New Tank Blues
 

I don't know if anyone remembers me at this list, I've been offline
for a year or so. At any rate, after many, many years of vociferously
advocating the UGF-school of natural planted aquaria, I've decided to
cross-over and TRY a high-tech tank for myself.

The tank's been up for ten days and BOY, IS IT MURKY IN THERE! Should
I expect the milky bloom to clear on it's own? I tried Acurel F even
though I was pretty sure it wasn't going to do anything which, in
fact, it didn't.

Here's my tank...

SETUP - - -
Perfecto 125 60"L x 18"W x 26"H
100% Caribsea Eco-Complete substrate
Tunze Substrate Heating Cable
Hamilton 6 x 55W 6700k Compact Flourescent @ 11 hours
EHEIM Professional II Thermofilter 2128
Pressurised CO2 @ 65 bubbles/minute
Aqualine Bushke Aquamedic External Reactor 1000, inline

WATER - - -
Temp = 78.3°F
pH = 7.0
gH = 75
kH = 120
Fe = 0.1 ppm
NO2 = 0
NO3 = 5.0 ppm

(didn't test for ammonia, seemed pointless, what with all the plants
and apparently healthy fish)

CRITTERS - - -
3 German Rams (juveniles, just over 1")
11 Harlequin Rasbora
2 Kribensis (about 2")
15 Ottos
4 Corydora ( 1")
20 Cardina Japonica (more or less)

(adding golden clams, nerite snails and wood shrimp at the end of the
week, which may make things better or may make things worse.)

PLANTS - - -
2 bunches Limnophilia sessiliflora
3 bunches Heteranthera zosterifolia
2 bunches Rotala indica
3 bunches Rotala wallichii
2 bunches Alternathera reinekii 'Rosaefolia'
2 bunches Glossostigma elatinoides
4 bunches Hygrophilia difformis
10 pots Crypt petchi
4 pots Crypt Wendti
5 pots Eleocharis acicularis
14 pots Echinodorus tennellus
1 pot Eleocharis montevidensis
1 Unidentified Tiger Lotus
8 Echinodorus parviflorus 'Tropica'

Any suggestions will be appreciated. Alternatively, if you just want
to tell me that everything will clear up on it's own with a few days,
that's even better.

Also, using Chuck's CO2 table, and the pH and kH parameters noted
above, my CO2 should be about 20 ppm. Using the RedSea test kit,
however, yields a result of about 10ppm. Do I care or do I just toss
the tests and watch the pretty O bubbles?

Thanks,
kush

You made one big mistake.

You don't put in fish ten days after you start the tank. You have to wait
three weeks for the bacterial cycle to be in effect. After the first week
you put in some starter fish like danios or something, then after three you
can slowly start to introduce fish.

Also when you put the water in the tank, you are supposed to pour it on the
plate in order not to disturb the gravel and cause sediment and gravel dust
to be released in the water.

Seems like you made the common mistake of jumping the gun.

The water's gonna be cloudy for a while nothing you can do.

"kush" wrote in message
om...
I don't know if anyone remembers me at this list, I've been offline
for a year or so. At any rate, after many, many years of vociferously
advocating the UGF-school of natural planted aquaria, I've decided to
cross-over and TRY a high-tech tank for myself.

The tank's been up for ten days and BOY, IS IT MURKY IN THERE! Should
I expect the milky bloom to clear on it's own? I tried Acurel F even
though I was pretty sure it wasn't going to do anything which, in
fact, it didn't.

Here's my tank...

SETUP - - -
Perfecto 125 60"L x 18"W x 26"H
100% Caribsea Eco-Complete substrate
Tunze Substrate Heating Cable
Hamilton 6 x 55W 6700k Compact Flourescent @ 11 hours
EHEIM Professional II Thermofilter 2128
Pressurised CO2 @ 65 bubbles/minute
Aqualine Bushke Aquamedic External Reactor 1000, inline

WATER - - -
Temp = 78.3°F
pH = 7.0
gH = 75
kH = 120
Fe = 0.1 ppm
NO2 = 0
NO3 = 5.0 ppm

(didn't test for ammonia, seemed pointless, what with all the plants
and apparently healthy fish)

CRITTERS - - -
3 German Rams (juveniles, just over 1")
11 Harlequin Rasbora
2 Kribensis (about 2")
15 Ottos
4 Corydora ( 1")
20 Cardina Japonica (more or less)

(adding golden clams, nerite snails and wood shrimp at the end of the
week, which may make things better or may make things worse.)

PLANTS - - -
2 bunches Limnophilia sessiliflora
3 bunches Heteranthera zosterifolia
2 bunches Rotala indica
3 bunches Rotala wallichii
2 bunches Alternathera reinekii 'Rosaefolia'
2 bunches Glossostigma elatinoides
4 bunches Hygrophilia difformis
10 pots Crypt petchi
4 pots Crypt Wendti
5 pots Eleocharis acicularis
14 pots Echinodorus tennellus
1 pot Eleocharis montevidensis
1 Unidentified Tiger Lotus
8 Echinodorus parviflorus 'Tropica'

Any suggestions will be appreciated. Alternatively, if you just want
to tell me that everything will clear up on it's own with a few days,
that's even better.

Also, using Chuck's CO2 table, and the pH and kH parameters noted
above, my CO2 should be about 20 ppm. Using the RedSea test kit,
however, yields a result of about 10ppm. Do I care or do I just toss
the tests and watch the pretty O bubbles?

Thanks,
kush

On 2004-11-01, kush wrote:
CRITTERS - - -
3 German Rams (juveniles, just over 1")
11 Harlequin Rasbora
2 Kribensis (about 2")
15 Ottos
4 Corydora ( 1")
20 Cardina Japonica (more or less)

Eeeeek! I'd hold off on adding anything else until you see this tank
cycle. I suspect you're going to see a lot of bad ammonia effects.
This is definitely overstocked for a tank that hasn't cycled yet. If
you have another community tank to put some of these fishes into, I'd
recommend that. The other poster has explained well what happened.

As far as your murky water - when I started my high-tech tanks, I just
added a few fish to cycle as normally is done, but also added all the
planting stuff. My water would always have some bacteria blooms and
couldiness as the tank adjusts to the bio-load and how much the plants
consume. Don't worry about this - it'll clear up in a month or so. A
biowheel, handful of gravel, or filter cartridge from an established
tank will help you out and speed up the water clearing up.


--
Ross Vandegrift


"The good Christian should beware of mathematicians, and all those who
make empty prophecies. The danger already exists that the mathematicians
have made a covenant with the devil to darken the spirit and to confine
man in the bonds of Hell."
--St. Augustine, De Genesi ad Litteram, Book II, xviii, 37