Your current Fish tank Setups!

Munchy2007 said:
Thanks very much :)

It took me a while to work out the causes and remedies for algae problems. I tried many approaches over the years, including limiting and/or trying to balance nutrients, as excess nutrients or ratios outside of some magic number were often cited as the cause.

But I've come to accept that the light is the main culprit for both algae and, counter intuitively, poor plant growth, if not balanced with sufficient CO2, nutrients, water circulation and regular large water changes to remove organic waste. Light drives the plant to grow, and in doing so increases its demands for CO2 and nutrients.

Excess nutrients don't cause algae, but a shortage can, by virtue of stunting the plant growth. Stunted plants decay, decay produces ammonia, algae will bloom anywhere there is an ammonia source.

Some people don't mind it, but I hate algae, as you've probably already guessed :)
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I find that the presence of algae detracts from aesthetic value. It just looks unsightly. I'm sure many would argue that it has beneficial qualities, but your tanks are obviously flourishing without it. ;)
 
robfosters said:
Agree with all your points there. My lighting systems pretty strong and my plants seem to be suffering already.

I only have the standard Juwel filter and no C02 system. Plants not looking great and plenty of algae. That crappy long stuff that looks like your plants are wearing a syrup.

Over xmas, I'm gonna invest in a good Eheim canister filter, a quality c02 unit and move to 40% water changes.
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Sounds like a good move, in the meantime, if you've got the option of turning off or removing a tube and/or reducing your photoperiod to 5-6 hours then that will help, as will manual removal of as much of the existing algae as possible.

You'll also want to dose some ferts; Mixing your own is orders of magnitude cheaper than buying off the shelf bottles, and costs under £20 for a starter kit from APF which will likely last a year or two depending on your tank size.

Once grown algae doesn't generally die back on its own, even if the initial cause is corrected, even worse it sits there pumping out spores into the tank which helps to fuel further outbreaks.

Water changes are often overlooked in the fight against algae, personally I do 70% changes once a week, but 40-50% is generally sufficient for a planted tank.

Incidentally, the water changes aren't for the purpose of removing excess nutrients, they are to remove the enormous quantities of organic waste that a tank full of healthy plants will excrete as a by product of their metabolism.
 
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Bishie said:
I find that the presence of algae detracts from aesthetic value. It just looks unsightly. I'm sure many would argue that it has beneficial qualities, but your tanks are obviously flourishing without it. ;)
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Definitely unsightly in my opinion.

In terms of it's benefit to the tank, certain fauna will eat small amounts of some (not all) varieties of algae, however even a tank as apparently clear as mine, once matured (after 6 months or so, generally) will have a sufficiently large biofilm over everything to supplement the diet of most inhabitants. They still need to be fed appropriately as well.

However, a bad infestation can kill plants, which apart from looking unsightly will then decay and foul the water if not removed.
 
Delvis said:
Not sure why I wasted the money buying the kits then if its not needed?

How do I go about getting RO water? I never even heard of it until now...always had people just using tap water and aquasafe....its hardly a marine tank or anything
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sorry been away for a few days, good job on reading up on care mate. The hobby can be as difficult as you want and some times people go ott. For a single beta in 12l use tap water and some seacheam prime, a bottle of seachem will last a 12l tank about 4 years lol. GH/PH all unessary for a single beta. while true the smaller the tank the harder is it to keep, as just 1 **** up can wipe him as the water volume leave no room for error. Most important thing a a huge killer aclimate him for a good 2 hrs.

This will involve floating him in the fish shop bag for 20 min for temp to match, then every 20 min take a bit of water from the bag throw in the sink then replace it with tankwater into the fish bag.(make sure you have done a full water change and lowered temp from cycle) a lot of people cut it down to 30 min and wonder why it died a week later.
 
BigBruiserAl said:
sorry been away for a few days, good job on reading up on care mate. The hobby can be as difficult as you want and some times people go ott. For a single beta in 12l use tap water and some seacheam prime, a bottle of seachem will last a 12l tank about 4 years lol. GH/PH all unessary for a single beta. while true the smaller the tank the harder is it to keep, as just 1 **** up can wipe him as the water volume leave no room for error. Most important thing a a huge killer aclimate him for a good 2 hrs.

This will involve floating him in the fish shop bag for 20 min for temp to match, then every 20 min take a bit of water from the bag throw in the sink then replace it with tankwater into the fish bag.(make sure you have done a full water change and lowered temp from cycle) a lot of people cut it down to 30 min and wonder why it died a week later.
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How dare you go away? :p

Cheers bud, I'm going to take readings again this week and hopefully be able to get a fish :) tanks been sat there for a month or two its about time something lived in it!
 
Munchy2007 said:
Before I got into planted tanks, CO2 and algae control, I used to think much the same about water flow, however I've come to appreciate the difference 10-20 x turnover can make. I've found the most common reason for problems with leaf drop (especially lower down the stems) and patches of algae is due to insufficient flow of water to the affected area.

Regarding water particles in the water, I find that the corys (which I have in all my tanks) by virtue of rooting around in the sand, kick up any fine detritus, the water flow stops it from settling, and it ends up in the filter. As a consequence the sand is kept very clean and dirt particles in the water are very low in number.

The 'particles' you can see in the photos of my tanks are fine CO2 bubbles. They are far more apparent in photos than in real life though.

Because most biological filtration (removal of ammonia/nitrite etc.) happens in the tank rather than the filter in a healthy planted tank, my filters are mainly used for mechanical filtration only, consequently they only have a single medium sponge and bag of Purigen in each. I have twin externals on the two larger tanks though.

Edit: The 65L has an APS 1400EF canister (about 800LPH true flow) and a 500LPH power head
The two larger tanks each have 2 x APS 1400EF canister filters and 2 x 1400LPH power heads
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So you use powerheads.
Correct me if I am wrong but are powerheads literally just to turn water over, as in they don't do anything but suck water in and pump it back out ?
Why would I need that in a tank ?


My rio 400 has an Eheim 2078 (rated at 1850LPH so probably around around 1250lph) and a tetratec EX1200 (rated 1200lph, I think actual is around 600lph). this is a total of 1800lph which is4.5 times tank volume.
I have at the moment got a fluval U4 internal in there polishing the water as well, but that ain't staying.

You are probably right about fish digging the substrate up.

I have 5 or 6 corys, 7 clown loach, and some upside down cats. I think between all of those I have some of the worst "diggers"
 
MassiveJim said:
So you use powerheads.
Correct me if I am wrong but are powerheads literally just to turn water over, as in they don't do anything but suck water in and pump it back out ?
Why would I need that in a tank ?


My rio 400 has an Eheim 2078 (rated at 1850LPH so probably around around 1250lph) and a tetratec EX1200 (rated 1200lph, I think actual is around 600lph). this is a total of 1800lph which is4.5 times tank volume.
I have at the moment got a fluval U4 internal in there polishing the water as well, but that ain't staying.

You are probably right about fish digging the substrate up.

I have 5 or 6 corys, 7 clown loach, and some upside down cats. I think between all of those I have some of the worst "diggers"
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I use powerheads because external canister filters are, in the main, woefully bad at providing flow and circulation. Once hoses and filter media are fitted they seldom achieve much more than 50% of the advertised LPH, and this gets worse as the filter media and hoses get dirty.

For a planted CO2 injected tank to be successful, water turnover needs to be in the region of 10 - 20 times the nominal tank volume, and taking the above into account using external filters to solely provide this is a bit of a problem.

Therefore, I use one or two canister filters, depending on tank size, and then supplement them with power heads to achieve the water turnover and flow pattern the tank needs.

I can pump as much CO2 and nutrients in the water as I want, but if there are areas of the tank that have little or no flow, then those areas will suffer from poor plant growth and algae problems.

Regarding the corys rooting through the substrate, I meant that as a good thing, because it prevents the build up of detritus, they dig it up, water flow carries it to the filter. As a consequence I never need to vacuum my sand.

Internal filters are a waste of tank space in my opinion. If you need the biological/mechanical filtration then get an external , it will be orders of magnitude better, if you need the water flow then get a power head that takes up far less space in the tank.

Regarding your water flow, if you aren't having any problems with poor plant health or algae anywhere in the tank, then you've got enough. The 10x minimum turnover is mainly aimed at people who are injecting lots of CO2.
 
Delvis said:
How dare you go away? :p

Cheers bud, I'm going to take readings again this week and hopefully be able to get a fish :) tanks been sat there for a month or two its about time something lived in it!
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TBH in your shoes I would get the fish on your next days off (so you can watch for stress) a single fish will produce minimal ammonia the bacteria will be ready to take on his poop by now ;)
Your biggest enemy will be you feeding, thinking his hungry and the wasted food producing the excess ammonia/waste. it will have a tiny stomach and will do just fine with 3-4 feeds per 7 days.
Regarding water changes leaving the water to stand for 24 before water changes applies to big water changes 50% or very expensive/fragile fish.

Little and often from the tap drop of prime boom done. maybe 20% water change per 7 days (call 3 litres), problems start when you lazy and think sod ill miss a week and try 40 % the week after, your chemistry goes all over HTH ;):p
 
Ok got questions for you pros. My goldfish is growing quite a bit now and quickly realised I need to move it to a bigger tank so got that sorted now.

However now I've still got the old tank I was planning to reuse for some tropicals, what shall I do? bin the water, filter, sponge and give it a good clean and buy some new filters and sponge and recycle the tank ready for tropicals?
 
Just out of interest, has anyone kept any of the following fish before (I might be getting some of these over the next few days) : x-ray tetras; emperor tetras; penguin tetras?

What was your experience like? Anything to note?
 
Munchy2007 said:
I use powerheads because external canister filters are, in the main, woefully bad at providing flow and circulation. Once hoses and filter media are fitted they seldom achieve much more than 50% of the advertised LPH, and this gets worse as the filter media and hoses get dirty.

For a planted CO2 injected tank to be successful, water turnover needs to be in the region of 10 - 20 times the nominal tank volume, and taking the above into account using external filters to solely provide this is a bit of a problem.

Therefore, I use one or two canister filters, depending on tank size, and then supplement them with power heads to achieve the water turnover and flow pattern the tank needs.

I can pump as much CO2 and nutrients in the water as I want, but if there are areas of the tank that have little or no flow, then those areas will suffer from poor plant growth and algae problems.

Regarding the corys rooting through the substrate, I meant that as a good thing, because it prevents the build up of detritus, they dig it up, water flow carries it to the filter. As a consequence I never need to vacuum my sand.

Internal filters are a waste of tank space in my opinion. If you need the biological/mechanical filtration then get an external , it will be orders of magnitude better, if you need the water flow then get a power head that takes up far less space in the tank.

Regarding your water flow, if you aren't having any problems with poor plant health or algae anywhere in the tank, then you've got enough. The 10x minimum turnover is mainly aimed at people who are injecting lots of CO2.
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I am a plant noob.
I am NOT injecting Co2 (Yet :p), just using daily ferts.
All of my plants are in one corner of the tank, they aren't dying from lack of nutrients, but the fish do destroy them :(

I'll get a pic shortly and upload it, although plants will look pretty well in the most part now as I removed a load of chewed up leaves last night
 
l7s9GZb.jpg

eW173Kg.jpg

http://imgur.com/l7s9GZb
http://imgur.com/eW173Kg
 
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remy87 said:
Ok got questions for you pros. My goldfish is growing quite a bit now and quickly realised I need to move it to a bigger tank so got that sorted now.

However now I've still got the old tank I was planning to reuse for some tropicals, what shall I do? bin the water, filter, sponge and give it a good clean and buy some new filters and sponge and recycle the tank ready for tropicals?
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Size of tank and was it heated before?
 
You dont need a new filter and if it's been used for a while, it should already be cycled. Tbh, goldfish tend to throw out a much higher bioload than tropicals. so if it's been filtering their muck OK, then it shouldn't be too far off.

I would personally remove the water and substrate and give the tank a good clean using nothing more than a cloth and a bit of water. Remove the filter or just the sponges if the filter is not removable and rinse them in the old tank water and leave them in it while you go about cleaning the tank. Replace the substrate with new stuff and plant it if you want a planted tank and then replace the filter. Fill the tank with 25 litres of preheated and dechlorinated water (you can buy 25 litre buckets easily online for about a tenner (I use a homebrewing bucket). Then put the heater straight in. DO NOT run the heater dry and do not dechlorinate the water when it's in the tank. The chlorine will kill the filters beneficial bacteria very quickly.

I would then add enough ammonia to bring the tank up to around 2-3ppm and keep the filter going and test after 24 hours. Hopefully, there will be no mini cycle and it should all be filtering fine. You can continue this for a few days just to make sure.

If you have kicked off a mini cycle, then just follow the many guides you can find online for a fishless cycle. Although in your case, it should take no more than 7-10 days. Once you've been 3 days with double zero's (Ammonia and Nitrite) and low nitrates, -40, you are OK to add just a few fish.
 
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