New Tank Setup- Help...

[Blades]

Hi Guys , i have just setup a new planted tank and need some advice.

The tank is 4 days old and have planted quite a few plants already together with 6 neons and about 10 malayan shrimps.

CO2-Injected with dennerle deponit as a base and holland sand on top of it.

I have been using the dennerle's range of products and have a few questions with regards to them.

I am adding FB7 daily into the new tank as recommended by dennerle. and i also added TR7 on the 2nd day so far. Dosing with A1 everyday since yesterday.Have also done a 30% water change yesterday

At wat point in time do i stop adding the FB7 & TR7 pls? thanks

[David]

hi blade....is the FB7 the liquid bateria starter or is it the water conditioner for fresh tap water?

Which ever it is, if the FB7 is a bateria starter, you can stop after about 1 week of cycling and let nature takes it course. If it is the water conditioner, ...well that is entirely up to you as it is needed for treating impurities and chemicals present that are hostile to fish. It also depends where your water source comes from....usually if you are staying in a landed or some lower floor apartment, the tap water is usually from ground pipe and it may be best to treat it before water change.

If you are staying on higher floors where the water cames from roof tanks, chances likely you need not have to treat the water. As for me, I am staying on the 12th floor and water change is straight from tap to tank.

The TR7 is basically black water extract for water conditioning to replicate the nature water in certain south american rivers...so on this its entirely up to you when you want to stop

[vinz]

Ummm... you really shouldn't have fishes in there if your tank is only 4 days old. The tank isn't cycled yet and I'm not sure how much faster FB7 will accelerate it.

By the way, the numbers behind the name of the product indicate dosing frequency... so FB7 is once every 7 days.

Stop adding A1 fertiliser for now. Your plants are not settled in yet will not be using up the fert, which makes it available to algae. You should also consider other fertilisers. If you're sticking to the Dennerle range, consider S7, E15 and V30. Gold7 is optional in my opinion. Dennerle has a chart that indicates the water conditioners and fert to use for a brand new planted tank. Go look it up at www.dennerle.com under 'water care' under 'fertilisation and maintainance'. A1 is for very fert demanding tanks.

I'm curious, why did you choose to use Dennerle's products?

[Blades]

Hiya all , thanks for the advise. Using Dennerle's range due to its reputation etc etc. are there better ferts and stuff out there in the market? Im actually quite open to opinions and suggestions. Quite a newbie here as you might have figured. Cheers!

[FC]

Hi Blades,

I started to use Seachem products about 2 months ago. They are very popular among AQ people, I think, as they are mentioned very often. For my tank, the products seems to work but still not good enough. For some reasons, I feel something is missing in them for my plants. I will wait for another 3 months.

I guess the reason for its' popularity is due to its' good reputation and customiseable dosing system. It comes with Flourish (concentrated macros & micros) but very little K+ & Mg and slightly below ideal iron proportion. There is where Seachem let you decide. Normally, depending on the plant used, one can choose to supplement it with Flourish K+, Flourish Fe and/or Epsom salt, etc. For more expeirience hobbists, they add also NO3, PO4 whereever the level gets low or by observing the plant reaction.

All liquid fert can be added according to instruction, by plant types or by seeing the top new leafs grown at the tip of stem plants or about 5 days old new leaf of rossette for deficiency or over-dosing or other condition like lighting, etc.

I am also using hw ferro vit but I am a bit concern about its' high Cu, and other non-ferrous metal in it. For that, I mixed it with Seachem as it has less in that areas.

I had used Tetra and JBL too, not bad, I have good success with them. However, they are not as exciting as Seachem (in rooms for play). Dennerle, good... for short and medium term (they actually cost less, considering that they have good chance of helping newbies to succeed) but in the long run...??? (I am not there yet).

Confused? Me too! This only about liquid fert. That's what this hobby is about and that's where one can keep the mind tickering. It is so much fun where experimentation is endless... one would often aim higher. Many hobbists told me that they would be bored without it and non of them would say that they are 100% satisfied with their tank and would do nothing more to improve it. One things for sure, this hobby improves one's knowledge about the nature, patient, analytical skills, etc.


Have fun.

[Blades]

Hi , My tank has just crossed the 6 day mark and all looks good (meaning no dead plants & no dead fish!) plants seems to be growing esp the lotus. Can see new shoots coming out already! yippie... Water has also become clearer but not cyrstal clear yet!

Planning to do a 30% water change tomorrow and adding sme more FB7 after that.

I have got a picture of my tank but i dunt know how to post it here. Anyone can help with that pls?

[vinz]

Congratulations! It's always a thrill to see the plants doing well.

For posting pictures, please click here for more details.

[David]

hi blades

how big a tank are we talking about here....its only been 6 days and a 30% water change maybe a bit much as your tank has not matured. It may be best to do a 15 to 20% water change and it may be a good time to consider a NH and NO test kit.

[Blades]

Mine's roughtly a 120L tank. Its the Juwel Rio125. will do a smaller % change then.

Why do i see bubbles on the surface of the water? lots of them and they dunt burst. shoul di be worried?

[David]

are they sort of tiny bubbles in clusters and mostly at the rim of the tank where the water line is....that is a tell tail sign of NH build up.....it really would be a good time to invest in an NH and NO test kit as your tank is in the first half of the nitrogen cycle. it is best to do less % water change but more frequent....

[Blades]

The bubbles are like all over the surface of the water and a thin film of sumthing has formed. While the filter is switched on and there is water circulation , the water surface doesnt move. Bad or normal for a tank which is cycling?

[Allen_1971]

blades,

are you talking about an oily surface on the water? If so, you can probably invest in a surface skimmer to solve the issue. The air bubbles (from your plants) are there cuz they trapped under the "oily" surface.

[Blades]

Allen , you are prob right about the oily surface. Will try to scoup the oily stuff off tonite. The juwel tank comes with a surface skimmer built-in but i dunt think its working that well , i guess.
any good way to manually remove the surface junk?


btw , just bought a few bumblebee shrimps & toger shrimps from Samyick at its marine parade branch. cost $1.50 per shrimp!! so expensive for shrimp! hehehe

[Blades]

Just found that 1 have 3 dead shrimps! sob sob and a dead cardinal. I think its due to the maturing process of the tank.

Tested my tank for PH and KH and the results are as follows:

PH : 6.9
KH : 3

Is a KH of 3 a normal level for singapore tap water?
Also , are my levels in the tank ok for now? while it matures?

[PeterGwee]

Don't assume Singapore tap water KH is 3...some ain't 3 lor...zero also have leh...LOL...just measure and calculate.

[Blades]

Measured my tank and the KH is 3. Tot it was a normal KH for Singapore Tap Water.

So are all the levels ok for my tank? should i raise my BPS to increase the PPM?

Also , for a 125L tank (33 Gallons?) , is 2 x 20w tubes with reflectors sufficent?

Thanks for all the help guys..

[Blades]

My tank is now in its 14th day and the ammonia levels are dropping. Nitrite levels are really high now and my guess is that its spiking. hopefully it will go down before any of my fishes/shrimp kaput.

So far in the 14 days , i have got 2 dead neons and 3 dead shrimp. hope it stay that way.

Plants are doing ok and growing/spreading pretty much.

Tank is 33 Gallons with CO2 of about 2 bps and about 60watts of lights.

Ph is about 6.6 - 6.7 and Kh is about 3-4

Right now , there is an outbreak of white spots and 3 lemon tetras and 1 harlequin is infected. Have put in 6 tbps of aquarium salt so i hope that solves the problem soon.

Have also installed a stand-alone UV which is switched on 24hrs now to help fight the white spots. Will reduce UV to about 10hrs (at night with lights off) after the white spot problem is solved as a preventive measure.

Any comments or suggestions to further improve my set-up pls? any comments and tips are very much appreciated! Thanks!

[PeterGwee]

Do water changes to control the level of nitrite so that it is not so toxic to the fishes.

[DEA]

when u say high nitrite
how high is high?
regardless, the salt will alleviate nitrite poisoning
you don't have to panic about the nitrite
take it easy, wait for the white spot to go away, just sit there and watch
if you feel like adding more things, slap your hands
water changes are always welcome too
you can do as many as you like assuming you redose the proportional amount of salt

[Blades]

Found a couple of fishes swimming at the surface gasping for air i guess. Is this due to lack of oxygen in the water overnite when the lights/CO2 are off or is this due to the high nitrite levels in the water?