DShelton
-
Posts
152 -
Joined
-
Last visited
-
Days Won
1 -
Feedback
0%
Content Type
Forums
Downloads
Store
Events
Blogs
Gallery
Profiles
Posts posted by DShelton
-
-
2 minutes ago, mgudyka said:
I did have the fritz zyme on hand and I performed a water change after the filter was up and running for a little. I will test my water and swap some substrate from my established tank. I have a fluval 306
That is a great course of action.
-
You are likely still fine. How big, volume wise, is the canister?
Were I in your situation I would do the following:
- not panic
- take some substrate from your other tank and swap it into the new tank (most of your bacteria load in an established tank is usually in the substate)
- test the tank water for ammonia and pH
- vent the canister
- change the water in it the canister with clean tank water
- start the canister
- watch the water chemistry to see what it does.
I would absolutely never ever ever overdose with prime (or any other dechlorinator for that matter) because all they do is dechlorinate. They have nothing in them to 'detoxify' ammonia.
I would dose some FZyme7 if i had it on hand, but would not go out of my way to get it. Mostly I would 'wait and see' what my water chemistry does after I did the above.
-
1
-
On 5/7/2021 at 6:01 PM, WhitecloudDynasty said:
To many adults, all thats going to do is start a feeding frenzy.
2 to 3 pair is more than enough
How many is too many? I know nothing about them, but was thinking of putting 10 - 15 off them in my outdoor 100g patio pond with 30 - 40 cherry shrimp culls.
-
The foam will definitely help with the stresses on the bottom of the tank so that the tank sits flush on something, as long as the foam is thick enough, but that is not generally where they fail when not level. They will usually fail higher up towards the top rim from the asymmetrical force the uneven water is exerting. On smaller tanks I have gotten away with up to 3/8” or so longways and 1/4” or so front to back.
How much clearance do you have above the tank? Could you use some dimensioned lumber like 2x4 (or 6) along the long axis of the tank and then shim them for the tank to sit on?
-
1
-
-
Are there any fish in the tank? They should help keeping the inverts in check.
What is your biomedia in your filter? You could give it a bleach soak, or a boil to kill off any inverts if that is route you want to take.
Personally that is route i would go, try to get a healthy fish load with the plants in the tank. It would help keep the detritus in check, feed the fish, keep them active hunting, and overall make for a healthy ecosystem. Something that likes to hang out on the bottom, like an pair of Apistogramma or Mikrogeophagus would likely keep the scuds to a manageable level and overall lead to a healthy ecosystem.
-
28 minutes ago, eatyourpeas said:
pea puffers
I had not thought about scuds for the pea puffers. Great idea!
-
Is that soft foam, or more like a hard ceramic? If it is ceramic, you might be able to clean it with bleach, like a CO2 diffuser. If it is foam, i might try to wash it with some warm soapy water.
-
10 minutes ago, SBor02 said:
At what point should I use prime in the process?
Prime should only be added to fresh water during a water change.
11 minutes ago, SBor02 said:Since I have not done a water change should I start back up doing regular 25% water changes since there is so much prime in the water?
What does your tap water look like? Is it known to have chlorine (hypochlorite), or chloramine? You do not have enough ammonia in the water to merit a water change IMO. A concentration of .25 ppm ammonia at a pH of 6.8 is not is not toxic to your fish. If it is chloramine, a water change only adds more ammonia to the tank (a product of the reaction between the dechlorinator and chloramine) and in an established tank this is absolutely no issue since the established bio filter sucks that ammonia up almost instantly.
I would not a water change at this point.
26 minutes ago, SBor02 said:Shoukd I try to raise the pH?
The pH is fine. I would not chase any water chemistry.
What is the pH of your tap water?
-
1
-
-
Scuds absolutely will eat plant matter. There is a video from Charles@Goliad Farms where he talks about his scud cultures, and how they devour the floating hornwort.
-
1
-
-
A de-chlorinator is the easiest way to do that, however you can aerate your water for several days to a week to naturally dissipate the chlorine (hypochlorite) from the water before adding it to your tank. The de-chlorinators can be overdosed safely to cover any residual chlorine or chloramine, but do not buy into their marketing hype about them being able to 'detoxify' ammonia or nitrite. Neither of those claims are backed up by the science. Do you know whether or not your tap water has chloramine?
How much ammonia is in the tank water? The most important thing is getting the cycle finished, and the only way to do that is time for the tank to build a bacterial load. Any excess of de-chlorinator will delay cycle completion, and water changes, if your tap water has chloramine will add to the ammonia load (ammonia is liberated when the Cl-N bond is broken in the chloramine). With your pH hovering right above 7, ammonia is your concern and the fewer fish that are in the tank, the better.
Do you have any other tanks that have established bio-media that you can use to 'seed' this newer tank?
-
20 hours ago, Sun.singh1991 said:
So my hope is that I would fill up the canister with biological media. Apparently Seachem matrix has the potential to house anaerobic bacteria that can break down nitrates.
Any surface that can grow aerobic bacteria can also grow anaerobic bacteria. It is not the media, but the conditions that dictate what grows on the media.
-
My pea puffers eat live BBS, some frozen blood worms, and microworms. Mine seem to be drawn to movement in the water. They will eat the frozen bloodworms, but they prefer live.
-
1
-
-
I would put another piece of plywood (18mm) on top of your shelf. Shim between the two pieces of plywood to level, and then use a piece of neoprene (10mm) between the tank and second piece of ply.
-
27 minutes ago, Schwack said:
I've seen speculation that Prime uses sodium thiosulfate
thiosulphate is one of the products of the decomposition of dithionite in water:
2 Na2S2O4 + H2O ---> Na2S2O3 + 2 H2SO3
The thiosulphate reacts with hypochlorite in water:
Na2S2O3 + 4 NaClO + H2O ---> H2SO4 + Na2SO4 + 4 NaCl
2 H2SO3 + 4 NaClO + H2O ---> 3 H2SO4 + 4 NaCl
-
2
-
1
-
-
6 hours ago, SBor02 said:
The pH has been holding steady at 6.8 for a few months now.
With the pH less than 7, the ammonia (NH3) in the water is effectively all ammonium (NH4). Ammonium, while it will register with the API test kit as free ammonia is absolutely less toxic than free ammonia. A variety of factors will affect how much of the NH4 is free NH3 in solution, in an acidic pH, it will be between .1 and 1% of NH4 as NH3. In other words, your .25ppm "ammonia" as shown by the test kit, at your pH is less than 1% of that as free ammonia, and in an acid pH that amount of ammonia is non-toxic.
The prime is absolutely preventing your cycle from continuing. Prime (and other de-chlorinators for that matter) are reducing agents (usually sodium dithionite). Chemically they provide free electrons to Cl2 (HClO) to "reduce" it to 2Cl-. The only way to "detoxify" ammonia is through oxidation, i.e. our friendly neighborhood nitrogen cycle that we are familiar with. By keeping the concentration of the reducing agent in the water very high, you are preventing the oxidative processes from taking hold, i.e. those Nitrobacter and Nitrosomas colonies from establishing themselves.
-
5
-
-
Yeah it is doing pretty well in low light. I have C. wendtii and C. lutea and a java fern (Leptochilus pteropus) in the tank with it. They are all doing well. I am still dialing in the chemistry on the tank, and the only thing in there that is not doing well is S. repens.
I am lighting the tank with an Hygger 14W light (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07X9T9PV6?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2_dt_b_product_details).
-
1
-
-
I have some planted and floating in a 20" pea puffer tank. It is doing great in both cases. My tank is matten filtered so the water sprite is pushed down to one end from the top flow, but that end of the tank is really dark compared to the other end.
-
1
-
-
Next week is killifishes. Registration link is here:
https://amazonresearchcenter.dm.networkforgood.com/forms/talk-to-the-experts-steve-ehrlich
-
I use solid polycarbonate instead of acrylic. It does not warp from the water, but it will sag on big spans. I have not had much issue with 10gallon tanks though.
-
1 hour ago, BadKarma said:
Last time I did a planted tank, it involved potting soil!
That is still a perfectly viable approach, mineralized potting soil with a gravel/sand cap.
-
Holy Toledo!
Dr. Crampton's presentation was phenomenal! I will share the recording if/when it is available.
-
5 hours ago, Stealth Aquatics said:
This hobby has stretched me a little because I am not the handy man. My brain just doesn’t see how things work sometimes.
There are some DIY designs that involve using tile trim molding for lids that slide front to back. Taylor@SimplyBetta posted a video on how she made them. It is literally two pieces of glass and two pieces of plastic molding, both of which are available at your local big box store (and most big box stores will cut the glass for you from glass they have in stock. I did a cursory shopping trip to HD here locally and the cost to build one them is about $10 for a 10 gallon tank.
Added Video:
-
2
-
-
I have witnessed somewhat similar behaviour in my two pea puffers. They are in a heavily planted matten filtered 10gallon tank at 26C with the only other inhabitants being 3 x 2cm Otocinclus vittatus. One of the pea puffers is slightly 'slimmer' compared to the other, and is noticeably less aggressive when I feed frozen foods (bloodworms and frozen brine shrimp).
When I feed freshly hatched baby brine, both of them are equally aggressive when feeding on the live food. I have also just started a couple of cultures of microworms that I hope to get them eating. I have not observed the larger of the two fish bullying the smaller during feeding, but the larger of the two fish does occasionally chase the smaller during the course of the day.
-
I effed up but how bad? Canister filter shut off for 23h
in General Discussion
Posted
It is chemically impossible for that to happen, prime is a reducing agent (that is how it dechlorinates). The only way to make ammonia non-toxic, beyond taking it out of the aquarium is to oxidize it to nitrite and then to nitrate. There is nothing in prime that can do that. What is written on the bottle is marketing garbage.
More than likely the pH of your aquarium is low enough (< 8.5 or so) that most of the "ammonia" that is being registered by your test kit is really ammonium (far far far less toxic than ammonia) instead of free ammonia.