and they mix well with the bloodfins and silver hatchets.

Keep us updated with lots of photos as your fish arrive.

Cora · « **Reply #254 on:** June 16, 2016, 09:20:45 AM »

Update:

the tank looks amazing and the fish look so happy.

They didn't at first though; yesterday I had the CO2 on all day, which was a misjudgement. I measured the pH of the water in the new tank and it was 6.1. This was with a digital pH reading and I'm not convinced it's calibrated correctly. I tested using pH solution and got a reading of 6.4. Low, but acceptable for my fish. I had already turned the CO2 and was going to wait for the pH to rise slightly. But I tested the pH on my 70L and got a reading of 3.3!!

This was obviously rubbish as I thought the fish would be dead in that. So I tested using pH solution and got a reading of <=6. Obviously worse than the new tank, so I moved them right away.

Coming up later, fishy "first reactions" to the new tank including troubling behaviour!

Stay tuned.

ColinB · « **Reply #255 on:** June 16, 2016, 10:03:54 AM »

Quote from: Cora on June 16, 2016, 09:20:45 AM

Update:

the tank looks amazing and the fish look so happy.

They didn't at first though; yesterday I had the CO2 on all day, which was a misjudgement. I measured the pH of the water in the new tank and it was 6.1. This was with a digital pH reading and I'm not convinced it's calibrated correctly. I tested using pH solution and got a reading of 6.4. Low, but acceptable for my fish. I had already turned the CO2 and was going to wait for the pH to rise slightly. But I tested the pH on my 70L and got a reading of 3.3!!

This was obviously rubbish as I thought the fish would be dead in that. So I tested using pH solution and got a reading of <=6. Obviously worse than the new tank, so I moved them right away.

Coming up later, fishy "first reactions" to the new tank including troubling behaviour!

Stay tuned.

Excellent news.

However:

Cora · « **Reply #256 on:** June 16, 2016, 01:30:18 PM »

Colin,

Soon!!

Ok, so I put the fish into the new tank. There was some immediate frantic swimming as they explored their new home and no doubt felt a bit scared.

However, they all started breathing at the surface. Never a good sign. There's no doubt in my mind the partial pressure of O2 in the water was dangerously low, so I added an airstone. This worked. After 15-20 mins the fish started swimming normally in the middle of the tank.

The Penguins are actually shoaling now, and the Scissortails can stretch their fins and swim for a while without encountering glass. One of the Cardinals was worrying me, gasping at the surface for some time whilst his friend was perfectly happy to explore the tank.

I turned the airstone off this morning before leaving for work.

And so it's finally done. The tank is up and running!

I noticed that the fins on my penguins are not in great condition. It wasn't visible in the old tank, but now I can clearly see that they aren't in great condition. Who knows what the problem was in that hell-hole, but they have a brand new tank with fresh clean water, a cycled filter, and purigen. My only concern is the pH, but at least I have soft water acid-preferring fish!

Now that I think of it, perhaps a pH crash killed the mollies??

I can't wait to upload pics but it will have to wait until this evening. However, I've updated the photo album which can be seen here: https://goo.gl/photos/ZLx8Za9jsMGSnhJ78

ColinB · « **Reply #257 on:** June 16, 2016, 02:07:37 PM »

Great piccies - thanks.

Littlefish · « **Reply #258 on:** June 16, 2016, 10:19:10 PM »

Hooray, photos.
The tank is looking great.
Well done.

fcmf · « **Reply #259 on:** June 16, 2016, 10:28:24 PM »

Great; thanks for the update. How are the fish this evening? (They look good in the pics.) Hope all's going swimmingly now.

I enjoyed the pics, the stage-by-stage pictorial update and the fish in their new home.

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Intro And My Fishy Project - Cora

Intro And My Fishy Project - Cora

Author Topic: Intro and my fishy project - Cora (Read 39170 times) 306 replies

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