75 Gallon New Start

[ccurtis]

I recently moved from CA to TN. It took a while to find a place here in TN as the housing market is crazy. Ultimately, we found our little nest in the mountains. 

When I was in CA, I had a large 125g community tank and a 29g shrimp tank in my living room. I did not want to take them across the the country with me, so I sold them both prior to moving. This was tough for me as I really enjoy aquariums and I tend to use them as a stress reliever when I have bad days at work. In line of work I am in, there are more rough days than easy ones.

The house we bought in TN is much smaller than the one we had in CA, but we really love it. With that being said, I am finally starting up a new aquarium in my living room. 

I found a guy selling a 7 month old 75g tank, stand, light, and canister filter on the facebook marketplace. He was moving as and did not want to take it with him (I know how that goes). He sold me everything for 450 dollars which frankly I think was an amazing deal. He had an juvenile albino bristlenose he didn't know what to do with, so I took it with me as well. 

Anyhow, today is day one on the setup.

Things completed on day 1:

Tank/stand were cleaned and brought into the house. 

Pea gravel from home depot (3 bags) were washed and added to the tank. This gave me about 3 inches of substrate.

Filled the tank. (Yay no leaks!)

Watched a few youtube videos on setting up the Penn Plax Cascade 1200 Elite filter, and got that setup and running on the tank.

Added a heater.

Ran to PetSmart (sadly, there are no mom and pop fish stores close by) and bought some water conditioner to remove the chlorine from the water.

Added water conditioner. 

I know that the tank is not cycled yet, but I added the bristlenose to the tank. I figured it would be happier being that it was being temporarily housed in a jug on my kitchen counter. I will keep an eye on the parameters closely and monitor Ammonia and Nitrite levels during cycle process to ensure the fish is ok (adding fish before I am cycled is not a standard practice for me).

Set up the aquarium light (Hygger smart light) and put it on a wifi timer.

I will be placing an order to the coop soon to get plants and other items to complete the setup. Once the setup is complete and I am cycled, I will start to add additional fish. I want to document the entire process. 

 

[Ken Burke]

Nice!

[Rita]

I wish you the best of luck with a fish in cycle! I did it once unfortunately by accident. I thought having one already cycled sponge filter would be enough to carry the load of a brand new tank set up with eco complete and a bunch of plants which were converting to submerged conditions. It's a lone betta in a 10 gal and for a two week period I was changing 50-75% water daily to keep the ammonia and nitrite down. I'd test again the next day with API master test kit and both were almost to the top of the chart! I still think the only reason my fish didn't die is because it was a betta.... unfortunately they are kept in such crappy contditions at the stores I think he was used to it.

I'd love to hear how it goes and how your experience is compared to mine!

Also, here's a picture of my trooper who survived my naïveté. 

Edited October 23, 2022 by Rita

[TheSwissAquarist]

On 10/23/2022 at 3:03 AM, ccurtis said:

I recently moved from CA to TN. It took a while to find a place here in TN as the housing market is crazy. Ultimately, we found our little nest in the mountains. 

When I was in CA, I had a large 125g community tank and a 29g shrimp tank in my living room. I did not want to take them across the the country with me, so I sold them both prior to moving. This was tough for me as I really enjoy aquariums and I tend to use them as a stress reliever when I have bad days at work. In line of work I am in, there are more rough days than easy ones.

The house we bought in TN is much smaller than the one we had in CA, but we really love it. With that being said, I am finally starting up a new aquarium in my living room. 

I found a guy selling a 7 month old 75g tank, stand, light, and canister filter on the facebook marketplace. He was moving as and did not want to take it with him (I know how that goes). He sold me everything for 450 dollars which frankly I think was an amazing deal. He had an juvenile albino bristlenose he didn't know what to do with, so I took it with me as well. 

Anyhow, today is day one on the setup.

Things completed on day 1:

Tank/stand were cleaned and brought into the house. 

Pea gravel from home depot (3 bags) were washed and added to the tank. This gave me about 3 inches of substrate.

Filled the tank. (Yay no leaks!)

Watched a few youtube videos on setting up the Penn Plax Cascade 1200 Elite filter, and got that setup and running on the tank.

Added a heater.

Ran to PetSmart (sadly, there are no mom and pop fish stores close by) and bought some water conditioner to remove the chlorine from the water.

Added water conditioner. 

I know that the tank is not cycled yet, but I added the bristlenose to the tank. I figured it would be happier being that it was being temporarily housed in a jug on my kitchen counter. I will keep an eye on the parameters closely and monitor Ammonia and Nitrite levels during cycle process to ensure the fish is ok (adding fish before I am cycled is not a standard practice for me).

Set up the aquarium light (Hygger smart light) and put it on a wifi timer.

I will be placing an order to the coop soon to get plants and other items to complete the setup. Once the setup is complete and I am cycled, I will start to add additional fish. I want to document the entire process. 

 

I think we have almost the same tank!

[ccurtis]

Time for an update: 

The "fish in" cycle with the albino bristlenose that we rescued from the person who sold me the tank has been going well. He seems to happy and healthy. I have been monitoring the water parameters watching for the ammonia spike and nitrite spike and it has not happened yet. I noticed a slight elevation in ammonia one day and then it was gone the next. Been holding steady at 0 nitrite and 0 nitrate.

On 10/27/22 I added some salvinia minima that I had in a beta set up I did for my mother-in-law. The stuff reproduces rapidly so I took a bunch that she had. I wanted to add it to keep nitrite/nitrate down during the cycling spike. I also figured that it would keep nitrate down in general. I used some clear air tubing to create a ring and attached to the glass with suction cups to try to keep it corralled in one area of the tank. I do plan to make this a moderate to heavily planted tank. I am not sure if these floaters will be permanent or not yet. 

I also added a large air stone that I plan to use in conjunction with a future decoration, and another airstone that will be used with a large sponge filter once I place another order with the co-op. I am on the same page as Cory in regards to airstones and believe every tank should have at least one. I know I have the canister filter going which I still think is a bit overkill, but since it came with the tank, it's what I am going to use. I am going add the sponge filter as backup filtration for when the power goes out, and to have a cycled ready to go sponge filter for a hospital/quarantine tank when I need it. 

Today, 11/05/22 I added some driftwood that I have been soaking for the past week. It finally sank in the bucket I had it soaking in day before yesterday. Now that it was waterlogged, I felt it was time to add it. It will give the pletco some more area to hide and graze on. I eventually plan to put anubias on it.

I also noticed today that I had a hitchhiker make it in with the floating plants I added. I found a single pond or bladder snail cruising along the glass. I know people have mixed feelings about them, but I am in the pro-snail camp and feel they are beneficial. I know it will lay eggs and they will hatch and I will get more, but it's fine. 

The tank itself, cleared up a couple days after set up, and has now become slightly cloudy again. I sure it has to do with the cycle process and it likely a bacterial bloom. I will monitor and keep an eye on it. My cycle process is likely going to be slower than normal since I did not have anything pre-cycled to add. The plants from the beta enclosure was the first thing I added from another active tank, which is why I think I am cloudy now as the bacteria that came in on those is likely multiplying. 

I will soon be adding some more plants and a few more fish. I will update once they are added.  

[ccurtis]

11/15/2022

I have been monitoring the water parameters waiting for the tank to fully cycle. Still not quite there yet, but should be getting there soon. Water testing with co-op strips today finally indicated 0 ammonia, nitrite somewhere between 1 and 5, and 25 nitrate (the nitrate is mostly easy green). 

I am monitoring the situation closely as I do have a single bristlenose pleco in the tank that was a rescue from the guy I bought the tank from. It seems to be doing well, eating and enjoying life so far. 

The single hitchhiker pond snail that came in on some of the salvinia minima has now turned into a few and I have seen a couple of egg clutches on the glass. I am assuming I will have more soon. I don't mind them. 

I added some trimmings of java moss from my mother-in-laws betta tank to the bridge decoration in the tank. I am hoping for it to grow and I will continue to wrap the bridge with it. I want to try to completely cover the bridge in moss. If it goes according to plan, I will likely use it in a future project. 

The driftwood I put in did it's thing and the white fungus looking stuff showed up as I expected it would. I have left it there for time being for the snails to graze on. I remove it little by little as do things to the tank. The driftwood also released a little bit of tannins in the water but not a lot. They will come out easily with water changes.

Brown diatom algae has appeared as well. I know this will resolve itself as I add plants, fish, etc., and as the tank seasons.

I also added a small clipping of anubias nana petite from the mother-in-laws betta tank to the driftwood. So far it seems to be doing well. The salvinia minima is growing rapidly as well to where I will soon have to begin thinning and throwing it out. Right now I am letting it kind of take over one side of the tank to assist with the cycling of the tank and keeping the ammonia/nitrite/nitrates low.

Overall, even though this is taking longer than I would like because I did not have any pre-seeded media, it's coming along little by little. I have attached some updated pictures. 

 

 

 

[TeeJay]

So far so good. Seems like it's going thru all the normal new tank processes. I'm excited to follow along with this project and see where it goes.

[Patrick_G]

Looking good so far. The pleco is probably helping speed up the cycle, you should be ready for stocking very soon. 
 

[Schuyler]

On 10/22/2022 at 11:24 PM, TheSwissAquarist said:

I think we have almost the same tank!

What are those sword like plants with long stalks?

[Schuyler]

What are your plans for stocking the tank?

[TheSwissAquarist]

On 11/16/2022 at 5:24 AM, Schuyler said:

What are those sword like plants with long stalks?

Tank has evolved a lot since then :

Some kind of Hygrophilia which my LFS had melted half the leaves of I think 🤔.

[ccurtis]

On 11/16/2022 at 12:41 AM, Schuyler said:

What are your plans for stocking the tank?

My stocking plans for it are to get more plants first and foremost. As for fish, I tend to stock heavily, but I keep up on the maintenance and maintain good water quality. I am planning to start with a small school of panda corys for the bottom, 3 angel fish, a medium size school of cardinal tetras. Obviously not all at once, but that’s the plan at first, but it is subject to change. I’ll like get a couple electric blue acaras and a couple Bolivian rams as well. 

[TheSwissAquarist]

On 11/16/2022 at 1:48 PM, ccurtis said:

3 angel fish,

Hate to break it to you, but a group of 5+ angels is better Bea cause the aggression is equally shared if they’re all of the same size. I made the same mistake and ended up with one very bossy platinum angel and 2 sad black ones.

[ccurtis]

On 11/16/2022 at 10:51 AM, TheSwissAquarist said:

Hate to break it to you, but a group of 5+ angels is better Bea cause the aggression is equally shared if they’re all of the same size. I made the same mistake and ended up with one very bossy platinum angel and 2 sad black ones.

I was thinking about that but wasn’t sure if I wanted to do 5 or not. But the more I think about the more I think 5 is a better idea. 
 

Thanks. 

[ccurtis]

Update: 11/24/2022

The tank now appears to be fully cycled. I am no longer registering any ammonia or nitrite. 

The pletco made it through the fishin cycle and appears to be doing well. It seems to be active, happy, and healthy. 

I am noticing more and more snails appearing, I figured that would happen. 

I have added 2 crypt wendtii greens and pogostemon stellatus octopus. I plan add some more crypts and anubias soon. I also want to fill in the back of the tank with pogo octopus and made that my background.

I added an intake sponge to my filter intake and I have also added a sponge filter. The sponge filter will eventually get hooked up to a coop air filter with the battery backup. That will be my contingency filter/airstone incase the power goes out during storms. 

The moss is beginning to perk up. The water spangles (salvinia minima) are reproducing like mad. I have removed a couple of handfuls and still have a lot. Not sure if I am going to keep the floating plants or not yet. I know they are great at sucking nitrates, but so it pogo octopus, so we will see how that works out. 

Water still has a very slight haze to it. It has ever since it starting cycling. Not sure if its just fine particles from when I added the substrate or if its algae/bacteria. Since I have been consistently registering no ammonia/nitrite for the past week, I have added a UV sterilizer to see if that clears the water. It also maybe that I need to replace the water polishing pads in my canister filter. I am ordering more of those today to replace them. Water should be super clear very soon. 

The brown diatoms are starting to clear up as well. The greenish brown color near the intake sponge is actually green reflection from the floating water spangles. 

[ccurtis]

Today was tank maintenance Tuesday 11/29/2022.

 I ordered more sponges for my filter and they arrived. So I decided to rinse out the media in the canister filter and add them. I have shown that I have low KH when doing water testing and wanted to increase my buffer capacity. 

So the setup now in the canister filter from bottom to top as my filter pumps water to the bottom up through the media and out the top is as follows: 

Very coarse sponge, then medium porosity sponge, then fine sponge. It then goes through a layer of water polishing pads. To work on increasing my KH, I added a bag of crushed coral on top of the water polishing pad. Then it hits my bio media and bio rings, and then back into the tank. 

I did about a 35 percent water change today and decided to gravel vac again to remove the remaining diatom algae. It was a success.

The cloudiness I spoke about in the last entry has cleared up with UV sterilizer. I still have it running but will likely remove it this weekend as the water is now very clear. 

After gravel vacuuming and adding water back to the tank, I decided to remove some of the water spangles as these rapidly reproduce. I remove an entire bowl of the them today and still have plenty in the tank. I hate to just throw them away, but I have more than I know what do with. May post them in the local aquarium club page to see if anyone wants any and just give them away for free if anyone needs any. These things are so good at sucking nitrates up. 

I tested my water before adding the crushed coral, KH was reading at 40ppm on the coop test strip. I will retest again in a week to see if the KH has come up any. 

[ccurtis]

12/04/2022

I got a steal today. I came in contact with a local breeder who is tearing down his breeding racks to set up a nursery for his soon to be born child. He sold me 7 juvenile bolivian rams, a pair of just barely sexually mature apisto triple reds, and 6 juvenile gardneri killifish for 55 bucks. They were all locally bred, active and heathly. 

Trigger alert - I put them all in my 75g.

Now before everyone goes crazy and says you can't put those together, standby. He has all the parents of these fish in a heavily planted 75 gallon tank and they do fine together. I saw them in the tank and observed them with my own eyes for about 45 minutes and we even fed them, there were no issues. He said he does not have any issues with aggression and everyone does fine. I know all fish are different and things will vary from tank to tank, but I decided to try it out. 

I have put them all in my 75g that I am still planting (soon it will be heavily planted). I kept an eye on them all day and I didn't seem to have any aggression issues. I was surprised to see that apitstos were out exploring more so than the rams. The killifish seem to be doing good so far. If this setup does not work out, I do have a back up plan, so don't worry. 

I went down to the river bank and collected some larger pieces of driftwood and some rocks to create some more line of sight breaks and caves to help minimize the potential for aggression. I am soaking them now and will clean/disinfect them this week and add them to the tank. 

Excited to see where this goes. 

[Patrick_G]

That stocking seems like it could work in a 75 and you would have been crazy to pass up the deal. 

[ccurtis]

@Patrick_Gthats what I figured. With a 75 I feel like I have enough space to make it work as long as I have enough hides and line of sight breaks. 
 

You are right, the deal was way to good the pass up. I was I could have got more but I don’t have the tanks set up for it. 

[Schuyler]

On 12/4/2022 at 5:57 PM, ccurtis said:

 tearing down his breeding racks to set up a nursery 

I read this in aquarium mode and though "What's the difference between breeding rack and nursery?"

On 12/4/2022 at 5:57 PM, ccurtis said:

6 juvenile gardneri killifish 

Can you tell how many males vs females you got? Are you going to join in the group of us here breeding Notho killifish?

[ccurtis]

Based on what I can tell right now, I think I have 2 males and 4 females. 2 of them have red on their tails and appear to have some coloration coming in on the bodies, they other 4 do not have the red on the tails. It still pretty early to tale, they are still vert small, maybe slightly smaller than a full grown endler. I have not thought about joining a killifish breeding group. 

[Jungle Fan]

Looks like you are well on your way again to a beautiful tank, will be very interested to watch your further progress being that I'm running a 75 gallon tank myself that has now passed the two and a half year mark.

[ccurtis]

12/08/2022

Tank maintenance today - Water change approx 35%. 

Added another pogo octopus plant. I also added some rocks that I found in a nearby creek bed. I soaked them and then cleaned them with hot water and peroxide. Then gave them a good hot water rinse prior to putting them in tank. 

The fish are doing well. I haven't had any aggression issues as of yet other than you basic minor chasing/sparing that rams do when they enter each others areas they have claimed. The apistos seem to be doing well with them as well. All the killifish are doing good as well. Beginning to see some colors on them. My bristlenose seems to be claiming the apisto cave that I put in the tank, so I will need to get her a pletco cave so the apistos can have theirs.

Pictures of the livestock and current setup:

 

[nabokovfan87]

I think your best bet might be the garden section, but whatever it is you want to find.... I would start to look for "cover" for the rams.  They will feel more secure and any aggression issues you have withe the species in the tank could be reduced long term.  It helps them set territories and stuff too.  That wood section in the middle of your tank is awesome, it's typically how I try to have cover for my fish that like it.  I also will take rocks and lean them over on the wood or use the rocks to prop up the wood as well.

I don' know if you've seen Dean's video on his setup.  I can't imagine you're trying to breed the ram's but just raise them.  I will share it just to give you an idea of what they prefer if that helps at all for your situation.  They tend to like cover on their backs / sides so they feel like they can protect their section a bit easier.
 

 

[ccurtis]

I do plan to add more cover areas. I will also be adding a fair amount of more plants that will provide some cover as well. It’s a work in progress. I don’t plan to breed the rams, just raise them. As they get larger I may give a couple away as well.