Sunnyside: Its been 12 months

[mikeyw64]

almost to the day since I last posted (although I have been lurking from time to time) . Been a manic year for one reason or another but anyways leaving that too one side.

So the big news is I'm down to one tank now since about 8 months ago. Fireplace & castle in a cube are no more although I'm pleased to report Sunnyside is doing well(well apart from one recent minor panic moment which I'll come back too).

So Sunnyside now home to a mixture of cardinal, black neon, glow, bleeding heart, ember & rummy tetras . There's some Ottos in there (don't ask how many as they hide and I only se them in 2's or 3's occasionally) plus a mixture of Panda, Albino & Sterbai corys. There's also a solitary platy and of course I can't forget Archie who also has some more Angels to keep him company

Oh my minor panic? That happened a few weeks ago now. Bacteria bloom, water looked like it had had milk poured into it. Thought my cycle had crashed.

Only thing I can think that triggered it is that my tap water has (as I found out whilst working out what was wrong) plummeted from it's historic PH7,KH3,GH7 to PH6,KH1,GH2 (where it's still testing at) !!!

Got the tank back up to PH7,KH4,GH6 using slowly administered teaspoons of Calcium Carbonate and currently it hasn't had a water change for around 3 weeks but am watching the ANN figures (so far Ammonia & Nitrites are always 0 and curiously my Nitrate is also barely above 0 (as checked on 2 kits as a precaution).

Anyways I am around and still alive & kicking but just very busy, must try harder





If the pic doesn't show click here

[Stephen]

Good to see you again Mike

[Jon_D]

Hi Mike, glad to have you back and hope everything improves for you. Yep! You have been missed.
Regarding the cloudy water. 2 years ago, when I had been fish-keeping for only about 12 months, my 10 gallon tank suddenly had an infestation of whatever. I say "whatever" as I had no idea what it was, even after studying about algae. I couldn't see the fish through the greeny- brown murk, even if they were right up against the front of the tank. In the end after about 8 weeks, I put the fish in a quarantine tank before transfer to the CT, and then dumped everything from the 10 gallon. That took much longer than I would have thought and at that moment I realised how much money I was throwing into the bin, plants, substrate and all. Keep safe.

[Staffylover]

Hi Mike, great to see an update, bit worrying that your tap water changed so drastically, but glad the tank is doing well again now

[mikeyw64]

meanwhile I wonder if this (wot I originally posted on Farcebook) will trigger anyone ;o)

________________

so I was watching one of Johns videos from last year in which he "suggested" only cleaning your Filter when "needed" so thought I would share my experience with my setup in Sunnyside, as that has been pretty much my approach (but maybe some would say I take it to excess).

Sunnyside ( a 300L/80USG) community was commissioned in Jan 2020 so has been running now for nearly 2.5 years.

My primary filter is an AllPondsSolution (SunSun) 2000EF which has a pre filter canister also from APS/SunSun in front of it ( I also have a Hygger style double foam item running in the tank as a secondary/ready to drop into a smaller tank if required in an emergency).

The main filter had all the OOTB sponges etc removed and was filled with around 3kg(6.5lbs) of Biohome Ultra and a further (nearly) 3kg(6.5lbs) of Alfagrog then any free holes were filled with the plastic balls that came with the filter.

The Prefilter has 3 grades of foam in (coarse, medium & fine).

To date I have yet to open my Main Filter and have only had to clean out the pre filter three times on noticing the flow had slowed with the last time (now that I think about it) being nearly 12 months ago.

The nice thing with the Pre filter is its light and has shutoff cocks on the in & out pipework which I guess may lead some people to say "well why don't you clean it on a schedule?" ;o)

Also of note is that I have a fairly deep base in Sunnyside and what you cant see is another 1-2 kg of alfagrog in mesh bags under/behind the lava rock with was then covered with sand (actually knwo I think of it I'm pretty certain I also have alfagrog under the front part as well)

[mikeyw64]

Hi Mike, great to see an update, bit worrying that your tap water changed so drastically, but glad the tank is doing well again now

Its the only thing I can put it down too as TBH I dont check it regularly but I know what it has been historically and what it should be according to UU. The current figures dont align with either.

Of note we also had a period about 2 weeks before where there was an issue with water quality (water coming out of the tap brown)

[BigBen]

Hi Mike, great to see an update, bit worrying that your tap water changed so drastically, but glad the tank is doing well again now

Its the only thing I can put it down too as TBH I dont check it regularly but I know what it has been historically and what it should be according to UU. The current figures dont align with either.

Of note we also had a period about 2 weeks before where there was an issue with water quality (water coming out of the tap brown)

At my old house we had seasonal swings in hardness, so I always had to keep an eye on the pH.

[Staffylover]

eugh that sounds bad, I don't test my water unless I have a problem or am setting up a new tank even then I wouldn't think to test the tap water, as I know what it should be, but perhaps I will in future after this.

[plankton]

Obviously I had a brain fart yesterday as I'm sure I posted here, but anyways.....
Hi Mikey, nice to see you around.
The munchers would have had to readjust to the new water parameters, so there could have been a bloom while it was going on.

[mikeyw64]

Obviously I had a brain fart yesterday as I'm sure I posted here, but anyways.....
Hi Mikey, nice to see you around.
The munchers would have had to readjust to the new water parameters, so there could have been a bloom while it was going on.

Thought I could smell something lol


Aye thats what I thought but it was a pretty dramatic shift