*UPDATED 20/5/11*
Size: 500 Ltr
Filtration: 2x 2400 Ltr/Hr Canister
Wave Maker: 12000 Ltr/Hr - Reduced to 6000 Ltr/Hr and then removed completely as it was too hectic.
Total Filtration: 9.6 turnover/Hr
Total Turnover: 9.6 turnover/Hr
Lighting: 156w 6500k T5 for 8.5 hrs a day
156w 10,000k T5 for 8.5 hrs a day
Co2: Pressurised. Comes on 2 hours before lights on and off 2 hours before lights off. Currently sitting between green and yellow.
Substrate: Kitty litter with slow release ferts buried within
ADA Amazon II
Nutrient: EI Dry salts
Inhabitants: (Not final)
Gyrinocheilus aymonieri, Sucking Catfish
Alot of Shrimp.
Some Rams Horn snails.
Flora:
Glossostigma Elatiniodes
Various local mosses
Some hair grass which I haven't decided on yet.
Pogostemon Helferi
My new setup is a lawn of Glosso under the shadaow of mossy "trees".
The tank took 17 hours to pull down and re setup and involved alot of pain staking work. All went well on the first day and then disaster struck the next morning. I origionally was not going to post this journal until I had it fully planted but because I can use advice on it I have decided to post this now.
Enjoy!
These are the sticks which will become the trees. These I sourced from local dead pine trees.
The mosses:
Placing the Kitty Litter:
The slow release fertiliser:
The Glosso and planting the glosso:
Placing the moss onto one of the trees. I tied it onto the wood with cotton. Very time consuming
Filling the tank:
I did a ammonia test later after putting water in and noticed 0.25-0.50 ppm and thought, "Yeah sweet, I have 2 cycled filters." and put all of my fish in. The next day when I checked ammonia the test water went blue. It only shows as high as green on the chart. I did a 80% water change and the ammonia went down to 8ppm. Still way too high. I then setup one hose syphoning water from the tank and another filling at about the same rate.
I did this for a couple of hours and the ammonia level went down to 4 ppm. The next morning it was high again so I spent another 2 hours doing the same water transfer. I fell asleep and when I woke I saw a columbian tetra floating.
I monitored the tank closely and saw that I had no water movement on the surface. I figure toxic level of ammonia reduing the fishes abilty to breath combined with the lack of heavy surface movement spelled disaster. I turned my wave maker on but the damage had been done.
Over the next hour I lossed:
11 mostly adult Rainbows
1 Sucking cat
2 Columbian tetras
3 Khuli Loaches
I transfered the rest of my fish to a makeshift holding tank where they have stopped dying.
I have started my co2 and dosing via EI method.
I will be doing a large water change late every day until the ammonia spike drops. I had read of people putting fish in before the spike drops when using amazonia and doing large water changes. I underestimated how high the spike would be.
Did I kill my fish by trying to overdo the water change? Would I have been better off doing a single large water change every day?
I need to know also if the high levels of ammonia combined with light, co2 and nutrients in the water colum will make my plants melt? I think I have read something about this before from Tom.
I do not beleive that the slow release fertiliser is responsible for high spike. I think that it is soley the aqasoil.
Thanks for reading this long, photo heavy post. Hopefully I will have some good news in the comming few weeks.
Size: 500 Ltr
Filtration: 2x 2400 Ltr/Hr Canister
Wave Maker: 12000 Ltr/Hr - Reduced to 6000 Ltr/Hr and then removed completely as it was too hectic.
Total Filtration: 9.6 turnover/Hr
Total Turnover: 9.6 turnover/Hr
Lighting: 156w 6500k T5 for 8.5 hrs a day
156w 10,000k T5 for 8.5 hrs a day
Co2: Pressurised. Comes on 2 hours before lights on and off 2 hours before lights off. Currently sitting between green and yellow.
Substrate: Kitty litter with slow release ferts buried within
ADA Amazon II
Nutrient: EI Dry salts
Inhabitants: (Not final)
Gyrinocheilus aymonieri, Sucking Catfish
Alot of Shrimp.
Some Rams Horn snails.
Flora:
Glossostigma Elatiniodes
Various local mosses
Some hair grass which I haven't decided on yet.
Pogostemon Helferi
My new setup is a lawn of Glosso under the shadaow of mossy "trees".
The tank took 17 hours to pull down and re setup and involved alot of pain staking work. All went well on the first day and then disaster struck the next morning. I origionally was not going to post this journal until I had it fully planted but because I can use advice on it I have decided to post this now.
Enjoy!
These are the sticks which will become the trees. These I sourced from local dead pine trees.
The mosses:
Placing the Kitty Litter:
The slow release fertiliser:
The Glosso and planting the glosso:
Placing the moss onto one of the trees. I tied it onto the wood with cotton. Very time consuming
Filling the tank:
I did a ammonia test later after putting water in and noticed 0.25-0.50 ppm and thought, "Yeah sweet, I have 2 cycled filters." and put all of my fish in. The next day when I checked ammonia the test water went blue. It only shows as high as green on the chart. I did a 80% water change and the ammonia went down to 8ppm. Still way too high. I then setup one hose syphoning water from the tank and another filling at about the same rate.
I did this for a couple of hours and the ammonia level went down to 4 ppm. The next morning it was high again so I spent another 2 hours doing the same water transfer. I fell asleep and when I woke I saw a columbian tetra floating.
I monitored the tank closely and saw that I had no water movement on the surface. I figure toxic level of ammonia reduing the fishes abilty to breath combined with the lack of heavy surface movement spelled disaster. I turned my wave maker on but the damage had been done.
Over the next hour I lossed:
11 mostly adult Rainbows
1 Sucking cat
2 Columbian tetras
3 Khuli Loaches
I transfered the rest of my fish to a makeshift holding tank where they have stopped dying.
I have started my co2 and dosing via EI method.
I will be doing a large water change late every day until the ammonia spike drops. I had read of people putting fish in before the spike drops when using amazonia and doing large water changes. I underestimated how high the spike would be.
Did I kill my fish by trying to overdo the water change? Would I have been better off doing a single large water change every day?
I need to know also if the high levels of ammonia combined with light, co2 and nutrients in the water colum will make my plants melt? I think I have read something about this before from Tom.
I do not beleive that the slow release fertiliser is responsible for high spike. I think that it is soley the aqasoil.
Thanks for reading this long, photo heavy post. Hopefully I will have some good news in the comming few weeks.