New Tank Questions

[Juby23]

finally got most of the equipment and plants setup. very heavily planted with grosso, nanas, tape grass, tiger lily, winter grass, java moss wall . Decided to bite the bullet and ehiem pro 3, ARCTICA 1/4 hp chiller and 8 T5 lights. . The good thing is that the driftwood did not taint the water . I added some Bioemzyme 100 to kick start the bacteria culture in the water and changed 20 pct of the water twice.

strange thing is that it was bubbling nicely yesterday but there is no sign of any bubbles today after changing water and adding the bioemzyme.

Anyone have any idea why?

[Panut]

Maybe you did a water change.

[uklau]

That is due to new water contains more O2. Bubbling only happen when the water column is saturated with O2.

BTW, is your lighting set comes with individual reflector? I DIY 6 tubes (T5HO with individual reflector) but ended up using a max of 4 tubes only in my 3.5 x 1.5 x 2 feet tank. Plants are already bubbling with only 2 tubes. I'm using Arcadia tubes. Not too sure if other tubes produce equivalent result.

With the amount of light you have there, I'm sure your plant will always bubble during the photoperiod. If not, you may want to revisit your CO2 level, followed by your dosing regime.

Too much light & without sufficient nutrients (CO2, macro & micro) is like putting your plants to a 8 hours marathon without any drink & food .

To speed up the cycling process, you may add in some fish food together with the commercial benefical bacteria.

[Juby23]

tks UK.

hmmm... if new water have more O2, then the saturation level should be higher right?

My lights is actually 2 sets of 4 tubes each. I got them from Keng Siang at havelock. i think brightness is enough, the fish shop actually told me to use 6 for now until the tank matures to avoid algae problem.

How much CO2 do I need? I have it set at 1 bubble per sec. Its a 4x2x2 ft tank.

By the way I am getting a second surface skimmer for the other water inlet. It seems that the water flow could be biased towards the inlet without the skimmer as i have noticed the debris do not flow as freely.

[uklau]

1 bps is way too little for the amount of light you are having. I'm using 4-5bps on my newly set up 3.5 feet tank with 2 T5HO tubes.

Better to have CO2 in excess in the beginning & slowly reduce it (to the optimum) once the plants start to grow well. Apart of good CO2, good circulation within the tank is also crucial.

[torque6]

Dont look at bps, look at ppm. Use a drop indicator if you have too since SG water is around 1KH.

[Juby23]

how do i measure ppm? i increased the bubble count and the plants are now bubbling okie

how long later can i start adding fauna?

[Verminator]

New tanks usually require atleast 3 weeks to mature sufficiently enough to cope with sustaining life. Although products can be bought to 'shortcut' this maturation period. I personally prefere to have patience and actually wait out the 3 weeks. Don't ask me the names of products you can buy to do this though, i don't actually know any.

[uklau]

From my experience with the fish food & commercial beneficial bacteria method, it took around 2 weeks to cycle a 2 feet tank. Not too sure if different product produce the same result.

Drop cheker is a good way to check CO2 concentration.

[Juby23]

oops i did not check the replies earlier...

i bought 3 SAE, 3 xiao jin ling, 2 otos , 10 yamato shrimps and 2 mountain shrimps. To counter the algae and as 'testers'. The 2 mountain shrimps and 4 yamoto died, i think from CO2 overdose. The fishes are swimming at the surface. I changed 15% of the water and reduced the CO2. Now they are swimming normally. What else should i do now besides stopping the introduction of new fauna?

How will i know when the tank is ready? The plants are giving out bubbles but not in streams. Just some on the back of the leaves.

[Verminator]

Ooops, mistake there. When adding new fauna you should ideally add them in batches of roughly 6 or so. Then a week later add another 6. Adding them all in one go spells disaster, especially in a new tank!

[Juby23]

yeah.... guess now it IS in batches of 6 after the attrition .... will hold back... hope my commandos survive.

[Juby23]

been a long time since i last posted. Latest update on my tank. 52 jumbo neon tetras, 10 rummy nose, 2 "kim tiao", 5 otos, 3 SEA, 3 'xiao jin ling' , 10 cherry reds survived till now.... 10 CRS (latest addition today)..... i am using ADA power sand + ADA amazonia II susbtrate.

the PH seems to have a tendency to drift lower. i suspect it was killing my snails and shrimps. i have added a small bottle of liquid that claims to bring PH up (forgot the name) which did but sustain for 1 day. I finally managed to get it to 6.8-7 level after adding coral bits and KH solution plus water change and additional doses of ADA K Step 1 solution every 2 days. But its seems to come back to 6.4-ish i.e. light green color on the dropper tester.

Anyone have any idea what is ideal PH level for my tank and if its need to be higher than 6.4, what i should next?

Anyone have any suggestion?

[torque6]

I have added coral chips to my biofilter but think i have lost 1 nerite from 2 weeks back as a low PH of 6.4 finally took a toll on its shell....

[Juby23]

what is a nerite?

[torque6]

nerite snails.

[Juby23]

thanks! we learn something new everyday.....

By the way what is the correct PH to achieve for my tank anyway?

I am thinking of investing in a electronic PH tester. Anyone has recommendation for anything good and how much will it cost?

[torque6]

Doesnt matter, tanks without snails can go anywhere from 5.5-7. But some shrimps or fishes require higher PH around 8. So theres no ideal PH.

[WaterH2O]

Agree. there is no way you can adjust PH to so call suit one species and then try to suit another at the same time. Can't please everyone. Maintain at a range say between 6.2 to around 7 depending on your species.
In this case no need to invest so much on a electronic PH tester.

[zenscape]

Juby, your new tank has been for a while and why don't you post a picture of your tank for us to see?