Finally setup my 2 feet shrimp tank

[HeMan]

hi everyone

1st of all before i start, i would like to thanks all AQ people who helped me with advice on setting up the tank. Special thanks to Bro Zenith82.


i started to set up this tank last week , the tank is still cycling on the 7th day now:

Ammonia: 2-4ppm, Nirite: 0 - 0.1 , Nitrate: 15-20 , PH : 6.3-6.4



My hairgrass some have died & beame yellowish or brown. Rocks are there to do abit of Iwagumi .US fissiden I tied on mesh.

No CO2 , no chiller, T5 24watt X 2 tube light , spraybar


Details:

Eheim 2217,Benibachi Soil, Ehfi Substrat , Biohome Plus, Eheim Mech

i have been putting BT-9 and Microbelift Niteout 2 every other day


a)Need some advice on what plants to put in to make the tank more lively while waiting for fissidens to grow.( prefer some short stem plants)


b)I had some tissue like on my soil, is it due to the old sea mud that i put last week?

c) how long more do you bros think i will see ammonia level dropping? cause te measurement is still the same since day 2

d) during this 1 week the water evaporate & i have to keep lowering the spraybar in order to prevent the water from spraying out , can i top up th water?

thanks for the reply

[midniteguy]

b)I had some tissue like on my soil, is it due to the old sea mud that i put last week?
could be the bt9 you are using, do you see some flakes inside your bt9? as back than there was not any flakes inside bt9 if i remember correctly it was all powder. and the flakes will turn moldy in the tank. other bro please correct me if i am wrong.

c) how long more do you bros think i will see ammonia level dropping? cause te measurement is still the same since day 2
it takes about a month for ammonia level to drop all the way, depending on the type of soil you use.

d) during this 1 week the water evaporate & i have to keep lowering the spraybar in order to prevent the water from spraying out , can i top up the water?
yes you can top up the water with aged water or distilled water, remember to add anti chlorine, you also can do partial water change during the cycling period.
thanks for the reply

[avex30]

Look simple and nice during your cycling do watch those rocks whether they raise your GH.... That all is not all should be well and ready in a month time or less

[HeMan]

Thanks , the tissue like stuff i think is from soil, some of the top soil part have mould white in colour, the tissue like stuff is also white in colour

[HeMan]

Look simple and nice during your cycling do watch those rocks whether they raise your GH.... That all is not all should be well and ready in a month time or less

Yes im aware of that thanks , i thought of put one driftwood in from my old tank to speed up BB?

[HeMan]

Look simple and nice during your cycling do watch those rocks whether they raise your GH.... That all is not all should be well and ready in a month time or less

Yes im aware of that thanks , i thought of put one driftwood in from my old tank to speed up BB?

[avex30]

Yes im aware of that thanks , i thought of put one driftwood in from my old tank to speed up BB?

Would be good to seed some BB over maybe when you are maintaining the filter your can just wash the dirt off in tank water than just leave the filter wool in the tank to seed BB. I do that when i m setting up.

I would normally change the inlet pipe filter sponge and bring it over to the new tank.

[HeMan]

I see , will do that.

The hairgrass already turned brown but most of them are still green should i remove those brown one or just leave it?

[avex30]

I see , will do that.

The hairgrass already turned brown but most of them are still green should i remove those brown one or just leave it?

Remove or trim away you need to take note hair grass need high lighting to maintain probably need Co2 also. I have planted them without Co2 but doesn't last log. I ain't a planted tank guy so maybe you will for some bros or maybe you ask bro Felix-FX (aka rubber ducky hahaha) He good at planted .

[HeMan]

I just trying my luck on hairgrass cause they look nice with rocks.

[magpie]

I think you should monitor your gh. Your rock may or may not raise the gh. It is better to be safe than sorry if you are keeping sensitive shrimps. Any value more than 6 gh will cause shrimp not moulting properly.

[HeMan]

I think you should monitor your gh. Your rock may or may not raise the gh. It is better to be safe than sorry if you are keeping sensitive shrimps. Any value more than 6 gh will cause shrimp not moulting properly.

Ya, will get a test kit for gh and kh soon

[cherabin]

With no chiller, I'm very curious how the fissidens will do. Keep updating the thread because I have tried fissidens on a fan cooled tank and they just withered off after some time.

[HeMan]

With no chiller, I'm very curious how the fissidens will do. Keep updating the thread because I have tried fissidens on a fan cooled tank and they just withered off after some time.

You are right , fissiden needs chill, i will add a fan soon

[chansl]

hi. I also started my tank with the same product you are using like BT 9 and mosura old sea mud. The white thingy is a fungus i think and if you let it grow, it will look super ugly and tall . I will off my light for 48 hours or put in some otto fish to suck it up. Senior said that they will put in cherry shrimp to eat up the fungus . i top up water by using age water with seachem prime ..

[HeMan]

hi. I also started my tank with the same product you are using like BT 9 and mosura old sea mud. The white thingy is a fungus i think and if you let it grow, it will look super ugly and tall . I will off my light for 48 hours or put in some otto fish to suck it up. Senior said that they will put in cherry shrimp to eat up the fungus . i top up water by using age water with seachem prime ..

Thanks for sharing, think will buy some yamato or oto when thw ammonia is lower, but how come theres fungus ? Strange.... The white stuff is translucent mould

[chansl]

I research and found out at other forum that or older post that old sea mud may contribute to it as there is a over nutrient in your tank hence the fungus grows. Some said the bt-9 caused the fungus. Anyway, it is harmless but ugly and if not treated, it will grow so much that, you may end up washing your soil again. I had done that before .

My 2 cent worth

[HeMan]

I research and found out at other forum that or older post that old sea mud may contribute to it as there is a over nutrient in your tank hence the fungus grows. Some said the bt-9 caused the fungus. Anyway, it is harmless but ugly and if not treated, it will grow so much that, you may end up washing your soil again. I had done that before .

My 2 cent worth

Thanks , i think is old sea mud , my old tank i add BT-9 dont have this issues .

Btw seachem prime is hard to gage, for example if i just want to top up only 10 litres of water , then how many ml of seachem prime i need to add? Its dosage indicate 5ml = 200 litre, not sure if overdose will be harmful to the fauna anot

[chansl]

actually, for the seachem prime . I just a few drop in my 1.5 L of water bottle and aged it. so far my fire red seemed quite ok . Nothing bad happened.

[Zenith82]

HeMan, finally your tank done and setup. Glad to see your tank up and running.
You have to prepare a set of test kits for PH/KH/GH and NH3 and NO3.
Monitor your perimeter readings. After 2 weeks do 50% water change.

Don't waste the BT-9 and Niteout II, you only need to dose BT-9 everytime for water change.
Niteout II need to only use once for initial cycling. For my case the niteout II, I pour 3/4 of it into my 2ft, 2-3days nitrate and ammonia straight decrease till 1-2ppm. Balance can use to treat ammonia or nitrate spike.
Seachem prime as anti chlorine/chloromine, add accordingly, overdose is ok no worries.

The hairgrass once turn yellowish and brown they probably will continue to die and rot. I advice you get new hairgrass, if it dies and rot will cause you more problem if you try to plant it in your cycling tank. Hairgrass require strong lights, and require to trim when it starts to overgrow.

The whitish tissue problem, I've yet to encounter it. Care to take photo to show?
I highly doubt is the BT-9 as if not dissolved will look like mecury balls in water thats all.
But be sure you mix well before adding in tank.

Keep your updates coming. It will be nice to slowly see the changes in your tank.
Try using photobucket to upload pictures. Will look better and bigger on thread.