Janky's 55 Gallon Build

[janky]

What. The. EFF!!

My QT tank's nitrite tested at like 4ppm this morning!!!!
1 day before I was going to put my little angels in the big tank, and I get this spike

I'm moving the angels into the bigger tank. I'm guessing it may have spiked from having an increased bioload (we went from having 4 fish in there to 3 baby angels and 3 endlers)

I got the angels out and swapped the QT into a spare 10 gallon we had so I can free up the 12 g for an upcoming reef project. Since there are no fish in the QT anymore I'll stay on top of these water parameters and see what is going on.
(Also did like a 70% wc)

Any ideas why the nitrite would spike like that?
Was it the increased bioload?

 

[daileene]

Hi. I just read all the pages here. Cool angels. If i would have a bigger tank, i would get an angel. My biggest tank is only a 20G long. I don't think 1 angel will be appropriate with it.

Anyway, i would say yes, the increased bioload will do it. How was your ammo? Nitrite is the only spiked?

 

[daileene]

And oh, in one of your pics i saw a plant that has a green and white color on it. That is not a fully aquatic plant. I am pretty positive since the leaves are variegated (sp?). Unless it is not real, but i am assuming it is since you have a diy co2.

Great job with the 55g by the way. I love your aquascaping.

 

[janky]

Great news!!!! Founds a LFS that had a Gold Nugget Pleco!!!
I have been searching forever and finally got one!! It's so awesome!
Can't wait to get pics, but he's shy for now...

Hi. I just read all the pages here. Cool angels. If i would have a bigger tank, i would get an angel. My biggest tank is only a 20G long. I don't think 1 angel will be appropriate with it.

Anyway, i would say yes, the increased bioload will do it. How was your ammo? Nitrite is the only spiked?

Yeah. It was just the nitrite. No nitrAte or ammonia at all! Completely bizarre.
Everything is out of QT now, except 2 snails. I redid it with black gravel sand, and wrapped the driftwood heavily in moss.
We have decided that we're going to use this QT tank for a heavily planted one with a dwarf puffer

Not adding anything (aside from the moss) until levels sort themselves out and I get better lighting fixtures!

And oh, in one of your pics i saw a plant that has a green and white color on it. That is not a fully aquatic plant. I am pretty positive since the leaves are variegated (sp?). Unless it is not real, but i am assuming it is since you have a diy co2.

Great job with the 55g by the way. I love your aquascaping.

Yeah. Those are some weird Petsmart "live" plants. My mom brought them over to me one day as a gift. It is actually growing roots, but they're tiny so it tends to get knocked around and float to the top.

Thanks for the compliment! I didn't put much thought into it really, just tossed some crypts by the wood/cave and rustled up some java ferns and anubias to fill in space

I am really using the plants in the 55 gal as a test to see how well I do with them. They're low light beginner plants and I wanna see if I can make them really take off!!

I'm sure they'll get re-arranged as I go.
Do you take cuttings of your plants at all and rearrange them around? Or move them to other tanks?

 

[daileene]

That is really weird then. Normally ammo is the first one that always spikes then the nitrites. Well, I guess there is really no dull moment in the fish keeping. We always keep on learning.

Am glad you got a good LFS. I really don't have one around here in my area. Only petco and petsmart. Blah. Lol.

And yes, my tanks is really just simple maintenance. I have 6 of them so i wanted to make it as simple as i can so i can deal with them weekly on top with taking care of my kids. Lol. Really though, my tanks are very relaxing to me.

Oh, when i do my trimmings, i distributed it to my other tanks. But sometimes i send it to members in here who will pay for shipping.

 

[janky]

That is really weird then. Normally ammo is the first one that always spikes then the nitrites. Well, I guess there is really no dull moment in the fish keeping. We always keep on learning.

Am glad you got a good LFS. I really don't have one around here in my area. Only petco and petsmart. Blah. Lol.

And yes, my tanks is really just simple maintenance. I have 6 of them so i wanted to make it as simple as i can so i can deal with them weekly on top with taking care of my kids. Lol. Really though, my tanks are very relaxing to me.

Oh, when i do my trimmings, i distributed it to my other tanks. But sometimes i send it to members in here who will pay for shipping.

Awesome! I am ready to order dwarf hairgrass mats for my 10 g probably next week... got a lot going on with that tank, so I'll have to update there soon.

And hey, I've gotten 4 invertabrates and 15 fish from petsmart - they're all alive, healthy, and loving life!
(selection kinda sucks though )

Anyway - gunna be a busy quarter at school, but here's an update

I FINALLY GOT A GOLD NUGGET PLECO!

he's pretty shy but we got a couple pics

love this little guy!!! hoping he becomes more social soon!

in the meantime, we're done stocking this tank - I will get more pics of the angels.
I may do some more planting (read: moss wrapping) but I'm not sure if I wanna upgrade the lights/CO2 in the big tank.

I started putting together a 10 g tank that will be HEAVILY planted, got a coralife T5 HO for it, and will be looking to lay some dwarf hairgrass carpet. We're taking a trip to the ocean, so I'll be looking for some driftwood/rocks/cool decor stuff.
When things are good with plants/cycling we plan to add a pea puffer or two

Gf's "colorful" tank (20 g tall) is done with stock too.
We now have 4 Glofish Danios, 3 fancy guppies, 3 Endlers, 2 GIGANTIC snails, 2 ghost shrimp, and 2 African Dwarf Frogs in that tank...
(I will get pics eventually)

... annnnnd that's what I've been up to with the tanks lately!

 

[daileene]

What a beautiful creature. I want one now. How big do they get?

I can't wait for your 10g build. Do you have a link? Your gf's tank sounds cool. I want to see it too.

 

[janky]

What a beautiful creature. I want one now. How big do they get?

I can't wait for your 10g build. Do you have a link? Your gf's tank sounds cool. I want to see it too.

I didn't make a thread for the 10g. Suppose I could... or just incorporate it into this one
We'll most likely have pictures after our vacation this weekend - we've just been lazy or swamped with school stuff.

The Gold Nugget doesn't get past 8-10 inches or so, and from what I've heard most of them that are not in the wild don't really go much past 8.

He's still a little shy, but man that guy is fast! He darts around the tank like a mad man..

 

[daileene]

that is what we want...algae eater that do their work fast.

 

[janky]

Update!

Been a while since I updated; so I figured I'd post what I've been up to when I find time.

- Upgraded to a 75 gal tank
- started setting up my planted 10 g
- ventured into sw a tad bit...(setting up a 12 g hex for a couple tiny fish)
- NEW STOCK!

Here's a pic of the new tank (plants and wood/rock are just scattered - I want a massive centerpiece style driftwood, so I'm just kind of leaving things how they are until I figure that out)

As for the tanks stock, we now have:
1 Hi-Fin Spotted pleco (leopard pleco)
1 Gold Nugget Pleco
1 lonely Nerite Snail
10 obese X-ray Tetras
1 Apistogramma Eunotus (Blue Cheek Apisto) (I named him "Smiles" cause it was funny to me)
1 Apistogramma Borellis (sp?) (named him Bart cause he flares up his dorsal fin all the time and it looks like Bart Simpson hair)
2 Mid-Sized (and growing...) Angelfish (Black and Grey and a marbled yellow/black/silver one)
3 juvenile "Double-Dark" Angelfish (They're growing like crazy!!!)
3 German Blue Rams
3 Electric Blue Rams


Here are some pics...

our luxurious angels:

the fatty X-Rays:

our goofy-named Apistos:

The new rams!!

Think I'm good on stock now... going to start feeding more live food for them, and I ordered some plecocaine off of aquabid today, so we'll see how the fish like that stuff - heard nothing but good

Eventually I will get a cool driftwood piece and arrange my plants properly


Anyway, that's what we've been up to. Felt like taking some pics tonight and updating! Thanks for looking!

 

[daileene]

Wow you have been busy. Great job with the tank. I like it the way it is right now. But you might have more talent in aquascaping than me. Those lovely fish of yours looks awesome too.

 

[Scottyhorse]

Are the German Rams hard to keep? I am going to get two for my 29 gal tank.

 

[janky]

The rams were not too difficult to keep outside of fighting with each other. I had three and one of them just bullied the crap out of the other two, bit them up pretty bad.. so I rehomed him.

So the unfortunate news is that I had a tank crash where the pH swung all the way down into the high 6 range, which made all my fish incredibly sick and lifeless. I was fortunate enough to rehome them to some nearby hobbyists, because at the time I had no clue what to do.

I tore the whole tank down and started from scratch.
I scrubbed it all down thoroughly, replaced the sand, and did a whole new cycle.
I managed to keep my butterfly pleco, and transfer him back in after everything cycled fully. He's doing awesome today and he's probably about 7" now

I got an Oscar and a Jack Dempsey that get along pretty well. Both were craigslist rescues.
(They're in a 75 and the jack is smaller)

 

[San Raphael Catfish]

Nice Oscar you got there!