New shrimp tank - advise

[corepad]

Wow... How did u get ph5.5? I read some where saying when ph too low (iirc <5), it will be bacteria free.

I had no idea how it got to PH5.5, I'm thinking could it be the seachem excel that im dosing in the morning that cause the drop in PH. Gonna stop dosing excel and monitor further......

[corepad]

Over the weekend, I changed my filter to eheim 2217 and added a sunsun prefilter to ease my maintenance next time.

Overdose microbe niteout 2 into the 2217 when setting up.

(Ignore the cable tie on the extension plugs......temporary measure...lol)


Did a 80% water change and waited 1 hour to measure PH. Result were 5.8 PH which is too low to start cycling

Hence, added baking soda to raise my PH to 7.4 to start the cycling going.

Measured ammonia level too, about 5ppm. Hopefully this time round, the cycling wont stall.

And my glosso start pearling after the wc. I can see mini bubbles constantly coming out from the glosso.



Anyway, is it ok to always adding baking soda to raise ph? Any detrimental effects in the long run?

[Fish Fish]

I am assuming the bubbles are from co2. Is the low ph due to excess co2? Whats the bps?


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[corepad]

I am assuming the bubbles are from co2. Is the low ph due to excess co2? Whats the bps?


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Oh that's a air diffuser for air pump.

[DreamerX5521]

Wait a minute, is the bubbles shown in the photo is actually co2?
If it is, then wow... U trying to gas ur tank like 7-up. Then it is likely the reason why u have low ph even after 80% wc.
If that is co2 bubbles, then u can lower down the output frm ur cylinder till u see all the bubble dissolve in the water. Then it should raise the ph within 1 or 2 days, and yet ur plant still happy with the co2 supplies. 😅

[DreamerX5521]

Forgot to mention that you should try to 'calibrate' ur ph test kt against ur house tap water or distilled water. My tap water in east area is ph7.8 and distilled water should be ph7.0

[corepad]

Wait a minute, is the bubbles shown in the photo is actually co2?
If it is, then wow... U trying to gas ur tank like 7-up. Then it is likely the reason why u have low ph even after 80% wc.
If that is co2 bubbles, then u can lower down the output frm ur cylinder till u see all the bubble dissolve in the water. Then it should raise the ph within 1 or 2 days, and yet ur plant still happy with the co2 supplies. 

Forgot to mention that you should try to 'calibrate' ur ph test kt against ur house tap water or distilled water. My tap water in east area is ph7.8 and distilled water should be ph7.0

Haha...that's not co2. I'm using Excel as my co2. The air bubbles are from the air pump connected to an air diffuser. The air bubbles produced are those fine micro bubbles.

And I bought a PH4/7 calibration solution from seaview to calibrate the ph pen.

Today I measured ammonia again, same as yesterday, 5ppm. Hopefully it wont raise and start to fall...

[corepad]

Because of some worms in the tank, my mom actually took the fish net and wash it under the tap. After that, she dip it into the tank to catch the worm.

Will doing this cause the bacteria level in my tank to drop or even die off...?

[Ivan Choo]

I'm using the sunsun prefilter with eheim as well. Your prefilter setup seems to be wrong. The water flow should be as such:

Inflow (tank) -> prefilter (bottom) -> prefilter (top) -> eheim (bottom) -> eheim (top) -> outflow (tank)

afaik, the water flow for the prefilter should be the same as the 2217, this is to prevent airlock.

Also, try not to step down the pipe at inflow to the prefilter, your flow rate will be affected.

[corepad]

I'm using the sunsun prefilter with eheim as well. Your prefilter setup seems to be wrong. The water flow should be as such:

Inflow (tank) -> prefilter (bottom) -> prefilter (top) -> eheim (bottom) -> eheim (top) -> outflow (tank)

afaik, the water flow for the prefilter should be the same as the 2217, this is to prevent airlock.

Also, try not to step down the pipe at inflow to the prefilter, your flow rate will be affected.

Cause I was reading the manual and it seems either way is ok but nevertheless, I can switch it around.

For the inlet part....can only wait till next month to change the inlet pipe...no budget liao..cause the current inlet is 13mm.

[Ivan Choo]

For what it's worth, this is how I setup my pre-filter:

. ===||===
. -|----|- --> plastic holder (this is important!)
. XXXXXXXX --> filter floss
. XXXXXXXX --> mid density sponge
. XXXXXXXX --> low density sponge
. -|----|- --> plastic holder (this is important!)
. ========

I clean the pre-filter and replace the filter floss every week during water changes. Due to the small surface area, the filter floss do get dirty quickly. I use cheap filter floss cut to size, so it's still cost effective. I squeeze the sponges in tank water to remove trapped debris, and don't forget to check the water in the pre-filter for shrimplets.

Re-priming the pre-filter is easy. Assemble the per-filter and connect ONLY the inlet, turn on the inlet tap slowly and let water fill up to brim, then connect the outlet to the filter. This ensures minimum air trapped in the pre-filter which causes airlock. Turn on the canister filter and the system is good to go.

In all the cleaning takes less than 10 minutes. I fill my Eheim canister with only bio-media (no floss, no sponge), and I only clean the canister every 3 months.

I find the frequent cleaning of mechanical filtration really improve the water quality. Water is clearer and livestocks are happier. Less issues with algae too, especially the dreaded BGA.

Hope this helps.

[corepad]

For what it's worth, this is how I setup my pre-filter:

. ===||===
. -|----|- --> plastic holder (this is important!)
. XXXXXXXX --> filter floss
. XXXXXXXX --> mid density sponge
. XXXXXXXX --> low density sponge
. -|----|- --> plastic holder (this is important!)
. ========

I clean the pre-filter and replace the filter floss every week during water changes. Due to the small surface area, the filter floss do get dirty quickly. I use cheap filter floss cut to size, so it's still cost effective. I squeeze the sponges in tank water to remove trapped debris, and don't forget to check the water in the pre-filter for shrimplets.

Re-priming the pre-filter is easy. Assemble the per-filter and connect ONLY the inlet, turn on the inlet tap slowly and let water fill up to brim, then connect the outlet to the filter. This ensures minimum air trapped in the pre-filter which causes airlock. Turn on the canister filter and the system is good to go.

In all the cleaning takes less than 10 minutes. I fill my Eheim canister with only bio-media (no floss, no sponge), and I only clean the canister every 3 months.

I find the frequent cleaning of mechanical filtration really improve the water quality. Water is clearer and livestocks are happier. Less issues with algae too, especially the dreaded BGA.

Hope this helps.

Wow, thanks for your input. I will be sure to keep those in mind. Right now, is hoping my tank will cycle.

Today parameters are:

Ammonia: 5ppm
Nitrite: 0.5ppm
Nitrate: 10ppm (suspect this is from tap)

[corepad]

I switched the sunsun prefilter input/output to the correct alignment today.

Measured my parameters as well and saw some progress.

It's been 4weeks 3days before I finally saw nitrite and nitrate growing....this really test one patience.

Ammonia: 5ppm
Nitrite: 2ppm
Nitrate: 25ppm

Hopefully by next weekend the tank is cycled.

Question: If my tank is quite dirty, can I dip a melamine sponge into the tank to wipe algae off. Will it affect the cycling progress?



Tannin is still leaking from the driftwood, hence the yellowish water. Other than that, the plants are growing well.

[corepad]

Day
Date
Ammonia NH3/4
Nitrite No2
Nitrate No3

1
9-Jul-16
10
1
10

2
10-Jul-16
10
1
10

3
11-Jul-16
10
1
10

4
12-Jul-16
10
1
10

5
13-Jul-16
10
1
10

6
14-Jul-16
10
1
10

7
15-Jul-16
10
1
10

8
16-Jul-16
10
1
10

9
17-Jul-16
10
1
10

10
18-Jul-16
10
1
10

11
19-Jul-16
10
1
10

12
20-Jul-16
10
0
0

13
21-Jul-16
10
0
0

14
22-Jul-16
10
0
0

15
23-Jul-16
10
0
0

16
24-Jul-16
10
0.5
0

17
25-Jul-16
10
0.5
0

18
26-Jul-16
10
0.5
0

19
27-Jul-16
10
0.5
10

20
28-Jul-16
10
0.5
10

21
29-Jul-16
10
0.5
10

22
30-Jul-16
10
0.5
10

23
31-Jul-16
5
0
10

24
1-Aug-16
5
0
10

25
2-Aug-16
5
0
10

26
3-Aug-16
5
0
10

27
4-Aug-16
5
0
10

28
5-Aug-16
5
0.5
10

29
6-Aug-16
5
0.5
10

30
7-Aug-16
5
0.5
10

31
8-Aug-16
5
2
25

My parameters since Day 1

[corepad]

National Day Update!

Parameters today are:

Ammonia: 1 to 5
Nitrite: 5
Nitrate: 50 to 100

[corepad]

Day 35

Parameters today are:

Ammonia: 0.5
Nitrite: 5
Nitrate: 50 to 100

I have some green algae growing on my tank glass and driftwood, is that a cause of concern.

Ammonia is going to be 0 soon, the next phase is to wait for nitrite to reach 0. However, this will take some time, so will my ammonia-nitrite bacteria die in the meantime while waiting for nitrite to be 0.

And do I need to a small wc to reduce the level of nitrite, read that too high level of nitrite will stall the cycle too..

[corepad]

Finally!

Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 2
Nitrate: 50 to 100

Strange thing is the nitrite decrease but the nitrate liquid color still remains the same like yesterday.

But I guess the cycle should be done this weekend!!

[Fish Fish]

Algae is part and parcel of keeping an aquarium. So long as u are comfy, its fine.

The cycle goes, ammonia becomes nitride, nitride becomes nitrate. Nitrate can either be taken in by plants or physically removed (via water change).

I would imagine that the plants are not taking in that much nitrates yet. U may wanna add carbon and light (i suspect there is no need to as the algae suggests that there is enuff light.) to make the plants work harder and take in the excess nitrates, add more plants or simply perform water change.


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[Fish Fish]

Forgot to add. If i were u, i would have thrown in the commandos (hardy, cheap fish) to produce ammonia (food) for the beneficial bacteria.


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[corepad]

Forgot to add. If i were u, i would have thrown in the commandos (hardy, cheap fish) to produce ammonia (food) for the beneficial bacteria.


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For the algae, I planned to get two horned nerite snail. Once the tank is more stablise then I will introduce otos.

Thanks for the advice, perhaps I will go get some cheap fish to throw in the tank later