Your current Fish tank Setups!

[Orcish-Horde]

You need to learn about the nitrogen cycle. In Summary fish make Ammonia (very deadly) Bacteria will turn it into Nitrite (deadly) then other Bacteria will turn it into NitrAte (safe, which the live plants will eat) Once you got this cycle going your fish will be healthy. There is two ways to start it, the long but safe way using household ammonia and a testing kit (API is the best watertest kit) or using very hardy cold water fish such as White Cloud Minnows (they are nice and small to keep in a small cold water tank instead of goldish) and changing 20% of their water everyday for a couple of weeks until the cycle is done. Good fish keeping is about good bacteria keeping.

Nitrate is not safe it will if levels rise to high do the same damage to your fish that Nitrite and Ammonia will do. Its the reason for doing water changes but if you have a deep enough sand bed the Nitrogen cycle has another step in which bacteria will brake Nitrate down into nitrogen gas. You need enough depth in the sand bed to keep oxygen out so that anaerobic bacteria continue the cycle. Not the sort of thing your average fish keeper would do or should worry about, but its one of the things that happen within marine live rock.

 

[Millionfish]

Nitrate is not safe it will if levels rise to high do the same damage to your fish that Nitrite and Ammonia will do. Its the reason for doing water changes but if you have a deep enough sand bed the Nitrogen cycle has another step in which bacteria will brake Nitrate down into nitrogen gas. You need enough depth in the sand bed to keep oxygen out so that anaerobic bacteria continue the cycle. Not the sort of thing your average fish keeper would do or should worry about, but its one of the things that happen within marine live rock.

Nitrate is safe up to 50ppm whereas ammonia is deadly at 0.25. It will never go over 50 unless the tank is being neglected.

 

[Musty Pie]

When i was much younger my parents used to be heavily involved in running and maintaining a large tropical fish tank we had in our house. The tank used to house many types of tropical fish for a lengthy period of about ten years. When our last fish finally passed away the tank was abandoned due to lack of funds and lack of time . The tank has now been explained as "just because a piece of furniture" to any enquiring friend or visitor for many years.

It has now been sitting unoccupied for about ten years until this weekend just passed when we all decided that it would be a great idea to get it cleaned out and up and running again.

After many hours of cleaning, sorting out old equipment and purchasing new parts, heaters, pumps, air walls etc we have finally managed to get it back up and running. (Pic below)



Apologies for poor picture quality but its the best my camera phone (HTC Hero) would take in low light. I will get some more pics up when my friend pops over with his DSLR to take some pictures of the fish.

We are currently in the stage of "prepping" the water conditions which i hear can take up to 2 weeks. Any comments would be much appreciated.

 

[Orcish-Horde]

Nitrate is safe up to 50ppm whereas ammonia is deadly at 0.25. It will never go over 50 unless the tank is being neglected.

That depend on what your keeping, fish start dieing at 40ppm but they are taking damage below that. All because your fish don't die at lower levels doesn't mean it safe or harmless. Think of it as carbon monoxide.

 

[Malt_Vinegar]

I wanted to take some new pics of my tank, but it's currently under a blackout to finish off a BGA colony.

My new tank at work will be up and running by in a couple of weeks. Really looking forward to it, 8 litres is going to be quite a challenge to keep stable and healthy

 

[Psypher5]

my tanks started cycling now with diatoms

 

[Musty Pie]

Psypher, i read a few pages back you want to get rid of a tank + some bits? might be interested in the 2 part ship/ castle if you want to let them go to a good home

 

[apatia77]

my recent video of my nano marine tank

 

[Psypher5]

Psypher, i read a few pages back you want to get rid of a tank + some bits? might be interested in the 2 part ship/ castle if you want to let them go to a good home

Email in trust/same for msn mate

Sold the tank off, but still got them, was gonna 'bay them!

Love that tank apatia, exactly what I wanna do with my nano Was looking at a purple firefish, or a watchman goby

 

[Psypher5]

tank params seem to be 0'ing now only been cycled for a tad over a week, but i spose thats what good LR and some mature sand does!

Adding some cuc and frags sooon

 

[apatia77]

tank params seem to be 0'ing now only been cycled for a tad over a week, but i spose thats what good LR and some mature sand does!

Adding some cuc and frags sooon

Make sure you are happy with your rock placement, I didn't think much about future coral placement and ended up with some rather awkward situation but managed at the end to get some sort of result. I would definitely place my rock in different way now if I had to start all over again.

Good luck with your tank and do not rush and everything will be fine.

 

[Siliconslave]

just got a load of plants through the post for my tank, not had a chance to arrange them yet so for the time being there weighted and slightly planted randomly. Will be doing a partial water change and sort them out properly on Thurs, hopefully these plus the C02 i've got coming today should keep the algae at bay

How it was looking before i got the new plants in:

You can see my honey Gorami on the left, a sword tail playing in the bubbles and annother sneaking out by the filter. The loaches are being typically shy (although they come out and really play around in the afternoons).

eventual plan is to get an external filter with integrated heater and maybe upgrade the tank to something a bit bigger...

 

[ripperOFflesh]

My m8 has some Red-bellied piranha i'll try and get some pics of him

 

[wordy]

That depend on what your keeping, fish start dieing at 40ppm but they are taking damage below that. All because your fish don't die at lower levels doesn't mean it safe or harmless. Think of it as carbon monoxide.

Maybe for Nitrite, With Nitrate it also depends on the level of your tapwater. Good practice is not to let your tank's Nitrate levels go 20ppm above of your tapwater.

 

[Malt_Vinegar]

My m8 has some Red-bellied piranha i'll try and get some pics of him

I hope he has a decent sized tank.

 

[Psypher5]

Make sure you are happy with your rock placement, I didn't think much about future coral placement and ended up with some rather awkward situation but managed at the end to get some sort of result. I would definitely place my rock in different way now if I had to start all over again.

Good luck with your tank and do not rush and everything will be fine.

Yup i think im happy with placement, moved a few rocks around last night. Got a few bits to break up which ill place around too to fill in some gaps etc

 

[King85]

Due to this thread i've spent way too many hours trawling through nano marine forums and threads and am now desperately needing my own Orca 550.

 

[Psypher5]

look at the d-d tanks nanocube tanks, imo built a bit better. The guy i got some liverock from have a 94l one? and it was reallly nice.

 

[King85]

Yeah the nano cube looks great but it's also over £200 more with stand than the Orca. The orca is also bigger which I prefer. When I get it i'll stick some pictures up.

 

[Psypher5]

Be interesting to see the differences between a 550 and my 450 !