questions about acrylic aquarium

[mkultra]

Well about a month ago I acquired a 60 gallon acrylic tank and have been owrking on it since then. It is for my Red Ear Sliders and various fish. It is filled up with about 40 gallons.

I built a background, turtle land and waterfall out of plexiglass, aquarium gravel, 100% silicone and epoxy.

I waited for everythingto dry for a week and then soaked it in the aquarium for 4 days. I then drained out all that water and refilled again. I turned on the canister filter added water conditioner and waited another 2 days to adjust to room temperature before I put feeder fish in to test out and break in the tank. I also transplated gravel from the tank that my fish and turtles are in now into the gravel of the new tank to get the bacteria growing faster in the new tank.

So I put the feeder fish in last night. I let the bag sit in the water for 30 min for the temperature to adjust, and I tested the pH of the aquarium and the water the fish were in. the pH was 7 for both and the temperature was 69 degrees F.

They were swimming around for a few hours last night but when I woke up this morning they were all dead.

Products Used:

Devcon 5 minute epoxy
GE Silicone 1
Novus Abrasive and Polisher #1, 2 and 3
Micro-Mesh Polishing Kit (various grades of very fine sandpapers and a bottle of polishing compound

Penn-Plax 700 Canister Filter with:

Ammo-Carb
Coarse Media Sponge
Polyfill

Aquarium Safe Rocks

 

[cabezon]

you put gravel and a filter in two day before you dropped fish in? what were the nitrate and ammonia readings? What source of ammonia did the bacteria have to grow?

 

[Fish Kid]

well my dear friend... it seems you have..... New Tank Syndrome
~a classic caused from an exited new tank owner~

well you see the tank was NO WERE NEAR ready for fish yet.... your feeders probably died from high levels of TOXIC CHEMICALS!!!! lol well... basicly you need to cycle your tank fist so... yeh.. sorry for the..umm dramatic affect... i just had to add it!

 

[mkultra]

i figured as much. the source of ammonia was from the old aquariums gravel. I just drained out all the water again an thouroughly rinsed everything with boiling water and vinegar. how long should i wait after refilling?
what if i use the old filter media?
will that help speed up the process?
Is there anything else that I can possibly use to neutralize the chemicals that were in the polishing compound?

 

[Fish Kid]

well the ammonia was accualy a good thing and would have helped to speed the cycle ~a little bit~
but you should wait AT LEAST a few weeks... usually more........
yes using old filter media will speed the process but it can vary from every tank so... you really need to do daily ammonia/nitrate/nitrite readings and just keep waiting until you get a reading of 0 on everything then you can introduce some fish...

now for your last question ~to my knowledge~ there are a number of chemicals that you can buy to speed this process but i have always just done it the old fashion way and am not experienced with those... so im sorry but someone els will have to answer that question..

 

[Jarred Darque]

Honestly, I doubt that the feeders died from ammonia poisening in one day. Feeders are hardly hardy fish, but they are also normally not healthy when they are bought, of course putting them in a new tank does not help them any.

Basically, dropping 10 guppies into 60 gallons of water, is not going to pullute the tank enough to kill them in a year if you dont do water changes, much less a day. Putting 200 guppies in a 60 gallon tank MAY produce enogh ammonia to kill them in a day. MAY.

Honestly, your fish either died cause they where sick form the store, or there was an UNEXPECTED hazardous chemical in your tank, vinigar, something that leeched out of the silicone, bleech, there was still chlorine, and alot of it still in the water.

 

[cabezon]

i figured as much. the source of ammonia was from the old aquariums gravel. I just drained out all the water again an thouroughly rinsed everything with boiling water and vinegar. how long should i wait after refilling?
what if i use the old filter media?
will that help speed up the process?
Is there anything else that I can possibly use to neutralize the chemicals that were in the polishing compound?

no, the source of bacteria is the gravel, they need food. If your old filer media is still wet and recently used, great. but if it has been in a box for a few months then no.

I suggest you go to the beginners forum and read the stickies, theres a lot of great info there. Good luck

 

[triazole]

anyone think 69F is too low a temp?

 

[mugginns]

For tropicals? Yes, definitely too low. Most south american fish will like 76-82. I keep mine at 80.

 

[Jarred Darque]

I keep my tanks at 80 as well. It is a pretty nice round number as well, a bit warmer than room temp, so your heaters will be what is keepin the temp up, and it should lower the amount of temp flucuations to have between winter and summer and night and day.