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Honestly, I consider my plecos as staff - who have to work to earn their keep

So, no I never take things out to remouve algae

slakey wrote:Yeah thats probably it.

Do people take out plants, wood pieces and rocks to clean the algae off?

Or should I just leave it until I get the plec and shrimp?

I don't take anything out of the tank if I can help it - rocks, wood etc stays in there unless I'm either moving the tank (I try to avoid moving tanks, but sometimes needs must) or trying to catch some particular fish that likes to hide amongst the wood/rocks - I try to NEVER disturb plants, as they don't usually "like it" when you move them around (obviously, moving the tank involves taking the substrate out, so plants also have to move).

As long as there isn't a large time between getting the plants and the algae eater(s), you should be fine.

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Mats

Woop! Woop!

I just struck a deal with my dad about the fish tank

Weds - I put the first coat of paint in my mums office and I just told my dad I'll finish the room if I can have a new tank downstairs, and I told him I wanted a Rio 180 and we're going to have a look around tomorrow

So tomorrow after work I may have a Juwel Rio 180!!!

And I'll also look for shrimp and bn pleco if they've got any!

So the tank has been confirmed pretty much, so now it's time for the stock list!!!

Let the ideas commence!

P.S I'll be going for the setup on the earlier pages, of the rocks and plant pots.

You lucky bugger! I wish I could get more tanks of a bigger nature. I want more L number plecos, would LOVE hypancistrus zebra but cant justify the money people ask for them. Oh well. Make sure you get some pics up of your new tank.

Hehe well I am paying for the tank, I just needed to get the space for it.

This may be a 3month setting up *without putting water in*, i.e getting rocks, plant pots, substrate, plants air pumps. As I only have £354 in my bank, and the tank will cost me a max of £295 *juwel site, but hopefully cheaper at my LFS'* plant pots... £3-£6, substrate may cost abit as im going for all sand, plants, may cost abit, will be going for hardy plants.

And also during half term Im getting my eyebrow pierced so need to put £40max aside for that...

So it may be tight for the next 3months or so, but surely over that ammount of time I'll get it all ready for the water to go in, and would've seen loads of fish and planned my stock list.

In other news I found somewhere few miles away from me that has Albino Bristlenose Plecostamus'!!! for £5.98
and some other fish I have never seen before.

if you want a plant that'll help reduce nitrate & there is not much water movement at the surface, i'd reccommend some riccia - it is great for this

Cool thanks for the suggestion.

Stocking Plan *so far*:
4 Black Peru Corydoras
4 Three-Lined Corydoras
1 Bristlenose Plecostamus
Pair of Angels *option 1*
Pair of Red Gourami's *option 2*
1 Rainbow Shark *option 3*
Other fish are depending on what option I go for.

well i just got back from my nans place and she has quite a few big rocks in her garden... and i was wondering would I be able to use them if i bleach and boil them? also what about house bricks?

slakey wrote:well i just got back from my nans place and she has quite a few big rocks in her garden... and i was wondering would I be able to use them if i bleach and boil them? also what about house bricks?

The type of rock will determine whether it may be used. In general, granite, basalt and petrified wood are safe. Avoid limestone, marble, metal ores and calcareous rocks like Aragonite.
Clean red brick is safe. It should not have any old mortar adhering to it.

How can I find out if they can be used or not?

Should I take some pictures of them?

Go to your garden centre and check the stones they sell, and compare yours. These are certainly ok:
Granite is hard, white/red & black speckles.
Slate is grey, green or purple in colour, and comes in "slices".
House bricks are OK as long as they are not too high in iron (which comes out like brown spots on the surface when they get produced).

Any rock with really sparkly (fools gold) in them is bad.
White rocks are almost always some form of limestone and/or marble, so not so great (unless you are keeping Rift Lake fishes that want "liquid concrete" for water).

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Mats

Any rock with really sparkly (fools gold) in them is bad.

Mats - why is this?

Richard B wrote:

Any rock with really sparkly (fools gold) in them is bad.

Mats - why is this?

Quite some time ago Racoll asked this, and the short answer is that it produces hydrogen sulfide (H2S), which is not a nice thing to have in the tank. I can't remember the longer answer, which went into detail on how and why this would happen.

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Mats

Went to LFS and came back with 3 plants and three fish.

I did ask prior to getting fish with my nitrate and she said I was doing well if it's 40 as they get it out of the tap at 60ppm!!! *very hard water around here*

See pointed me to some juvenile bn's and my dad wanted 1 coolie loach but I got 2, and also to me surprise I got a free black molly in the bn bag lol!!!

Also whilst putting in the new plants I cam across a dead fish (female guppy) and she was pure white and her stomach had been split open and partly eaten... would this maybe be a reason for nitrate to be high?

slakey wrote:Went to LFS and came back with 3 plants and three fish.

I did ask prior to getting fish with my nitrate and she said I was doing well if it's 40 as they get it out of the tap at 60ppm!!! *very hard water around here*

Hard water has little to do with nitrate levels - you can very well have soft water and still have high nitrate levels.

But yes, tap-water that is in the 50's or thereabouts is not unusual in England - I'd say most of the nitrate is leakage from farming, although I'm not 100% sure of that. Anyone else know?

See pointed me to some juvenile bn's and my dad wanted 1 coolie loach but I got 2, and also to me surprise I got a free black molly in the bn bag lol!!!

Also whilst putting in the new plants I cam across a dead fish (female guppy) and she was pure white and her stomach had been split open and partly eaten... would this maybe be a reason for nitrate to be high?

If the fish looks like a fish (rather than completely disintegrated and mushy), then it's not contributed much to the nitrate level.

If we do the math, 40ppm = 40 mg/l. 40 * 125 = 5g of nitrate for your tank. A BIG female guppy probably weighs about 1-2g, and of course, not all of that would be nitrogen (60-70% is water, first of all, then you have carbon, hydrogen and oxygen as well).

If dead fish makes any difference to the water quality, it's normally in the ammonia reading, since (large) dead fish can produce large amounts of ammonia (you only need 0.1g of ammonia in your tank to be around the 0.5ppm level where fish are starting to turn "unhappy").

--
Mats

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Mats

Ok was just a thought.

Hopefully things will turn better now with the plants, not quickly but will go down.

Here's some pictures I took today.

The new plants *help id please*:






*One at front just behind log is Anubias*

The whole tank now:




A rock I need help finding if it's safe or not:






Thanks for looking

slakey wrote:Here's some pictures I took today.
The new plants *help id please*:

I'd say pic 1 is Spiral vallis and 2 and 3 are Java Fern
HTH
Martin

Yeah I'm pretty sure it was marked under Vallis, and the 3rd one at the front is anubia unknown about the 2nd one.

I'm with Martin on the plant Id's.

The stone looks like it's some sort of calciferous material (chalk or similar stone), which will slowly dissolve and raise your hardness in the water. This isn't a real problem as you already have hard water and your current fish prefer quite hard water anyways, but if you want to move to softer water (using reverse osmosis for example), then you would need to consider this stone as unsuitable.

That is from my looking at pictures of the stone - it is quite hard to say for sure. You may want to take a screwdriver or some such and see if it's "soft" (you can scratch into it) - that again makes it more likely to be a chalk-based stone.

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Mats

So if I put in the softer stones would it lower my nitrate?

slakey wrote:So if I put in the softer stones would it lower my nitrate?

No. The only effect stones (unless very peculiar) will have is that they will replace water volume, so your fishes production of ammonia will raise the nitrate levels a bit quicker.

There are only three ways to "get rid of" nitrate:
1. Nitrate absorbers - I doubt the green sponges from Juwel will absorb any huge amounts tho - I'm thinking more like NitraZorb or such.
2. Using RO water (assuming the nitrate comes from the tap-water).
3. Anaerobic bacteria - this should not normally happen in an aquarium, but I remember reading about someone who pumped water ,very slowly, through a long pipe and managed to reduce the nitrate content that way.

--
Mats

slakey wrote:So if I put in the softer stones would it lower my nitrate?

No. The only effect stones (unless very peculiar) will have is that they will replace water volume, so your fishes production of ammonia will raise the nitrate levels a bit quicker.

There are only three ways to "get rid of" nitrate:
1. Nitrate absorbers - I doubt the green sponges from Juwel will absorb any huge amounts tho - I'm thinking more like NitraZorb or such.
2. Using RO water (assuming the nitrate comes from the tap-water).
3. Anaerobic bacteria - this should not normally happen in an aquarium, but I remember reading about someone who pumped water ,very slowly, through a long pipe and managed to reduce the nitrate content that way.

--
Mats

MatsP wrote:3. Anaerobic bacteria - this should not normally happen in an aquarium, but I remember reading about someone who pumped water ,very slowly, through a long pipe and managed to reduce the nitrate content that way.

This methode and simulare are not save without measuering Red/Ox at the output of the pipe, as if it is to deep it will reduce SO4-- to H2S, so better let your fingers from it

So instead of buying more green juwel sponges I should just get NitraZorb ones instead?

I currently have two green juwels in, so two nitrazorbs, assuming there are of the same size?

NitraZorb isn't the same size as Juwel filter sponges, but with a sharp knife and a spare sponge (old one is fine), you can probably make the pouch sit in the filter.

Reading more about it, the "more effective than Juwel Nitrate sponge" may be a misunderstanding. However, the NitraZorb product is reusable, you "recharge it" in a salt solution. This also brings a problem - it increases the salt content in the tank (to similar level as to what it reduces the nitrate - so if it takes away 20ppm nitrate, it will bring in 20 ppm salt).

Apparently, 100g of Nitrazorb will remove 20ppm over a period of 3 weeks. I do not know how that compares with the Juwel sponges.

Edit: that is not 100g, it's 210g of Nitrazorb.

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Mats

Sera siporax (ceramic pipes) is very good for reducing nitrates. if we can believe the people from Sera, 1000 ml of siporax is enough to filter a 1000 litres tank.

would i get rid of the salt by doing water changes?

slakey wrote:would i get rid of the salt by doing water changes?

Yes, but you would add more nitrate (which then gets turned into salt), so it's a catch-22 situation.

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Mats

Hmm so Im in abit of a pickle then really... nothing that I can do about it.

Apart from RO, nitrazorb or Anaerobic bacteria is there any other way to reduce my nitrate?

If not could someone tell me what you need to do to use RO water?