Almost There Pics

[cartmanis]

:) Well, I'm really getting close.

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has some new pics up. I setup up my 2 lighting hoods, the shelf above and added some live plants... (Well, keeping in mind I have no selection in town here whatsoever)

Hoping the plants don't effect the cycle, but am hoping they start gorging on the nitrates. Picked what they had, and as I find more, I'll build up the numbers.

[Willyleigh]

Wow. very nice looking tank, well done, what fish are you planning on puttung in there?

[*Sarah*]

Very cool. I want a 90gal:18: I have my 10g cycling with plants and all is well. just started getting nitrite readings yesterday, about a week into cycling :) The plants are growing wonderfully too :)

[cartmanis]

Thanks.

I'm planning on tetras. My water should be soft and fairly acidic once this whole process is over and I do a water change. The ph and hardness has changed a bunch with the cycling and addition of ammonia it seems.

I'm thinking a large group of cardinals. Some otto cats, cory's, some other tetra's and maybe a loach or 3. If I could find another butterfly pleco, I'd love to have one or two again. Or another small one.

(when I say large group of cardinals, I'm thinking 20-30 when done.)

Nitrites were off the chart today, so just waiting for things to drop before a big water change, and then start adding fish slowly.

[Chrona]

You should test your tap water's pH and hardness. For such a large tank, trying to keep your pH low when your tap water is alkaline and hard is a losing battle, unless you get an RO unit.

[cartmanis]

I'm not into adjusting water. ph out of the tap was 6-6.5, gh and Kh were the lowest readings. (that's after runnung through our household water filtration - which I exhausted the day I washed the gravel and filled the tank.) Been there, done that with the alkaline hard water I had back in Ontario. Not doing that again.

[Severus]

Tank looks great! Keep us updated

[jweintraub]

Tank looks great! Just one question... is your heater going to stay laying on the substrate like that, I'd reccomend some suction cups.

[cartmanis]

Both heaters are suction cupped to the back wall, guess the stealth part refers to the suction cups :)

Big time cloudy water this morning. Not sure if that is a bacterial bloom, (since I added live plants from the stores tanks, or I was just ready for a big burst of bacteria) or soemthing else. I'll test later today to see what is what.
It's cloudy enough I can't see from one side of the tank to the other.

[cocoa_pleco]

grey or white water is often bacteria

[cartmanis]

Yeah, it isn't green. (I've had a diatom bloom in my first tank, nothing like that)

This is like you said, more a grey/white general cloudyness to the water.
Still getting high Ammonia/Nitrite and Nitrate readings, so probably just bacteria growing to handle those.

[Chrona]

I'm not into adjusting water. ph out of the tap was 6-6.5, gh and Kh were the lowest readings. (that's after runnung through our household water filtration - which I exhausted the day I washed the gravel and filled the tank.) Been there, done that with the alkaline hard water I had back in Ontario. Not doing that again.

Wow, I'm envious. Maybe we need some more acid rain around here or something ;)

[cartmanis]

Well, without the household water filtration, the stuff is hard, alkaline and full of biologicals (read tanin's). Figure if I want to run an african tank, I just use the water from before the softener/biological filter. lol. We have put an arm and a leg into getting our water usable in the house for us so that it wasn't staining our clothes and leaving the fixtures/bathtubs etc... brown. When the guy tested the water, we had the 2nd highest reading they had see in Canada. What fun.

The end result is, my aquariums will be soft and acidic, which seems to suit a lot of fish. (unless I spend a whole afternoon washing gravel with it, in which case the water gets back to it's orginal state when you take an additional 90 gallons of it. lol.

[jeffs99dime]

nice job bro! you should put the link to your pictures in your signature--jeff

[cartmanis]

Thanks, good idea.

[genitor]

nice setup

[cartmanis]

Thanks. Can't wait to find more plants, and get some fish :)