Hello everyone

[Skyfish]

Just joined today, so I thought I'd say hi.

I have returned to the hobby after a 10 year break. But this is my first proper planted tank ever, I have been running it for about a month now, basic freshwater fishes and lots of plants, a learning ground before I start a bigger tank. I presently have a 24 gallon tank with DIY CO2.

I have a canister filter running, I was told by a friend that I should take out the "active carbon" as it eats up most of the nutrients. Is this correct?

My parameters are GH 9, KH 6, PH 6.8 NO2 0.5. Should I lower my KH a degree or 2?

I am still working on new plants and will do photos soon.

 

[westward13]

Welcome to AA!!! I'm relatively new myself so I don't have any advice regarding water hardness or anything having to do with planted tanks but I figured I'd say welcome just the same.

 

[Bearfan]

WELCOME TO AA.COM
The choice of a Newbie
Generation

Activated carbon is only active as a water polisher for about 2 days. I leave it in to polish the water.

 

[Menagerie]

[center:5b7175c1fa] Welcome to AA, Skyfish! [/center:5b7175c1fa]
If the fish are fine, leave the hardness alone. I don't use carbon in any of my six tanks

 

[Skyfish]

Hola!!! what a nice welcome, where are the drinks????

I just spent 2 hours pruning And re-planting and the water is a mess!! But I made some space for some new mid-ground plants that are coming in on Thursday.

The fishes are happy the plants are happy so I'll leave things as they are.

As usual, another question. I have 18w x 3 Sera plant Care bulbs, my tank is 24G. Based on the rule of thumb, I want to use 3 wpg, so I only have 54w right now. i went to the light store earlier and say a 32w 6,500K Daylight bulb, this is one of those small ones that curve after about 6 inches. I only have space for one of these, and this will give me a total of 86 watts. Which will be just fine with CO2. Is this bulb ok? says daylight and is 6,500K. The Sera ones I have now are only 4,900K. I am thinking of adding it. My tank is planted well but in the mornings the fishes are at the top gasping a little. My fish load is ok, about 18 fishes. So problem maybe that I don't have enough plants still to consume the CO2. Any ideas?

<---- P.sa. when will my yellow fishes light up under my name???

 

[Menagerie]

This link will explain how many posts per fish.
Since you have lots of planted tank Qs, I am going to move this thread to the Planted Tank forum.

 

[TankGirl]

6500K is perfect. And your KH is very good in the presence of CO2, because it will help keep your pH stable, following the drop that CO2 will cause. Definitely keep an eye on pH and KH when running CO2.

Welcome to AA, all the way from Dubai! I want to say we have another member there, but I can't remember....

 

[Mr Burns]

you're correct TG, we do have another member from Dubia. now if i remember correctly, she was asking about lighting upgrades for a planted tank...

 

[Skyfish]

Thanks Menagerie for moving me to the right place. I'll work on the fishes.

Thank you TG and Mr. B. I went to the GE dealer and they have never heard of the GE9325, which I have heard great things about. Oh well. I think I will settle for the 6,500K compact FL which sounds good. I just hope the color comes out right. Gonna get that done by wednesday as the new shipment of plants are coming in on Thursday.

I'll keep checking the water often. I'l take pics this weekend and post it.

I also did a location search and found the member you were talking about, she is AussieGal. Nice to have another member from the same location.

 

[TankGirl]

Next time I need to remember something, I'm gonna ask you, Mr. Burns!! Speaking of which.... Phillips makes a bulb that is comparable to that GE bulb, and there is a post about it somewhere, *smacks self on side of head*

Well, 6500K is what you are looking for, so all's well that ends well.

 

[Mr Burns]

are you thinking of a phillips bulb that is similar to the GE 9325s?

 

[Skyfish]

TG - The model number should help, any chance you could find that post?

I went to Phillips today and again they have nothing over 4,000K in FL. They do have compacts in 6,500K, but they are energy saving bulbs and the box says "should not be with timers" and they are known as "cool white daylight" Now if I read correctly somewhere in an artical, we are not supposed to use cool whites?

These are 10 bucks a pop, so I wanna be sure before I buy it, coz you can't get a refund later :?

Shed some light on this?

 

[Skyfish]

I did a water test this morning and this it what it said:

GH - 11
KH - 10
PH - 7
NO2 - 0.3
CO2 - 30

Quite a change from 2 days ago. Have I added anything? Just a few more plants with their roots held in peat, some Sera liquid fertilizer.

Also I have noticed for the last few days some of my fishes are on the surface. So the air pump was kept on for a few hours, they still wont come down. They don't look sick or anything and are feeding well.

This only tells me that there is not enough O2??? And excessive CO2? I do have a lot of plants, perhaps not enough to absorb all the CO2???

What do you think?

 

[TankGirl]

The nitrite makes it more difficult for the fish to respirate, and the CO2 is a wee bit high but I have had mine that high without noticeable discomfort for the fish. What is your nitrate level?

Often when you test CO2 first thing in the morning right after lights on the CO2 will be higher, since the plants were not photosynthesizing while lights were out. Test again right before you turn the lights off in the evening to see what kind of swing you are getting overnight.

 

[Skyfish]

TG - I understand now. I don't have a NO3 test kit yet *runs down to the shop*. My NO2 says 0.3mg which is good.

I'll do the others tests again tonight and report back.

 

[TankGirl]

NO2 should be zero in a cycled tank, so you are not quite there yet, and it is a bit stressful for the fish. It will be helpful to know your NO3 as the plants need it, and it could be quite high. Make sure you keep that NO2 and NO3 as well down with water changes until it is completely cycled, with zero NO2.

 

[Skyfish]

Here's my evening reading:

GH - 12
KH - 9
PH - 6.7
No2 <0.3

I have ordered the NO3 test kit and I should be getting it tomorrow. Doing another water change in the morning. I have also called our local water authority and they are faxing me their figures on Saturday.

 

[Skyfish]

This morning 6/18 when I got up to feed them at 7:30, I saw that the fishes were badly gasping for air, problem for a week now. First my reading:

Morning:
GH - 11
KH - 8
PH - 7.25
NO2 - <0.2
CO2 - 14

I fed them and the angels would not eat. I started thinking about doing something drastic like complete water change, but was scared to do so. But before doing it, I started the air pump full blast and in 10 mins they were all down and behaved normally. They finally ate.

3 hours later, I switched off the pump and in an hour they were back up again. Pump was on blast again and things went normal. I did a water test and this is how it came out.

GH - 10
KH - 9
PH - 7
NO2 - <0.2
CO2 - 27!

I have a DIY CO2 rig and seems it is out of control, is there a way to control it? It's being going fine for about 9 days, today the bubbles have started to slow down, so I may have to make a new mix by tomorrow and Ph will be back to 6.8 I will have to go pressurized soon I guess and regulate.

Why do I need to start th epump to keep my fishes happy? I would have thought my 25 odd plants would have produced enough O2. I have 54 watts of light, still need to add about 20 watts more. My NO3 kit has still not arrived.

I feel gutted, I don't know what else to do but to stick my problem here in hopes that someone more experienced can suggest something. There has to be a way out.

 

[betowess]

A bit more light will get the plants pearling O2 out which is nice to see and good for the fish. Have you ever checked out AH Supply lights? They are easy kits to put into a wood enclosure which you either buy or make yourself. HTH Bob
Here is a link:
http://www.ahsupply.com/index.html

 

[Skyfish]

Hi Bob, thanks for your note. I have just added a 20W GE bulb, don't know the temp but it says Aquarium bulb. It does say wide spectrum tho. My tank now is on the slight yellowish side, the pics I see around look so naturally green. Perhaps I need 10,000K bulbs.

I don't live in the US so I can't order from AHsupply. I know what I want, 2 10K bulbs, and 2 9325 GE bulbs, but blah!! I am stuck.

With the increased light and DIY CO2, I see growth but I don't see pearling. My substrate is basic and we don't get eco-complete or flourite or anything here. So Liquiq fert is all I can do.

Fingers crossed.