7Ft Planted Tank - Planning Stage

[TW]

would love to see it done hehe

Me too. I'm over having the 43G tank (with the discus still in it) sitting on a removalist trolley in the middle of my lounge room floor. The discus are giving me dirty looks, wondering why they arent' swimming around in the larger tank.

I stuffed up It's still in terrarium mode. Will be so for at least 4 weeks. Pulled up all the HC - there were issues with lazy way I planted it - (didn't separate each plant - simply spread them out on substrate in little clumps). Lazy way didn't work. Plants were laying on top of each other - the underneath ones dying off, as they were deprived of light by those on top of them). The 2nd issue, which would have been prevented by not being lazy in the 1st place) was that I didn't realise there were little bits of riccia mixed in with the HC. Didn't notice it at first, but the riccia was growing at a fast rate & quickly taking over & robbing the HC of light - strangling it in fact. Tried gently pulling the riccia out, but it was just pulling out the HC (it was intermingled amongst the HC roots). Just last night, I finished the tedious task of using tweezers to separate each little plant, picking out all riccia & replanting. Still only laid each plant on the substrate - but each plant laid out individually with space in between eacy.

Very annoyed with myself for this error - otherwise could be filling it now.

Counting on HC filling in & holding the hills together, so they don't collapse into the valleys, when I fill it. This will take time - probably even more than the 4 weeks I'm calculating.

At work - but when home I'll put up pics of the dying HC &
the replanting job. Despite all of this, the HC did multiply and I have heaps left over. I just can't be bothered separating any more of it for the moment.

I'm wishing the sand was a whiter colour & I'm looking into alternatives, that don't raise pH & are not so fine that you get gravel vac issues. This is ADA Bright sand. In the end, I think it's much the same colour as silica pool filter sand. Can anyone say if silica pool filter sand would be lighter?

thanks for stopping by Scott

[scott bowler]

not to worry every one has hickups sounds like you are sorting them thow thats great , so good luck and i would love to see progress pics , cant wait hehe

[waitaki]

Hi TW the tanks is looking ok - I won't mind moving in myself
hope you overcome your plant probs, looking forward to seeing your discus swimming in there

[TW]

Hi Scott & waitaki, thanks for the interest. Getting closer to filling it now, as I'm tired of waiting for the HC to fill out. Thinking of replacing the sand with a lighter coloured sand, so that is another delaying factor.

But I have a filter question now. Started off this thread letting saying I have 2 filters cycling on another tank, since April 08 & the other one has been running since around Sept 07, so both are fully mature. (mistakenly said they were 2 x 2080's - wrong, they are 2 x 2028's).

I forgot to mention that the tank they've been cycling on has only an extremely light load. It's 74G & only has 6 dwarf cichlids & 2 ottos.

Will the fact that these filters have only been used to support a small bio load mean they will not be ready to support the immediate transfer of 6-7 discus, plus assorted dwarf cichlids, corys, ottos & a few cardinals.

Will I need to stagger the transfer. I know this will seem the same question as I asked earlier, but specifically here I'm concerned about the far larger bio load in the new set up. I am extremely cautious about doing anything that might harm my discus. I'm prone to making stupid mistakes - I don't want to make one now that kills them.

Any thoughts, anyone?

[fishgeek]

your discus are in a filtered tank now

move that filter with the fish, and run in parallel with the filters you intend to run on main tank at same time for a period
alternatively take the media from that tank and transfer the bacteria straight into the new filter's media containers

andrew
patiently waiting to see how this develops

[TW]

your discus are in a filtered tank now ..... move that filter with the fish, and run in parallel with the filters you intend to run on main tank at same time for a period alternatively take the media from that tank and transfer the bacteria straight into the new filter's media containers

Thanks Andrew - can't move the filter, it's an Aqua-one 850R, with the inbuilt trickle filter in the hood.

I can transfer media, but there's far less media in this filter than in my 2 cycling cannisters (though they're the ones cycling on the light load). If I toss out just enough of the media in the 2 cycled cannisters to fit this media in, will that will be enough to safeguard the full load?

Of course, if I do this, it means I have no choice but to move everyone immediately, as any remaining in the established tank won't have a cycled filter anymore, the plants will have have been transferred & only the good bacteria on the gravel would remain in the old tank. It will ruin the look somewhat, but I might also fill a couple of stockings with old gravel & mulm & put that in the new tank to help things along.

So, is this safe to do??

patiently waiting to see how this develops

Once this & my sand choice is sorted out (not happy with the sand in there) I'm going to fill it. The HC isn't growing as well as I'd like, but I'm sick of waiting for it to happen.

Thanks for the help, Robyn.

[fishgeek]

alternatvely wash the old media in front of the filter intakes to seed the new media

effectively translocating bacteria to new media , doubling time for most species of biobacter is 24-36 hrs so if you only put one tenth the numbers needed in it will still only take approximately 5 or 6 days to be ready to cope

and that way you still have the old filter and tank stable as back up

[TW]

thanks, sounds a good plan

So I when the new tank is full of water & the new filters transferred to it, it's then that I wash some of the old filter media in front of the filter intake.

Moving the fish over 5-6 days sounds good. Maybe 2 discus a day & a couple of the smaller fish (apistos, cories, ottos)

[TW]

Took longer than expected & didn't go to plan, but finally, TODAY is DAY ONE of this tank's life filled with water. I finally have some pics to share. The water went in about a couple of hours ago.

Full Front


Left Side


Right Side


The sand has been changed. It started out as ADA Bright Sand, but I wanted something whiter, so with help from members here, ended up with good old silica pool filter sand. I'm much happier with it. Earlier pics, without the water, show the ADA Bright Sand.

I don't have enough riccia yet, to cover all the rock border, so I know it still has an odd, unnatural & unfinished look to the border. Also, the crypts & other plants need to grow in.

Though my 2 filters were running for months on another tank, I think most or all of my good bacteria must have been killed in the transfer to this tank. I think they were turned off too long while I tried to figure out how to connect the UV steriliser, because an ammonia test came up 0.25. Had hoped I could add my discus straight away, but not to be. I currently have a bowl in there with 3 green prawns (dead) to be my source of ammonia to finish the cycling job off.

Can't find pure ammonia to cycle with (only cloudy ammonia - which I think is NOT ok to cycle tank). So, I'm waiting, waiting, waiting for the prawns to do their job.

Does anyone have an opinion on whether 3 prawns will be enough to finish the cycle off. Should I add more?

Anyway, thanks for looking

[ILLUSN]

3 good sized prawns will be plenty, just let them rot away and once you start measuing high NO3 low NH3 and NO2 your done!