ThePlantedMedic
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Hello All;
This is my first aquarium outside of my 5G hobby tank which housed a goldfish my wife saved from a stag and doe. I am the newbiest of the newbies when it comes to keeping this aquarium. I am a husband, new dad and full time paramedic, I have decided to slip this hobby in there somewhere! I have run across twisted information throughout my time researching this new hobby as some do it one way, others do it another. I think that my style here will be a hybrid of what I have learned so far. Being from Ontario and not from the States or UK I think puts me at a disadvantage. The area I am in has a poor choice in LFS and the big brand guys aren't the most helpful even though I dropped over a grand in equipment from their store to start.
I have purchased a 72G marineland tank and stand. Atop sits a 48" AquaticLife Marquis dual lamp T5HO 52W 6,000K light. Under it I am running a SunSun 304B with the usual biomedia (sans charcoal) and no UV light. It says it has 525GPH output, with the media I highly doubt that, I am not an expert but there is very little movement in my tank, I will be adding a powerhead shortly.
The substrate is one 15lbs bag of Miracle Gro Organic potting mix, wet and left in a 1" block in the middle of the tank. I capped it with black K & E blasting sand, it did not say the grit size on the bag however it is medium and roughly the same as pool filter sand.
The scape is super beginner but we are happy with it. My wife and I put it together one night quickly as we can't wait to get this thing going. We added two natural root decorations with a couple rocks and my (mandatory) white sand path.
We have planted many beginner fast growing plants as to get as much growth as fast as possible, I am paranoid of the inevitable algae bloom. There is currently one of each we found at our LFS and big name store; ludwigia, anubias, crypt, sword, jungle val, java fern, dwarf val, rotala, hornwort and another I can't remember the name of. We are looking for some ground cover and a large centerpiece plant we have not picked out yet. Any suggestions?
The aspiration is to one day increase the lighting and add CO2, we will see how things go to start.
Currently on day 5 of a fishless cycle. I dosed initially with 40mL of pure ammonia, I have been sitting between 3 and 4ppm since, I can't tell on the test strip to be honest. I will add the values with some pictures. The new tank syndrome day 2+3 freaked me out, I thought I was getting an algae bloom as I noted a white mucous like build up on the tree roots and the substrate. Thanks to this site I now know that is a form of bacteria that is growing that will go away and I just need to watch the filter so it does not clog with it. Lights are on 6.5hrs a day to attempt to limit any algae.
Enough talk, here are my water values and some pictures.
Tap Water: pH: 7.8 / KH: 7dKH 125.3ppm / GH: 161.1ppm / Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate: 0,0,0.
Day 4 was the cloudiest which cleared within about 24-36hrs. The white mucous is still present in abundance, you may be able to see it in the photos.
I will be updating this as often as I can and will be watching for any advice, suggestions or thoughts. Thanks in advance for checking this out, I look forward to chatting with all of you and picking your brains. Especially when it comes time to stocking this!!
Jay
This is my first aquarium outside of my 5G hobby tank which housed a goldfish my wife saved from a stag and doe. I am the newbiest of the newbies when it comes to keeping this aquarium. I am a husband, new dad and full time paramedic, I have decided to slip this hobby in there somewhere! I have run across twisted information throughout my time researching this new hobby as some do it one way, others do it another. I think that my style here will be a hybrid of what I have learned so far. Being from Ontario and not from the States or UK I think puts me at a disadvantage. The area I am in has a poor choice in LFS and the big brand guys aren't the most helpful even though I dropped over a grand in equipment from their store to start.
I have purchased a 72G marineland tank and stand. Atop sits a 48" AquaticLife Marquis dual lamp T5HO 52W 6,000K light. Under it I am running a SunSun 304B with the usual biomedia (sans charcoal) and no UV light. It says it has 525GPH output, with the media I highly doubt that, I am not an expert but there is very little movement in my tank, I will be adding a powerhead shortly.
The substrate is one 15lbs bag of Miracle Gro Organic potting mix, wet and left in a 1" block in the middle of the tank. I capped it with black K & E blasting sand, it did not say the grit size on the bag however it is medium and roughly the same as pool filter sand.
The scape is super beginner but we are happy with it. My wife and I put it together one night quickly as we can't wait to get this thing going. We added two natural root decorations with a couple rocks and my (mandatory) white sand path.
We have planted many beginner fast growing plants as to get as much growth as fast as possible, I am paranoid of the inevitable algae bloom. There is currently one of each we found at our LFS and big name store; ludwigia, anubias, crypt, sword, jungle val, java fern, dwarf val, rotala, hornwort and another I can't remember the name of. We are looking for some ground cover and a large centerpiece plant we have not picked out yet. Any suggestions?
The aspiration is to one day increase the lighting and add CO2, we will see how things go to start.
Currently on day 5 of a fishless cycle. I dosed initially with 40mL of pure ammonia, I have been sitting between 3 and 4ppm since, I can't tell on the test strip to be honest. I will add the values with some pictures. The new tank syndrome day 2+3 freaked me out, I thought I was getting an algae bloom as I noted a white mucous like build up on the tree roots and the substrate. Thanks to this site I now know that is a form of bacteria that is growing that will go away and I just need to watch the filter so it does not clog with it. Lights are on 6.5hrs a day to attempt to limit any algae.
Enough talk, here are my water values and some pictures.
Tap Water: pH: 7.8 / KH: 7dKH 125.3ppm / GH: 161.1ppm / Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate: 0,0,0.
Day 4 was the cloudiest which cleared within about 24-36hrs. The white mucous is still present in abundance, you may be able to see it in the photos.
I will be updating this as often as I can and will be watching for any advice, suggestions or thoughts. Thanks in advance for checking this out, I look forward to chatting with all of you and picking your brains. Especially when it comes time to stocking this!!
Jay
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