Freshwater for the Kids! Build

[AHP]

I love them! Hardly any heat, no noise, you can customize it anyway you like. I can say that if you hold out for the next phase of lights you will be able to have lights on different controls.
My goal next would be to order phase 2 (if they are even called phase), two 10000K 48" strips and an APEX control, So I could have sunset and sunrise along with moonlighting. LOL That's way overkill for what I need to do, but go big or go home.

For you I would say 130000K w/ dimmer and you should be good. If you want you are free to come over and take a look at them.

[gambs]

How do you like your BML? I am thinking of ordering one for my tank. Not sure which one to get as i won't be planting any plants, just growing algae on the rocks. Defiantly want the fish colors to pop though.


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[AHP]

Thanks Bedlamer. The stand was actually quite easy once I stopped yelling at myself for making stupid mistakes.
I am in the market to find more Otos I was looking for about 10 more because I have 4 at the moment, they are great little algae eaters. But to kick the Green Spot Algae that I have I don't know what is best... Neritina sp. zebra snail? I will be getting two German Blue Rams and I have one Anglefish I am not sure the snails would survive! No to Amano Shrimp because the GBR and Anglefish will make them an expensive meal.

So here is a picture of my tank 2 weeks ago:


And here is a pic of my tank today:


Notice a couple of things...
1. I made a new overflow w/ pvc, it is 5/8" and has about very small holes to give it good pressure.
2. I have some frogbit floating, maybe about 8-10 different shoots. This is growing fairly well, I get a new leaf on each one everyday.
3. I have 4 different Sagittaria, I am hoping they will break up the foreground and midground.
4. I wanted to try out a Dwarf Lily, I don't know if it is going to work. I has already melted within the first 2 days in the tank.
5. I had to do some trimming on the Water wisteria because the leaves were not growing under the tops. I thought of it like an umbrella and the light was not penetrating the middle and bottom of the stem. (See picture)

6. I am monitoring the HC, but I don't think it is doing well. It is really starting the thin out I can't tell if it is from fish or poor setup.

7. I am still fighting Green Spot Algea so I have decreased the lighting to below 50% and cut the lights back to 7 hrs a day. I am sure I will have to bring it down to 4 or 5hrs a day.


So here are all my notes that I have going on
Water test:
pH: 7.8
Ammonia: .25ppm
Nitrite: 0ppm
Nitrate: 0ppm
GH: 3 drops
KH: 2 drops
Temp: 80 degree

I am EI dosing 3xweek (K2S04, KN03, KH2P04) and adding MetriCide 14 10mL every morning before I run off to work.

As for my BML lights my PAR is 75degree @ 24", 85 - 80 - 70

Max PAR value I would have to say is the 12" mark on 75degree.

I know this is alot of information but any help would be greatly appreciated. I am thinking the response is going to be lower the light duration to knockout the GSA. But after that I would love some help on making the plants fill out and stay full.
All in all I am really getting the bug again.

[Bedlamer]

Hi,

I’ve enjoyed reading your thread. I really like the door you built for your stand. You should really quarantine new fish for about a month, not 4 days to get good benefit from it. If you liked the look of your ex-redtailed shark—the rainbow shark looks even better IMHO, and is much less aggressive. If you are going to get otos get a dozen, and hope 4 make it. They seem to have a high mortality rate when introduced.

I look forward to seeing how your tank evolves.

[AHP]

Well I just keep reading about dirted tanks and thought it was might have been better than the route I was going.

I guess I need to focus on Flow and dosing.

[Roshan8768]

Looks good... tank is coming along. Why do you want to dirt it... you'll most likely regret it IMO, it makes a huge mess unless you're exceptionally good at keeping your hands out of your tank. Also, you'll most likely have huge algae issues for a couple of months as well as any time you disturb the substrate. I tried i once... now I stick to good lighting and flow, heavy stocking, and root tabs. No C02, dosing, or fancy substrates for me!

Keep it simple, what you have right now looks to be working pretty well... just let it grow

[AHP]

So here is an update of the tank.


I am thinking about dirting the tank during the holiday week to create hiding spots and make it look more visually pleasing.

So far I see no more sings of ick but just in case I will keep the temp at 82 and monitor for a couple of days.

[AHP]

So far I have lost 5 Carnials and I am on my second dose of ick treatment.
The good news is that I found a shrimp last night when the lights went out, I guess my Angelfish didn't get them all. LOL

[AHP]

Thanks!
All fish are back in the main tank, temp is down to 82 and water is a light blue. Hope this works and doesn't hurt the plants and the blue coloring is easy to get out of the sealent.

[Roshan8768]

I've always used Quick Cure by Mardel... you can get it at Petco/Petsmart. I'm not aware of a medication that will treat your tank without a dye being present in the water other than a copper based treatment, but that's really harsh on the fish and will destroy any micro-fauna in your tank. If I were you, I would move the fish back to the display and treat the display as directed. Leave the temp at 82 I think, 86 is pretty high. Also, make sure you have a lot of surface agitation... if you run canister filters and don't have a spray bar pointing up at the surface, this can be a problem. Use a power head or air stone to make sure your fish are getting enough oxygen at night with the elevated temperature. Ich isn't fun, but it's a lot easier to deal with in Freshwater than Salt

[AHP]

No I really haven't seen any bullying and I have about 15 cardinals and 10 rummy-nose. All fished seemed to be doing fine, but when I bought 5 cardinals 2 weeks ago I do remember saying to myself that their red was not as strong. That could have been a sign of stress and I should have placed them in the QT for a couple of weeks.

Right now I have all cardinals in a HT. Temp is a 85 and I have dosed salt (seem to be doing fine but I will stop salt) and API super ick cure (Yes it is blue) in the HT. I am guessing I should put them all back in the display tank and dose the tank. Is their a better ick medication that I could use? something that doesn't dye the tank blue and the clear sealant into blue?

[Roshan8768]

Well things were going well for a bit but last week introduced 5 more cardinals to the tank. I quarantied them for about 4 days and didn't see any issues.
BUT when I came home yesterday after work 3 fish had ick! So I have taken them back our of the display tank and put them back in QT. Right now they are getting a salt bath at 83degrees and I am using something called API "Super Ick Cure".

My question is seeing how they were in my display tank, wouldn't all my fish be vulnerable to ick?
Should I just try to treat the infected first and see what happens in the DT?

Yes, all your fish have been exposed so to truly eliminate it you would need to treat all the fish. IMO ich is something that flares up from stress... have you seen any bullying? How many cardinals do you have in there? They tend to do better in larger groups...

If I were you I wouldn't stress out yet, usually the best course of action is to just treat the display tank and leave the sick fish in there as it is less stressful for them. Also, don't do the salt baths!!! Cardinals and other amazonian fish are super sensitive to dissolved solids in the water. They tend to easily become stressed and lose coloration if kept in hard water (AKA Houston/Katy water). This is usually a good treatment to provide some relief but just stick to the API medication (I'm guessing it turns the water blue?)

[AHP]

Well things were going well for a bit but last week introduced 5 more cardinals to the tank. I quarantied them for about 4 days and didn't see any issues.
BUT when I came home yesterday after work 3 fish had ick! So I have taken them back our of the display tank and put them back in QT. Right now they are getting a salt bath at 83degrees and I am using something called API "Super Ick Cure".

My question is seeing how they were in my display tank, wouldn't all my fish be vulnerable to ick?
Should I just try to treat the infected first and see what happens in the DT?

[Roshan8768]

That sounds like a good plan, hopefully that helps with your algae issues. Another thing that can really help would be floating plants of some kind... they grow fast and block some of the excess light from entering the tank. Also, they are really good at pulling nutrients out of the water and out-competing algae since they grow so fast.

[AHP]

Love this thread. Building something for your kids, and advancing the hobby all at the same time is, or should be worth a trophy
There you go !!

Thanks! My wife and I are enjoying my sons reactions to this FW build. Every day he runs over to the tank and looks for two things the RCS aka "skrimp" and the angle fish dubbed "Pancake".

A couple albino bristalnose plecos would eat that algea.
The plant is a small tipe of anubias. can't remember the name.
The molly is prego.

Thanks Troy, I will try to pick up a albino bristalnose pleco and a couple of amano shrimp (Wife and son love the shrimp) this weekend.
As for the Molly, now I need to read up on where, when and how.

Looks good, more plants will definitely help you fight that algae! Everything except for the baby tears looks in great shape. Not sure on the anubias variety, but it's definitely better of in the shade.

Roshan,
With that being said I am hoping that the Osmocote Plus tabs I put in the tank last night are going to help with growth. Along with picking up a cleaning crew I am going to get some Excel this weekend and try Barr's method.

http://www.barrreport.com/showthread.php/4266-Hybrid-methods-fusing-dry-start-excel-with-non-CO2

Hopefully all goes well and I will have some good growth to start clippings and fill in the tank.