New 29 Gallon Build - Journal

[jfhrtn]

Tested the water tonight and nitrites are still climbing. Up to around 1-2ppm. pH is still in the 6.4 range. Ammonia was down to 1ppm so had to top that back off. Nitrates are still about 10ppm. Getting in the short roads now I believe.

Water Test (6/10/17)

Ammonium Chloride: 1ppm (topped off to 4ppm)
Nitrites: between 1 & 2ppm
Nitrates: ~10ppm
pH: 6.3..
Temp: 80.1http://cloud.tapatalk.com/s/593ce349ee11c/IMG_20170611_010700703_HDR.jpg?

 

[jfhrtn]

Finally got a pic to load without having to use a link. The first pic is the results of the water tests last night and the second is an updated pic of the tank.

 

[jfhrtn]

6/11/17

Ammonium Chloride: 2ppm
Nitrites: between .25 & .50ppm
Nitrates: 15-20ppm
pH: 6.4
Temp: 80.1

6/12/17

Ammonia: 1ppm
Nitrites: 0ppm
Nitrates: 10ppm
pH: 6.0-6.2
Temp: 79.6


Anyone know why the nitrites crashed so soon? Could be the pH dropping?

 

[jfhrtn]

Been trying to read up on snails and their benefits to a tank lately. Is their a type of snail that wouldn't cause a snail splosion to happen?

 

[jfhrtn]

Also been looking to buy some test strips to accompany the master test kit since it doesn't test alkalinity or hardness. Would you go with JBL or Tetra test strips?

 

[toolman]

My choice around here is tetra or api test strips. I use the api (they are considerably cheaper) as a cheap, quick, and easy test for gh&kh. Also bought a api kh test kit and found I could use a swimming pool kit for gh.

 

[toolman]

Oh, forgot to talk about [emoji222] .
Don't overfeed and they won't get out of hand. Have mystery, ramshorn, pond, Malaysia trumpet, and assassin snails. Not overfeeding is the best and easiest way to control population. Have now, as you can see, turned to the dark side. No longer trying to eradicate them, even want them to breeds and have become huge fan after learning how to keep in check.
Have gold mystery snail baby's currently, I want more colors for my new tank I'm getting ready to start.

 

[jfhrtn]

I can get 100 tetra strips for 21.99, 100 API strips for 36.00, or 100 JBL strips w/ the app for 25.74. All of these are off Amazon.

I was thinking about getting them. What do you feed yours? Do they limit you on how many fish you can put in a tank? After rocks and substrate I believe I have about 24-26 gallons in my 29 gallon tank. Would one snail equal one fish per say?

I appreciate the info

 

[toolman]

Are those the strips for the jbl pro scan, I have been looking at that. It's cheaper than I thought it would be.

Snails in general have a fairly low bioload, mystery have a little bigger bioload and pure apple snails have a pretty good bioload (would error on safe side with apples).

 

[jfhrtn]

The JBL strips are indeed the ones for the pro scan app. Didn't know if it was worth it but only being $4 more than Tetra strips it makes me wonder.

What type of snails would you recommend for a small bio load? Also what do you feed yours?

*Edit*

The snails I have been reading on are nerite snails. Seems they have a rather low bio load and from what I have read won't reproduce in freshwater. Guessing that is true? I would have to get the pH under control before I could add any. Making the drive to pick up some crushed coral tomorrow. Got tomorrow off so that will give me time to get some things done I dont normally have time for during the average week

 

[toolman]

You are correct, nerite snails won't reproduce in freshwater. Mine however didn't survive, but many here keep them. They are a good algae eater. I have so many other kinds I haven't replaced them.

 

[toolman]

They just clean up what the fish don't eat. Maybe feed a touch extra, not much or you'll have a snailsploshion!

Don't overfeed.

 

[jfhrtn]

I will have to look into some nerite snails. Seems like they might help keep the tank tidy. You think dosing Thrive and having sand substrate is ok?

My neons don't leave much. They are a hungry little gang. I actually caught my Otto eating a pellet that was laying on the bottom a couple days ago. It really surprised me as I didn't they would go near pellets

 

[jfhrtn]

Quick update on the tank. I went to the cast to visit the parents on Tuesday and came back late last night. When I left the ammonia was between 1-2ppm with .25ppm or less of nitrites. pH was around 6.6 and temp was 79.6 when I left & also did a 20% water change the day I was leaving. Anyway when I got back last night late I tested the water and came up with .25ppm or less of ammonia with 0ppm of nitrites and 5ppm or less of nitrates. pH was sitting at 6.6-6.8 and the temp was 78.9. I've been trying to ease the temp down to 78-79 to help increase the amount of oxygen. Does anyone know what might have happened to cause everything to bottom out?

6/13/17

Trip to coast


6/14/17

Ammonia: .25ppm or less (topped off to just shy of 4ppm)

Nitrites: 0ppm

Nitrates: 5ppm or less

pH: 6.8

Temp: 78.9

Added 1/2 cup coral in a filter bag inside the filter

 

[jfhrtn]

Once I got settled in after work this evening I figured I would test the water one more time before I did a 30% water change. To my surprise the crushed coral raised the pH up to around 7.2 in 24hrs. Will keep it in the filter unless it starts to have negative effects on the tank for some reason. Had a sigh of relief when I saw that the nitrites we're back and the nitrates were starting to go up. The nitrites looked to be around 1ppm and the nitrates were up near 40ppm. Ammonia was down to .25ppm so I topped it back off to around 3-4ppm. It went from 3ppm last night to .25ppm tonight. Seemed like a lot for the tank to go through in just 24hrs maybe kinda early for it to be going through that much? I will post a pic of the test results below.

Also noticed some new undergrowth on the S Repens. Should I trim the tops off and let the undergrowth come out or just leave it alone and let it grow? Pic is below also. Also an updated pic of the tank itself

 

[jfhrtn]

The test this evening revealed the ammonia dropped back down to .25ppm or less so I dosed it back up to 3ppm again. Nitrites we're still sitting near 1ppm and nitrates were only up near 10ppm. pH was around 6.6-6.8. I have a GH and KH test kit coming in tomorrow so I will be able to test that in less than 24hrs. Got some Seachem Safe coming in on that order also since I'm almost done with this bottle of Prime. Pic of tonight's test is below

 

[jfhrtn]

Did a 60% water change this evening since it doesn't look like I'll have time to in the next 2-3 days. I tested the water before I did the water change since I was going to dose ferts and add ammonia once I added the water back. The tests before the water change showed the pH was 6.4-6.6, ammonia was .25ppm or less, nitrites were around .5ppm, nitrates were around 10ppm, GH was 5dgh, and the KH was 4dkh. I will sum everything up from the tests below.

Any thoughts on why ammonia is dropping so low within 24hrs and the nitrates aren't spiking?

6/17/17

pH: 6.4-6.6

Ammonia: .25ppm (bumped back to 3ppm)

Nitrites: .5ppm

Nitrates: 5-10ppm

GH: 5°

KH: 4°

 

[jfhrtn]

The tests tonight showed the the levels were all next to 0. The pH was 6.4-6.6 which I guess the ammonia process is making the water a little more acidic than I would like. Correct me if I'm wrong there. I dosed the ammonia back up to 2ppm after the test.

Anyone know why 2ppm ammonia got eaten to almost 0 in 26hrs and no nitrates have shown up? Also no nitrites are present at the moment.

6/18/17

pH: 6.4-6.6

Ammonia: 0-.25ppm

Nitrites: 0ppm

Nitrates: 0-5ppm

Temp: 79.6

Dosed ammonia back to 2ppm

 

[TMaier]

Did you add coral or coral/aragonite to raise the ph?

 

[jfhrtn]

I added a 1/2 cup of crushed coral in a media bag inside the filter. It raised it up to around 6.8-7.0 for about 48hrs before it started to ease back down again. Only thing I can attribute it to is maybe the ammonia and the process of breaking it down