Well, Let's try this again. I posted a few days ago, but the spam hunters ditched me for adding a photo link! HaHa!
First I will introduce myself, as I am a new thread poster on Aquarium Advice! I am a fisheries biologist by education and a water treatment operator by trade. I have always had small, <10 gallons, tanks stocked with everything from local minnows to sunfish to goldfish. I have never really been serious about keeping a true tropical aquarium until recently.
Last year, my wife and I built our new home, and one of the things that I have always dreamed of was a built in the wall tropical freshwater aquarium, framed to look like a picture!
So, after convincing the carpenter what was needed, the house was finished and a large 3' hole dominated the living room wall. I needed a tank!
Through research on the internet and local pet stores, I decided on the 36 gallon SeaClear System II acrylic and purchased one online.
For those of you that are not familiar with the SeaClear System II, it has a built in filter with drip tray and bio-balls, a pre-filter sock, a powerhead that pumps water to a "L" shaped header in the tank. All the equipment is housed in the back portion of the tank, so actual "swim space" for the fish is only around 29 gallons.
Anyhow, I joined Aquarium Advice in March with the intentions of learning how set up my tank and do a fishless cycle. This place is cool!
I wanted a planted tank, medium light plants and 10 - 15 fish. I began by placing 2 1/2" of fine gravel (~20lbs) then another 1" of course gravel on top for a total substrate of 3 1/2".
Next, I purchased a few plants from the local PETCO, placed them in the gravel with some root tabs. Finally I landscaped with some simple rocks collected around Wyoming.
Water was added, the filter and heater and air pump turned on. I placed a snippet of filter media from a friends goldfish tank in the bio-balls, added some janitorial ammonia and began the cycle. Using my API master test kit, I monitored the cycle, watched the ammonia levels, noticed nitrite forming after the first few days, saw nitrite spike after a week and ammonia drop. I started adding ammonia once my nitrites were indicating I had bacteria. I did this for another week then began noticing Nitrate levels rising fast! Within days, I had zero ammonia and nitrites in the mornings, and health levels of nitrates (>40ppm).! Yeah, my cycle was complete!
I have since changed the tank water and stocked my aquarium with 6 bloodfin Tetras, 2 Black Skirt Tetras, 2 Angels and 2 pearl gourami's. The filter seems to be handling this fish combo well, and so far all fish seem to be getting along.
I am feeding a flake food.
The light in my hood is a 24" Floromax 17W bulb. I am adding 5ml of Seachem Flourish Excel carbon every other day and replenishing the root tabs every other week.
Now that everyone has a feel for my system, I have a few questions.
First, do you think my tank will handle a few more fish, as I would Like to add some swordtails?
Secondly, is a 17w Floromax bulb giving me enough light to promote plant growth? I keep it on around 7 hours per day.
Finally, It looks like there is room in the hood for adding another lighting fixture, has anyone ever added light to a SeaClear System II hood? If so, could you point me in the right direction?
Sorry for such a long first post, but I figured I would explain it all to start with!
I will add pictures once I reach the magic number of 8 posts, so the spam filters don't hunt me down.
Thanks again.
First I will introduce myself, as I am a new thread poster on Aquarium Advice! I am a fisheries biologist by education and a water treatment operator by trade. I have always had small, <10 gallons, tanks stocked with everything from local minnows to sunfish to goldfish. I have never really been serious about keeping a true tropical aquarium until recently.
Last year, my wife and I built our new home, and one of the things that I have always dreamed of was a built in the wall tropical freshwater aquarium, framed to look like a picture!
So, after convincing the carpenter what was needed, the house was finished and a large 3' hole dominated the living room wall. I needed a tank!
Through research on the internet and local pet stores, I decided on the 36 gallon SeaClear System II acrylic and purchased one online.
For those of you that are not familiar with the SeaClear System II, it has a built in filter with drip tray and bio-balls, a pre-filter sock, a powerhead that pumps water to a "L" shaped header in the tank. All the equipment is housed in the back portion of the tank, so actual "swim space" for the fish is only around 29 gallons.
Anyhow, I joined Aquarium Advice in March with the intentions of learning how set up my tank and do a fishless cycle. This place is cool!
I wanted a planted tank, medium light plants and 10 - 15 fish. I began by placing 2 1/2" of fine gravel (~20lbs) then another 1" of course gravel on top for a total substrate of 3 1/2".
Next, I purchased a few plants from the local PETCO, placed them in the gravel with some root tabs. Finally I landscaped with some simple rocks collected around Wyoming.
Water was added, the filter and heater and air pump turned on. I placed a snippet of filter media from a friends goldfish tank in the bio-balls, added some janitorial ammonia and began the cycle. Using my API master test kit, I monitored the cycle, watched the ammonia levels, noticed nitrite forming after the first few days, saw nitrite spike after a week and ammonia drop. I started adding ammonia once my nitrites were indicating I had bacteria. I did this for another week then began noticing Nitrate levels rising fast! Within days, I had zero ammonia and nitrites in the mornings, and health levels of nitrates (>40ppm).! Yeah, my cycle was complete!
I have since changed the tank water and stocked my aquarium with 6 bloodfin Tetras, 2 Black Skirt Tetras, 2 Angels and 2 pearl gourami's. The filter seems to be handling this fish combo well, and so far all fish seem to be getting along.
I am feeding a flake food.
The light in my hood is a 24" Floromax 17W bulb. I am adding 5ml of Seachem Flourish Excel carbon every other day and replenishing the root tabs every other week.
Now that everyone has a feel for my system, I have a few questions.
First, do you think my tank will handle a few more fish, as I would Like to add some swordtails?
Secondly, is a 17w Floromax bulb giving me enough light to promote plant growth? I keep it on around 7 hours per day.
Finally, It looks like there is room in the hood for adding another lighting fixture, has anyone ever added light to a SeaClear System II hood? If so, could you point me in the right direction?
Sorry for such a long first post, but I figured I would explain it all to start with!
I will add pictures once I reach the magic number of 8 posts, so the spam filters don't hunt me down.
Thanks again.
