Freshwater Tank

So as per my first post I was in the process of re-arranging my whole 3 foot freshwater set-up. I decided that instead of Discus I would opt for a planted tank with some crystal red shrimp etc.

I took all the Cichlids in to a local Aquarium store except for the two Pakistani Loaches (I have grown fond of them) and, traded them in for a bag of new substrate a whole bunch of plants (all the plants you can see in the picture) and, about 13 neon's. I haven't introduced the shrimp as yet as I would like to make sure the tank settles as I needed to change a fair bit of water plus remove all the sand I had in the previous tank (i.e. bit worried about the microbial load). In the picture you can see a whole bunch of logs (which originally were one log and, I have broken into 3 pieces) which I aim to tie some Moss around with some fishing line and, get it growing.. I have this vision in my head of a great looking tank and, hopefully I can turn that into a reality. It will also give the shrimp some great hiding places which currently don't really exist. I have been adding both Potassium and another type of fertilizer as from what I understand some of these aquatic plants are quite expensive.

So at the moment I am kinda having a bit of competition between my saltwater and freshwater to see which one I can make look better....

Sil3ntj

Introduction of some new corals for the 3 foot

Tested water chemistry 23/11/09

Ammonium : 0

Nitrite : 0

Nitrate : 10 ppm

Calcium : 420 ppm

pH : 8.2 - 8.4

kH : 170 - 196

phosphate : 0 ppm ( I have been using a phosphate reducing product)

So There was a sale on in a shop in western Sydney (3 corals for $90.00) and, I grabbed myself a 3 x LPS coral (one is a frogspawn type, tree/polyp coral and the third I am not sure of the name but, will update the name later on).

Cataphyllia (4x2x2)

Added the cataphyllia to the tank its the purply green type (a.k.a. Jardinei from what I can tell - but, correct me if i'm wrong). Have placed in the mid to low part of the tank and, turned of one of the power heads which would have been blowing directly onto it. There are two power heads in the tank and, both are situated behind the live rock at the bottom of the tank blowing water onto the front glass window ... might not be ideal for the cat.

Updated 3 foot Saltwater

So have after 3 weeks added some corals - the turtle hair grass is still growing however, no where near as strong when I first started but, it surviving. The Damsel and Yellow Chromis seem absolutely fine if not more relaxed and healthier. I have been feeding them some Brine shrimps + also fed the corals with some trace elements and Coral food in the liquid form. The two corals I have put in the tank are a polyp coral (a.k.a tree coral) and a pulse coral; however, I haven't seen it pulsing yet and, have seen another tank with this coral without it pulsing but, it still grows very well. I am super amazed that everything is doing so well however, I guess the use of cycled live rock does the trick + the loads of bacteria i.e. the store bought kind I have also added a pebble star which I think looks great in the tank.

The Polyps aren't fully opened in this picture however, they have since opened all the way .

Updated 4x2x2

So Just wanted to post a few pictures of the corals after they had opened up. I have now added a Cataphyllia also to the tank and, will post pictures shortly - however, all in all the tank is looking awesome. You have two pictures of the Kenya tree now fully opened up and, one picture of the Hammer Coral (there was a polyp coral right next to it and, once I moved that it seemed to open up way more)

3 foot Saltwater set-up (2 weeks old)

So I have just started a 3 foot saltwater set-up at home. Basically I bought the cabinet, light and protein skimmer along with about 15-20kg of live rock from eBay (as one + I bought a new Dalbard 3 foot tank as the previous one was very very scratched i.e. the one that came with the cabinet from eBay). I bought a 2 foot mini-reef (second hand) - got the bulk head and the overflow/inlet pipe for the mini-reef cut out by a aquarium store. I have bought some extra live rock and already added two fish after 1 week .... however, the live rock was well cured and, I dosed the tank with culture everyday.

Set-up

* Aqua-medic 150 watt halogen (brilliant!)

* standard 3 foot Dalbard tank - really good quality tank. A great feature is in the lids as they are cut smaller than the tank width and, you add a plastic sleeve which covers the gap and, can be shifted in order for the cables to go through i.e. no more trying to cut/break the glass to fit tubes, wires in the tank etc etc. The glass is a standard 6mm....

* Made the hood (not completed yet) with the help of the old man whose is pretty good with these sorts of things

* Pine wooden cabinet

* Plastic bulkhead which you can buy from bunnings for around $15.00

* Plan PVC pipping to fit into bulk head

* 2 foot mini-reef with a 4 spinning arm filled with 10 kg of cured live rock + pumice that you find on the beach (works just like matrix except it floats) + filter wool + fish filter foam with is 50mm thick that I bought from Clark rubber

* Aqua-medic protein skimmer

* 1500L p/h internal power head

* 2000L p/h return pump

* 3mm coral sand

Turtle hair grass

I added a few pieces of live rock which are covered in turtle hair grass and, i know many people aren't keen on using this however, in my experience both this and green algae play a big role in keeping the nitrate's super low. However, the down side to this is that you will have to continually trim it - upside however is that you may (i say may....) have to change your water less often - we will see how it goes and if it survives in my new tank.

I have been using sera and cycle bacterial cultures, prime for declorinating the water and Seachem salt to make the salt water (haven't added any trace supps etc yet).

After 1 week I have already added 1 x damsel and 1 x yellow chromis - I wouldn't recommend this however, i have loads of cycled live rock so I wanted to get the ammonium cycle going.

Water chem after 1 week:

Ammonium : 0 - 0.01ppm (the fish were darting around a little at first, so I think bit of ammonium is present - did a 25% water change right after and, that settled them

Nitrite : 0 - 5ppm

Nitrate : 40ppm ( seems high but, I seen fish survive in 100ppm nitrates... still not good for them)

Salinity : 1.021 - 1.022

Temperature: 25 - 27 degrees (will get a chiller shortly to keep around 24 degrees)

pH : 8.4

Salt Water 4x2x2 setup

I will post a few pics of a saltwater set-up I am playing around with (it belongs to my bro and mum) - you will notice that is quite bare in terms of corals as it only has a couple of Kenya trees, a hammer coral, tree coral, half alive bubble coral and a couple of corallimorphs. I will be updating the blog over the next couple of months whilst updating the tank and hope to have one awesome tank by the end of it.



So at the moment the tank has been cycling for about 2 -3 years. When I first started playing around with it the corals and, the fish weren't doing that great. There was loads of left-over dead coral skeletons in the tank. The water chem was a bit funny as it had a bit of phosphate, Ammonium, nitrite = 0 (as you would expect with a cycled aquarium), nitrate was a bit high (roughly 30ppm -40ppm) but, the main problem was the salinity (around the 1.030 mark).

SETUP

* It is running about 20 kg live rock fully cycled

* 2 1/2 foot mini-reef system with a bi-spinning arm

* Hailea Chiller set at 24 degrees

* has a protein skimmer that hasn't been used for about a year and, it doesn't seem to be a drama (think its JEBO or something like that)

* Mini-reef is full of Bioballs and, coral sand, sponge, filter wool

* Quad T5's with chinese tubes (were just replaced)

* Substrate is a mix of fine coral sand and 3-5mm coral sand

* about 5 fish (damsel, coral beauty, domino + two others I have forgotten the names for.. will update).

* 1 x sea urchin and 1 x red starfish

Corals prior to pic were :

1 x Kenya tree and 1 x other white coral that looks like two hands (not sure of name - let me know if you do know common or scientific name)

2 x Corallimorph were already there however, weren't as large as they are at the moment.

Changes I have made:

- Reduced the salinity to 1.021-1.023
- Washed and rinsed the biomedia in the mini-reef in tank water (it was very clogged)
- Added some filter wool
- added the kenya tree (blue-green), hammer coral and tree coral (green polyps)
- regular water changes i.e. every two weeks
- added trace elements too the tank once a week + sera coral food once a week also

* as soon as I adjusted the salinity it made a huge difference to water clarity, the fish and, the corals.

I also adjusted the water temperature to 24 prior it was set at 26 degrees.

- I think this tank could look absolutely smashing with a few more corals and, a couple of interesting fish - I hope to add a Frog-spawn, cataphyllia, torch coral maybe a few donuts and, try a golf-ball coral. Will add a few tangs (not the coral eating types) and, hopefully make one beautiful tank.

sil3ntj

Cichlid tank - part 1

One thing I have been playing around with for ages is the following Cichlid tank. I confess that it isn't the best looking tank at the moment. I have totally demolished all the the internal structure in the tank i.e. the hiding holes for the fish (rocks etc etc). I did a bit of a dodgy job of painting the back with standard blue spray paint which is not recommended i.e. as I had to buy some Toxivec to lock up the toxins in the water..... I sprayed the back of the tank whilst the fish where still in the tank! A mistake I will never make again; it was a shortcut that I wouldn't normally take.

SETUP

I am using a standard canister filter which is cycling about 750 Litres per hour - its a standard 3 foot tank (roughly 120 litres). There is a fairly big air pump which is only used because, I am not creating a big amount of turbulence in the tank (not necessary if you break the water surface tension with powerhead etc etc). I also have a power head (2000L p/h) which just circulates the water around the tank.
I have used builders sand I bought from the hardware store and, coral shells (bought from the fish shop) as the tank substrate. I wouldn't recommend that use of garden or builders sand as it is so fine in texture. The reason this is a bad idea is that when you clean the glass with a magnet it is so easy to pick up the sand particles and scratch the glass which can scratch the tank glass. If possible go with some type of substrate that's a few mm's thick or just use your ordinary every day toilet brush to clean the glass.

TEMPERATURE

Tank temperature stays about the 23 - 24 degree Celsius mark (heater is set to about 23 degrees).

FILTRATION

The canister filter is stuffed with biological filtration media (no charcoal at all). There are two trays in the filter i.e. the first containing filter wool/tank sand and, bio-balls of sorts (little ceramic tubes). The second tray contains just bio-balls and ceramic tubes and, lastly on the bottom of the canister I have stuffed a 1 litre bag full of matrix just for over kill.
I am feeding my fish 2 times a day I do a 25% - 40% water change every two weeks however, it looks better and, the fish are happier if a 25% water change is done weekly + I might change the filter wool change every 2 - 3 months (you can tell it is time as the water starts to get a tad murky). I rarely clean the filter material but, when I do I just fill a bucket with aquarium water and give the substrate a really quick wash to get rid of the gunk (never use chlorinated tap water to wash your filter!!).

LIGHTING

I use a 3 foot dual Flouro which has two white Tri-Phosper globes and, for the current set-up it does the job but, I always recommend you use the best equipment you can get your hands on and, that includes lighting.

Cichilds are very easy to maintain they basically will eat anything are quite hardy and tough and, as long as you KEEP YOUR WATER CONDITION GOOD they will stay in good health and look happy. My advice to anybody starting an aquarium is not to get bogged down to much in the complexities of running a tank i.e. there is a lot of misleading information out there - find good advice and follow that.

FISH

2 x Clown Loaches
1 x Talking Catfish
2 x Pakistani Loach
1 x Electric Blue
1 x Marbled Peacock
1 x Red Rubin (female)
3 x Electric Yellow
1 x Bristlenose (male)
1 x Lichnochromis Acuticeps (male)
1 x Synodontis Ocellifer
1 x (not sure of name will update)

Tanks Water Chem parameters:

pH : 7.8
Ammonium : 0 ppm
Nitrite : 0 ppm
Nitrate : 40 - 50 ppm
(fully cycled and set-up for roughly 1 1/2 years)

*Please note that I did a quick water change to drop the Nitrates and the difference was immediate i.e. first pic on the blog.

Fishy Business

Hi

Decided to post a blog i.e. in regards to progress of both a 3 foot saltwater and freshwater aquarium I am playing around with at home. I will be posting videos and pictures of the setup I am using - please note by no long shot am I an expert rather just a super keen aquarist who hopes to be able to one-day make a living from his passion. Feel free to send me pics of your tanks or post links....

Cheers

Sil3ntj