Sturgcl1
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Hi there, I was wondering if someone would check my tank and make sure it's ready for the fish as I'm a newbie & dont want to get it wrong at the expense of the poor fish.
it's my babby boys 1st birthday in 5 weeks so we decided to encourage his love for fish and get a tank. I had one as a kid & adored it. I did a lot of research on the net & was lucky enough to get my hands on a rena panoramic 360l tank it came with a 30w light & fluval external filter with spray bar.
below it's the tank spec:
- 360l
- 140w lights with reflectors
- Fluval external filter with 2nd hand large sponges & ceramic rings & new carbon & amonia reducing sachets & new sponge pads (sorry v technical). Spray bar attached but too noisy for sons bedroom so have submerged them just under water.
- substrate of pond soil covered in silica sand & small gravel with coral sand added to increase ph
- 3d background concealing filter intake & heater.
- low spec plants, stem & moss, around 75-100 stems
- rocks, terracotta pots for caves, large mopani & large root, volcano ornament with led & bubbles & bubble pipe running full length at back.
- water conditioned & heated at 25c
I started to cycle the tank using amonia, got the dose wrong & ended up with v high amonia so left the tank for the week until it went back down to 2, then
Dosed smaller amount took it up to 5, then in mid of that week I stupidly added plants, continued dosing amonia that week, then read your not supposed to cycle planted tanks as plants use amonia etc before bacteria. Urgh! So I put an amonia alert in the tank to keep an write on amonia level rather than using king british test strips. Alert showed no amonia, strips showed 5! Urgh! am guessing strips test all amonia, alert tests free amonia only?
Using kb 5 in 1 strips my tank was showing ph<6.4, 50kh mg/l,250gh mg/l,nitrate 50-
100,nitrite 0. I had a nitrite spike over 2wks of cycling upto 5. I did a 50% water change once amonia was down to 0 & now nitrate is down to 10, nitrite is 0.
Thinking the tank was ready, I added 10 red cherry shrimp, they were very active &
happy during the day, but when I woke up the next morning I couldnt find any! Urgh, I frantically pulled the filter to bits & found 1 shrimp still alive so I returned it to the tank, no sign of any others. Im still clueless as to how they got behind the background, but I have since put a fine mesh over the intake to prevent it happening again.
Sorry about the huge post but wanted to include all info. I have 6 corys waiting to go into the tank & dont want to add them unless it's safe.
Please could you let me know if its all ok? I ordered some tetra safestart to try and boost bacteria just incase.
Many thanks, hope this makes sense as writing from mobile & not easy. If you need more info pla let me know.
it's my babby boys 1st birthday in 5 weeks so we decided to encourage his love for fish and get a tank. I had one as a kid & adored it. I did a lot of research on the net & was lucky enough to get my hands on a rena panoramic 360l tank it came with a 30w light & fluval external filter with spray bar.
below it's the tank spec:
- 360l
- 140w lights with reflectors
- Fluval external filter with 2nd hand large sponges & ceramic rings & new carbon & amonia reducing sachets & new sponge pads (sorry v technical). Spray bar attached but too noisy for sons bedroom so have submerged them just under water.
- substrate of pond soil covered in silica sand & small gravel with coral sand added to increase ph
- 3d background concealing filter intake & heater.
- low spec plants, stem & moss, around 75-100 stems
- rocks, terracotta pots for caves, large mopani & large root, volcano ornament with led & bubbles & bubble pipe running full length at back.
- water conditioned & heated at 25c
I started to cycle the tank using amonia, got the dose wrong & ended up with v high amonia so left the tank for the week until it went back down to 2, then
Dosed smaller amount took it up to 5, then in mid of that week I stupidly added plants, continued dosing amonia that week, then read your not supposed to cycle planted tanks as plants use amonia etc before bacteria. Urgh! So I put an amonia alert in the tank to keep an write on amonia level rather than using king british test strips. Alert showed no amonia, strips showed 5! Urgh! am guessing strips test all amonia, alert tests free amonia only?
Using kb 5 in 1 strips my tank was showing ph<6.4, 50kh mg/l,250gh mg/l,nitrate 50-
100,nitrite 0. I had a nitrite spike over 2wks of cycling upto 5. I did a 50% water change once amonia was down to 0 & now nitrate is down to 10, nitrite is 0.
Thinking the tank was ready, I added 10 red cherry shrimp, they were very active &
happy during the day, but when I woke up the next morning I couldnt find any! Urgh, I frantically pulled the filter to bits & found 1 shrimp still alive so I returned it to the tank, no sign of any others. Im still clueless as to how they got behind the background, but I have since put a fine mesh over the intake to prevent it happening again.
Sorry about the huge post but wanted to include all info. I have 6 corys waiting to go into the tank & dont want to add them unless it's safe.
Please could you let me know if its all ok? I ordered some tetra safestart to try and boost bacteria just incase.
Many thanks, hope this makes sense as writing from mobile & not easy. If you need more info pla let me know.