Catface's (backdated) tank log

[catface26]

Hello everyone.

I thought it might be a good idea to start one of these as I never did one and it may be useful for people to see where I've gone wrong and how I rectified things and also where I'm at now as I'm still trying to solve issues!

Starting from the beginning -

September '14

I was fortunate enough to stumble across this forum as a friend who I was talking to about fish had urged me to complete a fishless cycle. Very happy that he said that, knowing what I know now about LFS advice, the labour involved with fish-in cycling and the potential harm caused to the fish.
I set my tank up with gravel, some bogwood and plastic plants.


Not a lot to report in between getting the fish. The cycling went well. Kept testing every day until the readings were 0 for 3 days in a row.
Only thing that did happen was some rogue snails got in on an Anubias nana that I bought from P@H.

20th September - first fish in!



27th September - first corys go in

After lots of discussion about the substrate I had at this point, I went ahead and added 3 C. deckerii. I didn't realise at the time of purchasing but these poor corys had lost their barbels. When I went back for 3 more I told Maidenhead about it and they didn't really seem that bothered. They just said they were wild caught and that it happens. And that they would grow back.
They have grown back a little bit now but they're not as long as the other 3 Deckerii and the 3 Sterbai which I later added.



29th September - brown algae

Started to notice brown algae on the glass which I later learned is quite normal in new tanks as it settled after a few weeks.



4th October - more corys, amano shrimp and assassins go in



10th October - I added 3 Ottocinclus to help with the algae

17th October - The big substrate change!

So my corys seemed to be unhappy with my substrate. Not only because of the coarseness of it but it was quite bright in the light. After much deliberation, I took the plunge and changed it to sand! It all went well in general although I didn't rinse it properly so it stayed cloudy for about 12 hours. The fish were happy in a large 30L tub with the filter and heater in while I did this.



I was really chuffed once I'd finished this as I quickly realised how much I wanted a natural planted tank after a few weeks of having the tank set up. I think I was more concerned with keeping the fish healthy at first and thought I could concern myself with decoration at a later date.
If I could go back in time I would tell myself to calm down a bit and actually decide what kind of tank I want before jumping in. Could of saved a lot of time and money if I'd of just got a sand substrate to start with!

24th October - my first pregnant Amano shrimp!





And my first cory eggs!



27th October - Nitrite spike

For reasons I still can't explain, I had a small nitrite spike which may have been because I cleaned the filter sponge to vigorously. It took 1 week of daily 50% changes to rectify.

November 2nd - more plants



November 17th - black background added and a move around





November 19th - female betta added to the community



*Update to follow*

[TropicalFishForums]

[carranty]

Very nice, I eagerly await the update .

[plankton]

What a transformation so far Well done!

[Zac460]

Looking good One of the prettiest female betta I've seen too.

[catface26]

**Update**

So at around the time of adding the background and the betta, I started to notice a couple of things. Firstly, hair algae on the Anubias had started to appear and I started to notice green spot algae on the glass.
Thinking that the Amanos and Ottos would do a good job of mopping this up, I left it. I really wish I hadn't as I'm still suffering now.
If you have algae, deal with it immediately! Or at the very least, research why it's there and if you actually want it there.

The second thing I started to question in my mind was whether my little internal filter was actually adequate for this tank. It supposedly has a turnover rate of 500lph! Do you know what I say to that claim? B******S.

The amount of detritus that gets siphoned up every week is not a sign of an efficient filter!

I started toying with the idea of a new filter at this point but my girlfriend was heavily pregnant and I think I just gave up on the idea and focused on her!

26th November - A couple more plants added



At this point I ordered some ferts. I ordered the TNC Lite. Which it turns out was the wrong choice. 
The reason I ordered the Lite is it specifies that it for fully stocked tanks, which I believe I am. With this, the tank should be producing phosphates and nitrate independently. I have since discovered that Green Spot algae is a clear sign of a lack of phosphates in the tank. I'm still yet to switch to TNC complete but will be very soon. Hopefully this helps to clear up the green spot.

November 30th - even more plants added!



Sadly the Cardamine lyrata (next to the Ludwigia) didn't last very long. It melted and then all it's new leaves were really tiny and in the end it uprooted it's self so I gave up with it.

December 6th - yet more plants, catappa leaves and some new corys

Ever since I got my C.deckerii, they've been shy. I've done everything I can to help them. Change the substrate, add shady areas, floating plants to dim the light, things for them to hide under, catappa leaves, feeding them bloodworm every day, serenading them. Everything. I thought about upping the numbers to 9 to see what happens. Went to my LFS and came home with 3 Sterbai corys. Fell in love with them in the shop as their markings are lovely. After an initial flurry of activity the sterbais have settled in as part of the cory family but they're all still shy. If I'm away from the tank I can see them coming to the front and they will come out during the day when the lights are off, and they obviously come out to feed, but I don't seem to have that same cory experience that most people do. I don't get a sense of their character as I never see them! I am considering re-homing them all and thinking about some new tank mates but not sure yet. We'll see.



Christmas - Algae. Yuck!

At this point the Green spot algae started to get worse. I started to research nerite snail compatibility with Assassin snails. Wow. What a minefield of conflicting advice and experiences from the internet! Having looked back at my posts, I completely ignored Glasswalker telling me that Green Spot was due to low phosphates at this point! 

I went ahead and added 2 Zebra nerite snails. They never stop eating and are really helping keep the algae under control. Had no issues with the assassins either. At least so far!

January 6th - The Silvania natans had begun to do my head in. Kept getting stuck under the Aamazon sword leaves and forming a big ball which then died off and filled the tank with dead leaves.  Removed it and ordered some Indian Fern with the intention of floating it instead of planting it.

Had a couple of weeks of not thinking about the tank here as we had a baby!

January 18th - New camera!

Bought a new camera to document my daughter's life (mostly). I was obviously going to enjoy using it to photograph the fish!































At this point I was thinking about ways to increase the flow a bit more cheaply. I began to read a lot about how important flow is for planted tanks. The word "wavemaker" had cropped up a few times so I investigated these.
A word of warning. A "wavemaker" is only a wavemaker if it comes with some sort of controller. All a wavemaker is is a powerhead that is switched on and off in a sequence by a controller to create the wave effect. I didn't know this so I just went ahead and bought a 2000lph "wavemaker" from APS 

When it arrived I immediately installed it and switched it on. I was initially shocked as it was stirring up the tank and the guppies were going crazy! Once it all settled though the guppies appeared to love the flow so I changed my mind a bit. In fact I'm still using it now for 8 hours a day during the day just to assist the flow.

I would not recommend the 2000lph APS one though as it is very noisy and will add a significant hum to your tank!

So here we are today. I obviously wasn't going to keep the powerhead due to it being bulky and noisy. So after some kind recommendations and advice from Stephen, I've ordered a Tetratec EX 800 Plus external filter. I've also ordered some Biohome mini ultra, Eheim mech pro and some new sponge sheets to go in.

I really hope this will give me the flow I am looking for and I will gain lots of space in the tank after the powerhead and internal filter are gone!

Only thing left to do is order some TNC Complete and stop using the Lite. Hopefully I can beat the algae!

[catface26]

Thought I'd add at this point that, although it's been a bit of a nightmare getting my head around everything as I go with this hobby, I have not lost a single fish or seen any sign of fish being unhealthy. I have the people of this forum to thank for that, so thank you!

[plankton]

Nice pics (watch the language )....

[catface26]

Yeah sorry Ian it did cross my mind. :D

[catface26]

New filter!!

So after more deliberation, research and helpful recommendations I decided to get rid of my puny internal filter that came with the tank and upgrade to the Tetratec EX 800 Plus external filter.

I was kindly informed by Stephen that although this was a good choice of filter, the supplied media isn't that great.
I wonder why a company such a Tetra, or anyone else for that matter, would provide filter media that is a load of crap? 10 seconds of googling will reveal a myriad of results claiming this, so why bother?

Anyway, I went ahead and bought some Biohome ultra mini. some Eheim mech pro and some pond filter sheets. All from Ebay. All of the extra media was around £30 and the filter was £65 from zooplus.co.uk so not the cheapest of tank upgraded if you're on a budget but this is valuable information when it comes to startups. It means that when you go to your LFS and think you're getting a good deal because you can buy a tank that comes with a heater and filter, it appears that the filter will almost always be insufficient for the tank. I suppose that does depend what kind of tank you're setting up. It's certainly the case if you want real plants. But who doesn't want real plants? Everyone seems to want plants eventually!

The filter was very easy to put together out of the box. I swapped out all of the media I didn't need and added all the new stuff. Leaving space for my old filter sponge when I did the swap.

The pipe work was all easy to put together, and then I came to actually fitting it to the tank!

I have a 65l tank and this filter is apparently designed for tanks between 100l and 300l. Whilst more filtration than actually needed is always good, the pipe work for this filter clearly wasn't designed for such a small tank as the "up and over" parts for the spray bar and intake pipe are massive!

After some head scratching and frantic posting, asking for help I have just removed the rear section of the hood, which has a flap at the front and back, installed the pipe work and then just wedged the back flap back on. The whole hood still hinges fine, I just have to take the back flap off if I want to open the tank fully for maintenance.

This could easily be made a bit tidier by cutting some slots into the flap and reattaching it. But I'm in no rush to do this and it looks fine.

It does mean that the pipes stick out at the back, but I'm happy with that.



I had the obligatory panic the first night of "will the bacteria be ok after the move? EEEEKKK! To my relief, I came down the next morning and tested right away and ammonia and nitrite were 0! PHEW!

The filter has been running for a couple of days now and it is performing extremely well. It's very quiet. And the slight noise it does make is a nicer sound that the old hum from the internal. It's more of a very faint whoooshhing noise. Hard to explain with text! Can barely hear it though even when the room is otherwise silent.

Looking at the movement of the plants and how food travels when put in, the flow looks excellent. A vast improvement on the old internal.

All in all extremely pleased!

[Stephen]

All sounds goods Joe and the pics are quite good too.
Well done 

[catface26]

All sounds goods Joe and the pics are quite good too.
Well done 

Thanks for all the help, Stephen.

Watched the tank for half an hour after work and have noticed the corys are much more active than usual and seem to be a lot braver.
Is there any correlation do you think? Maybe they like the increased flow or maybe the sand surface is a lot cleaner?
The tank certainly looks a lot cleaner than it was.

[carranty]

Is there any correlation do you think? Maybe they like the increased flow or maybe the sand surface is a lot cleaner?

I'd guess that there is. The increased flow will cause more agitation at the top, and therefore more oxygenation of the water. I find my harleys (I got some more, currently in my QT) are a lot more active when i turn my air stone on....

[emma1454]

Although externals still terrify me I do think they are so much better than internals for a myriad of reasons. I run one on my 60L. I have never had any algae problems in that tank, which I put down to a great flow from the external (plus my amanos  ) The 125L on the other hand has been a nightmare....


I love your 'scape, really natural and fresh. The pics are fab too. Congrats on the baby

[catface26]

Although externals still terrify me I do think they are so much better than internals for a myriad of reasons. I run one on my 60L. I have never had any algae problems in that tank, which I put down to a great flow from the external (plus my amanos  ) The 125L on the other hand has been a nightmare....


I love your 'scape, really natural and fresh. The pics are fab too. Congrats on the baby

Thanks Emma.

I've come home today to an ammonia spike.

Noticed the guppies hanging around the filter intake which I thought was slightly odd. Tested the water and got 0 nitrite and 0.5ppm ammonia.

Really can't think of anything that could of caused this. Tank has been running on the new filter for a week with no problems. The tank is cleaner than it's ever been. Changed 50% of the water yesterday. I didn't empty the water that was in the filter which is 6l worth but can't see that being the issue.

Daily changes until it's resolved. Although No2 of the 3 different test bottles for ammonia has just ran out.