Lees Tank 2: The Nano

A place to keep us informed of the goings on in your tanks. - Tank Logs.
Lee_k
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Hi all,

Been away with work for a few days, got back - light had arrived!

So put the light in, and moved a bit of the "grass" into the tank see how it settles, it might stay or I may put a different plant in.

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Did a test for ammonia and nitrite - both present so the cycle has started! - Had 0.5 ammonia and 1.0 nitrite

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Now logic says, been a small amount of water I need less bacteria for the bacteria to start winning the fight vs ammonia/nitrite. Any actual science in that?

Bad bit - the 3 day old heater had failed! - Filled in the return form and ordered another which should be here tomorrow.

Lee
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plankton
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You still need to top the ammonia up to 2ppm, the size of the tank doesn't make much difference as you're using less ammonia for a smaller volume of water - it still takes a similar amount of time for the munchers to process the toxins.
Lee_k
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Ammonia was a little greener today on the test today - i don't really want to drop more food in to just rot! - The food in there will continue to rot and produce ammonia I suppose. Although the ammonia could of been higher when I was away for a few days.

Im just waiting and hoping for the 0/0 so the 3 year old can stop asking for one of them "red fish" :D

Lee
Lee_k
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10 days in..... still waiting!

Ammonia got up to around 2, its down to about 1 again today and nitrites is around 1 also.

I've put no more chemicals in and just been letting the water/bacteria do its thing - dont want the chemicals to give a false reading on the test.

Its become a little game now, I do the test and then when the alarm beeps little man goes running in to check the colours, then all disappointed "Daddy, its still purple and green!" (He knows hes after yellow and blue!)

Lee
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mikeyw64
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took me around 8 weeks in total to get a (fish in) cycle to the point I was comfortable to start adding more. 10 Days (even for a fishless cycle from what I've seen posts about) is nothing.
Lee_k
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Well, nothing like keeping these things up to date!!

Still got this tank running, its gone through a few phases tbf and is likely about to get an upgrade!

So we ended up with some galaxy rasbora in here at one point, then we lost some of them and some fire tetra went in but we did eventually add a betta. We even had some cherry shrimp in there for a while but the Betta seemed to treat these as a snack!!

Its on its 3rd Betta now unfortunately in the interests of being honest and not pretending everything goes perfectly!

Initially a pure white crown tail went in that my son named snowy! - Unfortunately he didn't last long at all, he was all lethargic within a couple of days and i ran a treatment but he never picked up and after maybe a week (2 max) he passed on. I wasnt sure if the tank had hit another mini cycle soon after cycling as I ended up on daily water changes as even after a few days of solid 0's in the fish's last few days it was showing very slight nitrites.

Anyway after a few more weeks of letting the tank run and like I say having a few galaxy rasbora and fire tetra in mid December I took my lad to choose himself another fish after snowy had to go to the "dr" - And I had one of them terrible, really shouldn't buy this fish but what can I do moments! We went along to a pets at home actually near us that has plenty of betta stock (stock the dragon scale, elephant ear etc as well as standard unlike the other 2 near us) and my lad was taken by the "bright blue" one. - And so he came home with us, named... "Bluey"
Now immediately looking at this fish I could see it had problems, its eye were very "stuck out" - and it could barely swim in the little tank he was in but it had a few plants in too so I couldn't really see why. After several attempts at getting my lad to choose the dragon scale one instead he was having none of it and so I thought i was doing the fish a favour by bringing it home. At this point i was thinking it was just quite a old fish. Once i got him home and got him in the tank it became apparent this fish had more issues, it had a severely bent spine and could very barely move around the tank! He was a doubletail which research told me bent spines were more common on these types, I thought it could be a case of poor feeding (none soaked) so tried the small bits of pea for treatment as well as a fast but nothing improved it and it unfortunately became apparent he just had a badly bent spine and that was how he'd be!
He seemed to do ok, he was very lazy as he could barely swim as you'd expect but he did ok, he lasted until the heat waves mid June (6 months), water temps got right up and i did a few water changes, could of just been coincidence but that seemed to just be the last straw for him.

As keeping fish seems to mean you cant be without a betta we got the new guy last month, went to a LFS shop for this one and with the COVID situation I wouldn't take my lad with me so it meant I could have a good look around, took photos of the options. Back out to the car and he chose one from my phone and that's where we're up too. This one my son named "Dave" ::wtf:: ::thumb::

So currently in the tank is a Betta, 1 galaxy rasbora, 3 fire tetra and a otto. We're looking at upgrading this tank, got 2 options atm. One we have a 10 gallon hospital tank which i've just brought a new nano LED light for so i could put that tank where this is then up the fire/rasbora number a little to get them a group. Another option is i've seen a few shops selling the ciano 60l tank for £60! - its tempting. Either way he'll have a bigger home soon!

The tank:


Image

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Bicher Congo Biotope Tank Log
Discus Tank Tank Log
Musk Turtle Tank Tank Log

Mbuna TankTank Log - Shut down
Turtle Falls tankTank Log - Shut down
Betta Tank 58l - Shut down
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Ric
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Here's to Dave - hope he'll do better for you.

You know, though, that the big stripey plant in the tank is not a true aquatic plant? If you've had issues with your water quality, it could have been from this type of plant simply rotting away. It makes for a good houseplant, though....and then replace it with some anubias maybe?
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plankton
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The plant may actually be part of the problem with the water quality being difficult to maintain.......?
Lee_k
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That plants only been in for about a month or so - it was purchased from a aquatic fish shop (from a plant vac!) i've been trying to find the label to see what its called
Bicher Congo Biotope Tank Log
Discus Tank Tank Log
Musk Turtle Tank Tank Log

Mbuna TankTank Log - Shut down
Turtle Falls tankTank Log - Shut down
Betta Tank 58l - Shut down
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Ric
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Anything variegated is not an aquatic plant. Unfortunately many stores continue to sell these unsuitable ones, not sure why.

My guess is its a dracaena species:
https://www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/ ... e-aquarium
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