20 Gal - Beginner journal

sdivell

sdivell

Medium Fish
#1
Jul 20, 2007
88
0
0
Ottawa, Ontario
#1
Ok guys everyones probably seen my questions all over the place but I thought I'd start doing this to get hints and suggestions while I go along. Also this will be good for me to go back and reference where I am.

The story up to today.
Tank purchased and set up Thursday, July 19. Its a 20 Gal from Hagen. Came with heater, AquaClear 30 power filter and the hood with 2 - 15w flour. bulbs. Also I purchased some live plants as well. 2 groupings of hygrophia corymbosa and 2 groupings of egeria densa - anarchis.

Saturday - July 21.
Went to my LFS and after a short discussion with an employee decided to get 5 platies...he accidentally put 6 in the bag and I didn't notice until I got home so I named one of them "Freebie".

Since then I have been doing 25% and 50% water changes trying to keep my ammonia levels down and after it seemed I was getting no where I tested my tap water and it would appear there is about .6pmm in my drinking water so I can see I'm going to have a tough go with the cycling.

Thursday - July 26.
The groupings of egeria densa are completely dead and the fish have been eating the remains and debris is all over the tank. Did a huge water change as my ammonia levels were around 1.6ppm not to mention i wanted to clean up all the dead plant and pull the dead plants out.
Nitrite = 0.1ppm
Nitrate = 0ppm
Ammonia = 0.5ppm (lower then my tap water reading from the other day but my hopes arn't up yet)

Tank photo as it is today - after the water change and pulling out the dead plants. Notice the hygrophia corymbosa are looking very healthy. - 4 of my batman platies are visible. The other 2 are hiding in the back behind the plants.

Please give me suggestions on where to go from here, plant wise, layout wise and fish wise.
 

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James From Cali

James From Cali

Superstar Fish
#2
Aug 25, 2006
1,752
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Sacramento, California
profile.myspace.com
#2
What do you like better in there. The rocks or the wood. In a planted tank you really want the plants and 1 hardscape. You have less then 1 wpg, roughly .75 wpg. This is not the best of lighting. But if you wish to keep it you can get Java Moss, Fissidens Fontanus(another species of moss), Java fern, and most anubias species. The mosses and the Fern and the anubias should be tied to driftwood or rocks.

The background can be changed out to a black one later. I think that if you grouped the hygro closer and then replanted it to fill the back you will have a nice bushy and lush background. You can even allow moss to grow as a foreground. Steel mesh works well if you push it down ofver moss onto the gravel(where part of the mesh is covered but not the moss). All of your plants will grow very very very very slowly.
 

sdivell

sdivell

Medium Fish
#3
Jul 20, 2007
88
0
0
Ottawa, Ontario
#3
i have two 15 watt bulbs... = 30 watts in a 20 gal tank.. so thats over 1 watt per gallon isnt it? or am I mistaken?

oook and another question... tonight a couple of the fish seem to be really interested in the top-back left corner of the tank... they dont really seem to be looking for food.. just kinda hanging out at the surface...

also I have 1 who has planted himself on the bottom of the tank behind the plants right on the gravel... is he a goner? he's always been the smallest and least active of the 6 platies i have but he has the best colour
 

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FroggyFox

FroggyFox

Forum Manager
Moderator
#4
May 16, 2003
8,589
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42
Colorado
#4
looks great :) The plants (sorry I'm no good with plants) look nice and healthy. Aquascaping is really all about what YOU think looks good anyway.

Your math is right, I think James might have just missed that there were two bulbs.

Cycling can be really stressful for the fish so the best you can do is keep an eye on them, see if they're eating (but don't overfeed), try to match the temperature of the water going into the tank as close as possible so you don't stress them out more with all of the extra water changes.

Sounds like you're on a great track :)
 

lauraj

lauraj

Large Fish
#6
Jan 7, 2007
435
1
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#6
I think your tank looks really nice. The hygro looks healthy (I may have to look for that plant myself;) ) Didn't have any luck myself with the anacharis. I agree with James about the java fern, java moss, and anubias.....they are all very easy to grow (just my kind of plant)! Java fern would look great on top of your rock cave.

Not sure how often you are testing for ammonia. You may want to test everyday, cause you may need daily PWC's to keep the ammonia below 1 in order to increase the chances of the fish surviving the cycle.
 

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sdivell

sdivell

Medium Fish
#7
Jul 20, 2007
88
0
0
Ottawa, Ontario
#7
thanks guys.... yup I've been doing water changes nightly.... usually 50% but depending on the ammonia levels.. sometimes just 25% and sometimes 75% when its really bad.

Unfortunitely I have to head out of town for the weekend... so no chance to do a water change on saturday... so I hope my lil' guys can hold on until I can do one on sunday.
 

sdivell

sdivell

Medium Fish
#9
Jul 20, 2007
88
0
0
Ottawa, Ontario
#9
Back from my weekend away and unfortunately we had a casualty over the weekend. Batman was found half barried under the rock cave.

and then there were five.

Ammonia was brutal high last night... around 2.2ppm which made me hit panic mode. 50% water change right away.

Today I found a forum for the ottawa area and asked if anyone had some filter media i could take from a set up tank and luckily a guy who lives just around the corner was cleaning out his canister filter so he gave me a big ol' wad of bacteria filled wool.

I've got that seeding my filter sponge right now...cant wait to see my ammonia levels start to drop.. going to test my water in about an hour and i'll update the number... hopefully got it down below 1.2ppm or i might be losing some more platies *thumbsdow
 

sdivell

sdivell

Medium Fish
#13
Jul 20, 2007
88
0
0
Ottawa, Ontario
#13
i was accounting my water change for the ammonia drop, but maybe it is going the right way... i wont get my hopes up until those ammonia levels are 0 :)

going to the LFS this weekend to get some more plants to fill it in a bit more...hopefully can find some java moss as well.
 

sdivell

sdivell

Medium Fish
#14
Jul 20, 2007
88
0
0
Ottawa, Ontario
#14
Getting my hopes up - Wednesday August 1st

The cycle begins... I think :)
Levels today:
NitrITE = 1.6ppm
NitrATe = 50ppm
Ammonia = 0.3ppm (without a water change yesturday or today it went down)

things are looking good. I'm getting a few more plants today from someone on a local aquarium thread... so i'll be doing a water change to lower my nitrites and plant the new plants.. and then I'll snap a couple new pictures for everyone.
*BOUNCINGS
 

sdivell

sdivell

Medium Fish
#17
Jul 20, 2007
88
0
0
Ottawa, Ontario
#17
nah nah nah nah hey hey hey goood-bye

Ammonia = 0ppm
finally that part of the cycle is over.

Picked up a Co2 diffuser today at the LFS and got that in there to help my plants grow... this hobby is pretty nerdy but i love it. *thumbsups

heres some more pics of the tank as it is this week.
I removed some of the dirty wool from my filter so I was able to put the bio filter to get that seeded from my sponge and some of the old dirty wool that i left in there.... probably wait another week until i remove all the wool and put the charcoal back in the filter.

neat shot i took tonight... note a new snail about 3 of these guys have just appeared....hitched a ride on my new plants probably.
 

sdivell

sdivell

Medium Fish
#18
Jul 20, 2007
88
0
0
Ottawa, Ontario
#18
Big Update...well big to me!

Tank is cycled..

Ammonia = 0ppm
Nitrite = 0ppm
Nitrate = 10ppm

So off to the fish store I went! Got 5 Julii Corys... 5 of them are just babies less than an inch and 1 adult sized. very active.. they seem to enjoy the new tank.

g/f also got some roberti tetras which are pretty neat.. they're active but staying behind the hygros in the rear of the tank.

The tank today.. the Hygros have grown so much in the past 2 weeks.

My new buddy.. this is the big julii cory - he loves the rock cave.
 

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