Setting up a Taiwan bee tank

[DUKENDABEARS]

I'm setting up a 20 gallon long with new Amazonia substrate. I plan on using bt-9 , bio plus, old sea mud power under the substrate. It will have a lot of moss covered driftwood that is currently housed in my other tanks. There will be amazon frogbit floaters. i will be using ro water remineralized with salty shrimp bee GH. I will have a large air driven sponge filter on each end of the tank for filtration ( will this be enough?). I have a smaller aqua clear hob filter I can use as well if needed. Is there anything I'm missing that is an absolute must?

[randyl]

Add the HOB in, and add at least 2 months of cycling/maturing time for the tank for better result. Do not rush things.

[mordalphus]

You forgot patience!

I wouldn't add the HoB, only because I hate them, lol.

[DUKENDABEARS]

I was planning on giving it a month at least to cycle, grow biofilm etc. I'd prefer no hob filter if I don't need it.

[randyl]

It's up to you for the HOB, I'm not too sure if 2 sponge filters for a 20G tank will be enough or not. But I'd certainly love to know how it goes. I recommended it only because you have it, if no other filtration will be available I still think adding it is a good idea.

The two months I recommended includes the patience implicitly ;-)

PS: adding tons of moss does look good, but they become a problem when you need to net a specific shrimp from the tank. The one you try to catch is always THE ONLY ONE that will hide behind/under moss/DW.

PS 2: unless you use very little ADA or start with matured filter, I don't think 1 month cuts it for cycling ADA. I have a 10 G tank set up with ADS New Amazonia on December 13, and it's still leaching ammonia last night.

[Betta Maniac]

I would plan on two months. It took my recent BKK tank 6+ weeks to fully cycle. Though I know some people seem to have different results.

[DUKENDABEARS]

I have a mature hob filter on my 27 gallon cube with oebt and cherries, maybe ill set the other hob up on that, let it run for a week or so, then remove the mature filter and put it on the 20 gallon Taiwan bee tank. Maybe cut cycling down by a couple weeks.

[randyl]

Originally Posted by DUKENDABEARS

I have a mature hob filter on my 27 gallon cube with oebt and cherries, maybe ill set the other hob up on that, let it run for a week or so, then remove the mature filter and put it on the 20 gallon Taiwan bee tank. Maybe cut cycling down by a couple weeks.

It's better if you transfer some media from the matured to the new while both maturing in the 27G. It will help both to be matured faster. Also, if your 27G's PH is much higher then 6 (where ADA will likely bring your new tank to), expect the bacteria to crash before taking off again. But it will still be faster than from brand new media for sure.

[DUKENDABEARS]

Yeah it's ph 7.0 in the oebt tank... I have a 8 gallon crs tank with Amazonia that's been running for about 4 months... Would it be very helpful to remove about 2-3 cups of substrate from that tank and mix it in? Or is that such a minimal amount it wouldn't really make a difference? It would end up being about 5% of the total substrate in the 20 gallon

[sayurasem]

Which Amazonia are you guys using? "New" Amazonia or "Amazonia" (the newest batch).

It took me 4 weeks to cycle and finished ammonia leech. I kept temperature to 82 for the whole month. I was using "new" Amazonia (an older batch).

[DUKENDABEARS]

It's new Amazonia, is the regular Amazonia better?

[sbarbee54]

Give it 2 months be safe, I gave mine 2 months even though I had a fully cycled eheim 2215 I put on it... Better safe than sorry with these guys

[DUKENDABEARS]

Thanks for all the input everyone