60 Gallon Freshwater Community Build

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Nortzy21 said:
Looking great! I can tell you've been in the hobby as you have patience and know how to set up a tank correctly. I love the stock lost also because it's very similar to what mine will be. I'm putting together a 75 gallon community with large schools of tetras, danios, and cories. Anyway can't wait to see water in that tank! Put up some updated pics of the progress soon!
Click to expand...

Hi there! I had a successful 29 community tank a few years ago that I really enjoyed maintaining.

I really want a tank that is active and colorful, so a few different species of Tetras should satisfy that. I've been going back and forth on if I want to add some Tiger Barbs with my stock. I see the Cherry Barbs as well which I will probably be adding, but need to decide which Tetra species to give up. We'll see...I have plenty of time to figure it out while my tank cycles lol.

Here are a couple pictures from yesterday once I got the filters and heaters in. I still need to get some decor, but I'm waiting to find the items I want.





I decided to use the extended tube on the filters so I can get bottom and middle filtration. The plan is to get some tall plants to cover it up so they're less noticeable.
 
Hello everyone!

On 3/26 I gave my tank the initial dose of ammonia to get it up to around 6ppm. I'm now on day 15 and the ammonia is right around 3-4 ppm still. Hopefully within the next few days it'll drop some more so I can give it the second dose and continue on with the cycle.

I'm getting anxious and want to add fish lol...gotta be patient though!
 
Hey guys, I tested ammonia this morning and it's still hovering around 2-4ppm. This is now going on 16 days since the initial dose and it still hasn't come back down to around 1 or below. My tank is 60 gallons and I have 2 Emperor 400 power filters with all 4 bio wheels running. I realize that is a lot of filtration and a lot of surface area to build up BB, but is this typical for ammonia to take this long to drop?

Should I continue waiting or do a water change? For my water conditioner, I'm using Aquasafe Plus. I haven't done any water changes yet, but I have done a couple top offs.

Thoughts?
 
If it were me, I'd add a bottle of Tetra SafeStart. It's bottled bacteria. I've had good experiences with the product getting a cycle rolling within a few days.


Some others on the board may disagree, but my experiences demonstrate to me the product assists with colonization of bacteria, at least (if not outright establishing a complete nitrifying cycle).


Wal-Mart sells the product for $6.50 a bottle. Worst case, you're out that much.
 
IMO you should: Keep waiting, and look for some seeded material if you can find it. Ask the lfs, ask the generic box stores too (petco gave me a sponge squeezing once. You get funny looks carrying around a bag of dirty water though. lol) Patience is well learned in fish keeping!
 
venymae said:
IMO you should: Keep waiting, and look for some seeded material if you can find it. Ask the lfs, ask the generic box stores too (petco gave me a sponge squeezing once. You get funny looks carrying around a bag of dirty water though. lol) Patience is well learned in fish keeping!
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Good idea about asking the LFS. I have no issues waiting since I've had this tank since before Christmas lol. I'm just more concerned with making sure everything is going right ya know.
 
Hey guys!!

Just a quick update on my tank..I had originally dosed my tank with ammonia on 3/26. Just this morning did it come down low enough to dose it back up. Current nitrite readings are over 5 PPM now. My cycle is finally making some good progress!!!!
 
We're getting close on finishing the cycle!! The tank is currently processing about 3-4ppm of Ammonia in about 24 hours. Nitrites are really high and I was actually getting some higher Nitrate readings when I tested yesterday.

I know I still have a while to go since I need to be able to process about 3-4ppm of Ammonia and Nitrite in about 24 hours...but at least I'm seeing progress lol.
 
So apparently my above post wasn't correct lol. My tank is processing 3-4ppm of Ammonia down to about 1ppm in 24 hours. To get down to 0ppm, it's taking about 4 days still. I dosed it up to 3ppm on Sunday morning and when I tested today, it was about .25ppm. My Nitrites are way off the chart and I'm definitely starting to see my Nitrates rise.

Gotta keep being patient...
 
Next dose, only dose 2ppm ammo. At 2ppm, it's more then enough to sustain anything you add to the tank.
 
I swear this is the never ending cycle. I dosed up to about 3-4ppm on Sunday the 11th, and I tested today and it's at .25ppm.

I guess this is what happens when you have 4 bio-wheels that need to get colonized; lots of surface space for bacteria to live on.
 
Well, it finally happened...I got to add some fish yesterday. The tank for some reason has never processed Ammonia very quickly and it wa recommended that I switch to a fish-in cycle. So I did a 90% water change, let it sit overnight, and then added 6 Zebra Danios and a 3'' Pleco last night. I need to keep an eye on the water parameters, but so far so good. Here are a couple shots of the tank currently:

View attachment 239146

View attachment 239147

I want to give it a couple weeks to see how this current stocks does and then pick up another 6 Zebra Danios. I also want to get about 6 or 7 Cory Cats. Once I feel the tank is settled, I'll finish out my stock.
 
Just Another Fish Guy said:
Well, it finally happened...I got to add some fish yesterday. The tank for some reason has never processed Ammonia very quickly and it wa recommended that I switch to a fish-in cycle. So I did a 90% water change, let it sit overnight, and then added 6 Zebra Danios and a 3'' Pleco last night. I need to keep an eye on the water parameters, but so far so good. Here are a couple shots of the tank currently:

View attachment 239146

View attachment 239147

I want to give it a couple weeks to see how this current stocks does and then pick up another 6 Zebra Danios. I also want to get about 6 or 7 Cory Cats. Once I feel the tank is settled, I'll finish out my stock.
Click to expand...

That's a great looking tank, nice job. Are you planning to add live plants as well?
 
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