My 190L corner

[weedkiller]

never blogged before so here we gooooooooooooooooo...
this is where it all started

one month later 19-11-2012.
4.0ppm ammonia disappearing to 0.25/0ppm in 10 hours, waiting for the nitrites to hit 0ppm then we good to go..
will update once the fish are in and happy
want to add a bit more decor so other fish have their own happy place, do have a large bogwood but waiting for the tannins to leach out completely (taking forever)

[weedkiller]

added decor and bogwood for my plec, will have to put up with any more tannins for time being, nitrites nearly 0 so few more days and ill transfer my plec, one of the silver dollars become unwell so treated with melafix and pimafix and a dose of aquarium salts so hopefully he will make a good recovery and ill transfer him in a week once the treatments finish

[weedkiller]

aquaworld nitrate remover arrived today.... let it run for the 1st 20l and discard and took sample and tested for nitrates and it reads '0'
not bad seeing as my tap water test reads 20-40ppm

[P.senegalus]

That's a cool aquarium. Looks nice.

[weedkiller]

aquaworld nitrate remover reduced nitrates but it seems it increases nitrites and now i seem to be waiting for the tank to cycle again to get rid of nitrites so the nitrate remover not as good as everyone seems to believe, did a 20% water change on my 64L tank with same water and has increased nitrites to .25ppm whereas it was 0,
so now ive purchased a V2 Pure 50 Advanced and may change the water again in the 190L with R.O and start the cycle again.
Gutted as i was getting excited as i really want to go buy my Blue Acaras and to get the silver dollars and the plec i brought last week into the 190L and out of the 64L.
The silver dollars are growing fast as they keep stealing the plecs algae discs and cucumber lol.
Gong to buy the fittings today so i can install R.O so it is removable rather than use the fittings that come with it that make it a permanent fixture

[weedkiller]

plumbed my v2 pure ro filter in today, slow process but seems worth it, ammo=0 nitrites=0, nitrates somewhere between 0 and 5ppm, ph=6.6
in all = happy fishes

[Obsidian]

You don't want to remove all of your nitrates, you need nitrates to deal with the ammonia and nitrite. The only tank that should have 0 nitrates is a planted tank. Otherwise there will always be some nitrates in there. I try to keep mine at under 20 ppm, and usually under 10. They are not bad for the fish at lower levels.

The extremely shortened version of your cycle: 1. Ammonia source= ammonia. 2. Ammonia turns to nitrite. 3. Nitrite turns to Nitrate. Once nitrate is present it converts ammonia through this "cycle" very quickly, thus your tank is cycled.

[emc7]

It took rereading. But it looks like its a nitrate filter on the new water as the tap has nitrate in it.

[Obsidian]

LOL good catch emc- totally slipped past me. That explains a lot!

[weedkiller]

the nitrate in the tap water is about 50+ppm hence why im trying to reduce it, long term i know the nitrates will rise naturally in the tank that is why im trying to keep them low so the initial tapwater + nature together make the nitrates go off the chart...
good news is my nitrites are dropping daily

[weedkiller]

finally my tank has cycled whoop whoop.
going for a big water change to drop the nitrates add a little more ammonia to make sure i have not killed the bacteria and start stocking... cant wait

[weedkiller]

trip to pets@home today and returned with 2 blue acaras and a bristlenose plec to add to the mega clown plec and 2 silver dollars.
put the dollars and clown plec in this morning and as expected they have gone into hiding and have not moved, the clown plec does all waht he wants in pitch black as ive caught him darting back to his hole when the lights go on lol.
the bristlenose since being added a few hours ago went straight to the glass and started sucking all it could get and the acaras have been checking the place out quite happily, dont know if they are male/females as yet, may have got lucky and got one of each but far too early to tell.

heres the silver dollars playing peek aboo


1 blue acara



2 blue acara



and the bristlenose plec


the other plec is hiding around the back of the cave so i cant get a pic, im sure he will get evicted once the acaras decide they want to live there.
I will get better pics in due course

[weedkiller]

heres a pic of the 2 acaras together
The acaras keep going through the tunnel of the cave and it seems the clown plec has adopted it as his home so it keeps chasing the acaras out, am wondering how long its gonna last as i recon once the acaras decide they want it i recon the plec will be jogged on lol

[Obsidian]

It's looking really good!!!!!

[weedkiller]

thanks....