20 20’s 75 gallon - update 9-13-2008

[20 20]

Last night I dosed phosphate, but I'm still not dosing nitrates. Tested the water again tonight, nitrates still at 20, phosphates at approximately .40. I'll watch the levels, and adjust accordingly. Still would like someone to verify the phosphate level I should be targeting, I've seen anywhere from 1 to 3.

Oh, and I just put 6 oto's in the tank.

[mpodolan]

I'd recommend calibrating your test kits to see how accurate they are. Here is a link that explains how to do so.
http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/wa...solutions.html

As for the phosphates, it doesn't really matter, as long as it doesn't become a limiting factor (ie. there is enough for the plants). Just shoot for anywhere in the 1-5ppm range, and you'll be OK. Don't fall for the myth that phosphates cause algae. An imbalance or limiting factor (often co2) is behind most cases of algae.

[20 20]

Thanks for the info!

[20 20]

Tested the water, did a 50% water change, and tested again.

BEFORE
Nitrate - 15
Phosphate - .25

AFTER
Nitrate - 10
Phosphate - .10

So, I'm going to start back with dosing macros. A bit less than originally for nitrates, now 1/2 tsp as opposed to 3/4 tsp. The same for phosphate, 1/4 tsp. I'll continue to monitor, and adjust accordingly. Hope I get it straightened out by Friday, because I'm leaving Saturday morning and not getting back until Wednesday, leaving my 17 year old boy to take care of the tank.

Actually, he's pretty good at this stuff, he's had 55 and 75 gallon tanks himself, so I'm comfortable with him doing this. Just not sure what levels to have him dose. Hmmmm...

Algae is still there, I'm siphoning it off with an airline hose, comes out pretty well. Hopefully I'll get the dosing 'ok', and with the oto's it'll stop coming back.

Now, on to the pictures!

Well, only a few. Full tank shot, with flash and without:




One of the oto's:

[CobraGuppy]

nice tank!

Your hc carpet is filling in slowly but surely

Is the plant next to your L. Arcuata still the Rotala Rotundifolia you said you had there in your first post?

It looks really different from my rotala rotundifolia

[20 20]

Thanks! The HC was filling in nicely, but since I cut the photoperiod back to 4 hours it's started to grow vertically, and the leaves are starting to turn brown. I've just bumped the photoperiod back to 7 hours, so we'll see. And I had a couple of plants mislabeled in that first post. The rotala and sunset hygro should have been switched. What's happening is the rotala is grown slowly, and the hygro is growing fast, so it's overtaking the rotala. You're probably looking at the hygro in this latest photo. There is also a stand of bacopa carolina behind the ludwigia and hygro. I'm starting to think I've got too many different types of plants.

[20 20]

Time for an update. Algae is almost gone, just a bit of green algae on the rocks and glass. I've had to trim twice so far, the last time two days ago. All plants seem to be doing real well, some growing faster than others, but all doing well. Phosphate was low, so I've been dosing extra to get it up, and I've seen a couple of holes in the crypt leaves, so I've started dosing potassium. I've just added 18 cardinals (woohoo!), and have 30 amano's on order. Now a few pictures, again, sorry for the bad quality:











Those pictures don't really do it justice, I'm very pleased with the progress.

[20 20]

Couple more pictures, and then a funny story...





When I left the lfs today with the cardinals and a couple containers of fish food, my eyes started getting a bit itchy. I itched, they got worse. And worse. And worse. Watering, red, puffy. I have slight hay-fever, and figured something in the air just got to me. I get home, my 17 year old says "what did you do to your eyes!?". Heh. Anyway, my wife gets home about 2 hours later, and says "what did you do to your eyes!?". I tell them it's probably hay-fever, etc. About an hour later, my wife looks at me and says "Hey! Remember when you had your last fish tank, something gave you the same reaction?". Doh. About 14 years ago I had a 29 gallon community, that I fed flakes, tubifex worms, and frozen/live brine shrimp. One day I decided to get some freeze-dried blood worms. I had this same reaction one day, after feeding the fish. Didn't make the connection. Next time I fed the blood worms, same reaction. Third times a charm, I finally made the connection. I tried feeding the blood worms a 4th time just to make sure. Yep, sure enough, I'm allergic to freeze-dried blood worms. And I had forgotten. So, today I got the reaction just from handling the container, never even opened it up. I had my boy put it in a ziplock back, so I can take it back to the lfs and get credit for it.

Whew, that was a bit of rambling, eh?

[stargate_geek]

Awesome looking tank!

I'm trying to pin down what I'm allergic to with my aquarium "stuff" too... I haven't fed bloodworms in a long time, so it's not that. And I'm trying to eliminates certain foods (I have many food allergies myself, so it seemed logical), but sometimes i react and sometimes not. I better not be allergic to the fish themselves! Oh well... hives for now... I'm NOT getting rid of the tank(ssssss)

[20 20]

Of the 18, 6 are dead, I can find 9 live ones, and can't find three of them. Checked the water parameters:

Temp: 80
PH 6.6
Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 40
Phosphate - .35
KH - 5
GH - 6

I drip acclimated them for an hour and a half. Any ideas?

[lauraleellbp]

Cardinals are touchy. Most are wild-caught. Getting good stock can be pretty tough. Lost any more since the first day or two?

[20 20]

6 left, 7 bodies found, 5 missing. But the 6 left sure look good!

[20 20]

Update time. I added 6 more cardinals, now I have 12, and 4 rummy's, all of which seem to be healthy. Algae problem is gone, but now I've got a regulator that won't hold the bubble count, and no more fish budget to get another one. So, once or twice a day, I fiddle with the regulator to get the bubble count right. Seems to be working. Here are a couple of pics from tonight, bad photography skills and all. First with no flash, second with flash:

[@marko@]

the plants are growing in very well, good job.

[Chrisinator]

Awesome tank! Jealous hits me