My 50 Gallon South of the Border Community

**bignellm** · 03-26-2012, 07:50 PM

Well, as everyone who's read my 50 Gallon Acrylic Tank Project knows, I've recently set up the huge tank upgrade.

Tanks seeded with 4 week old Fluval Ceramic Rings, filled, and being treated with Stability to top it all off. Recently populated the tank with Flora and Fauna.

Front:
Thread on driftwood is where I am trying to propagate Flame Moss to.

Left:

Right:
Note my Molly's little gravel mess. Hehe, gotta sweep the small granules off the rock frequently after they eat.

If anyone noted the bubble wall, it's an LED wall, that heralds in Carnival each morning and night set by a timer.

**bignellm** · 03-26-2012, 08:04 PM

CARNIVAL!!!

Just missing the music, lol.

Ok, ok; on to more serious matters. Bottom line, get the remaining stock into the tank. Before I can, two things have to happen.
1: Algae starts forming (food for desirable snails and Oto Cats)
2: Tank must fully age and stabilize (so Rams can move in)

After that, will be editing the livestock currently in the tank, to better form schools and to limit my exposure to Live Bearer overload. Most likely will only keep the wild looking forms of the Swords and Platy. Which are not that many.

**bignellm** · 03-27-2012, 09:46 PM

Last night, found I might of starved off a little of my bio-filter in the initial setup. Should of used more used tank water I suppose.

Last night had a 0.5 Ammonia spike. Could of happened b/c of starve off of bb or maybe I added more fish than it was ready for.

Hit it with more Stability and an Ammonia Detoxifier.
Tonight, the Reading is 0.25. So, in very least is on it's way in the right direction.

*crossing fingers* that I can add the Rams in a week or two.

Then I'll work on changing populations of the Diamond Tetra, Platy, Molly, Swords, and Corys. (+/-) some here and there.

**Old Marine** · 03-27-2012, 11:03 PM

Tank Is really looking Good

**bignellm** · 03-29-2012, 05:25 PM

Not what I was hoping to deal with, but spike got a bit higher than 0.25 today, so did a 45% change. Will test again tonight and see all parameters and plan on dosing even more stability for the upcoming week.

Maybe I got a dead bottle? Oh well, least all the sensitive stock is safe in the holding pens.

Hopefully the tank chemistry falls into line soon.

**matsungit** · 03-29-2012, 08:19 PM

Your tank is cycling normally. The 45% water change will probably just prolong cycling. What kind of detoxifier do you have? See if you can bump up the dosage safely. Seachem Prime can be used up to 5x normal dosage. Stability is actually a good product. It has bacteria that reduces nitrates especially if you have media that host them, i.e. Denitrate or Matrix. The reason ammonia or nitrite is high in your system is that the bacteria strains that consume them have not fully settled in your tank. Large water changes too soon will just start them over again.

**bignellm** · 03-30-2012, 08:20 PM

You might be right, but seems I am resigned to a fish cycle from my last readings. Meaning my seeded media starved or never took.

Unfortunately I got a wake up last night on my chemistry, when I spotted my red and blue male guppy; fin fried. <= That should not have been allowed to have occurred. I am so ashamed of myself. Netted the poor guy and his cousin with way more delicate fins (not fried), and put them into a very old established tank. The fried one seems ok. Maybe will recover.

All other fish look like they're tough enough for this kind of torturous abuse.

Can't believe I'm reliving my newb experience on this large of a scale. Thought I was ahead of the curve here, but got got kicked squarely in the

on this one. I've done two 50% changes today, and will be doing a third in a few minutes, with water chemistry at 4.0ppm Ammonia, 0ppm Nitrite, 0ppm Nitrate (didn't test nitrate--assumed, didn't see a point, when Nitrite is 0). Did the Ammonia Test 2x today, so well confirmed.

I only console myself that the remaining fish don't have one or both of two conditions: Blood Red gill inflammation and/or a overall darker methemoglobin accumulating coloration. Very small, but grateful results. And I so deserve to pay the extra in products, to make this right.

Added Content:
On a side note, I would normally be celebrating this: Algae is formed well enough to include Otos and Snails, if the Chemistry was right.

**bignellm** · 03-30-2012, 11:55 PM

Ok, today's chemistry is 1.0ppm Ammonia again, with 3 50% changes. Decided to use a Mulm bomb from my established tanks to try and seed it again. Fed it directly into the filter, via intake tube primer cap. Everything's up and running again. Fish seem ok still. No one listing, gulping, or blood red in the gills.

This setback sucks, but we'll deal with it.

**bignellm** · 03-31-2012, 12:05 PM

Been about 10-12 hours, so checked the tank's status. Color for Ammonia is between two hues of green (between 1.0 and 2.0ppm) So, calling this 1.5ppm.
Nitrates are dead set at 0ppm.

Hoping the Mulm deposit into the filter helps move this along to maturity. Tank birth/adolescence is no good place to be.

**bignellm** · 03-31-2012, 12:21 PM

After this cycle started up, I began wondering, on like the 30th bucket of water; why I never bought a python? So, after refilling the tank, for the 3rd time that day; I went online to Petsolutions and ordered the Aqueon Water Changer. Though, I was a bit too stubborn to pay the extra overnight shipping and now am paying the price again, in sore muscles, lol. Going to be another 4-6 days, till it arrives to save me.

Probably another 3-5 water changes, before it gets here.

Hope it arrives soon.