Scott's Aquarium Blog

Cycling a New Tank (29 gallon) (continued)

2006-03-16T21:46:00.000-05:00

Tonight's readings:

0 ppm nitrite
<.25 ppm ammonia

Looks like the bacteria that eat up the nitrite are growing nicely. I could add more ammonia, but I think I will wait until tomorrow. Should be down to 0ppm by then.

29 Gallon Cycling update

2006-03-15T20:53:00.000-05:00

Today's readings:

.25 ppm ammonia
0 ppm nitrite

Tomorrow, I'll probably add some more ammonia.

I should note that this tank will probably cycle faster than a normal tank would, because I added some filter material and gravel from a mature aquarium to this one.

Cycling a New Tank (29 gallon)

2006-03-14T19:17:00.000-05:00

I'm reviving this blog to record my progress on cycling a new 29 gallon aquarium. The details of the process can be found in some of my first posts to this blog, starting here and here's the article I use for reference.

I set up the tank on Sunday and added 1/4 teaspoon pure ammonia to the tank late that night. Here are my readings for Monday and tonight:

Last night:
2.0 ppm ammonia
(did not measure nitrite)

tonight:
1.0 ppm ammonia
0.5 ppm nitrite

Tank plan in brief: My five-year old son really wants some Glass catfish (Kryptopterus bicirrhis), so I'm building the tank around them... planning a Indian/southeast asian planted aquarium. More to come!

Flickr: The Aquarium Pool

2005-06-22T09:35:00.000-04:00

Just thought I would mention quickly that the The Aquarium Pool at Flickr has been seeing a lot of activity lately. And a lot of it is freshwater home aquariums -- hurrah!

The Age of Aquariums

2005-04-08T16:41:00.000-04:00

Interesting looking site. Bills itself as "one of the oldest, largest and most entertaining international aquarium sites on the net, where both novice and seasoned hobbyists have been meeting since 1997 to share experiences and promote responsible fishkeeping."

Age of Aquariums - Tropical Fish - Main Page

I got to by contacting someone on Flickr to find out more about how he set up his tank. He answered my questions, and then sent me a link to some more pictures of his fish.

Cleaned the 55 Gallon and the 20 Gallon

2005-04-06T23:53:00.000-04:00

Cleaned it on Sunday, April 3, actually. Finally getting around to noting it here. There was a rather large gap in cleaning because of a vacation and then soon after I got back a flood in my basement. Sigh.

The fish seem to be doing well, though. The j. reganni babies are growing up nicely and there is at least one j. transcriptus in the 20 gallon.

Aquarium/Malawi on Flickr!

2005-04-04T15:37:00.000-04:00

Finally, someone has posted some photos from their freshwater aquarium to the Aquarium Pool on Flickr. Don't get me wrong; I've loved all of the photos from the public aquariums -- some beautiful shots of some saltwater fish (sharks, jellies, and so on). But I keep freshwater aquarium fish and I'm only a hobbiest on a limited budget. I want to see what other people who are like me are doing with their aquariums.

Anyway, here's a link to some gorgeous Malawi cichlid pictures:

Aquarium/Malawi on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Water changes and j. transcriptus babies again

2005-03-07T22:19:00.000-05:00

Just saw that my j. transcriptus have at least 2 babies in their 20 gallon tank. I think the last batch didn't make it. If this one doesn't, I will have to be a little less passive, I think, and actually purchase some brine shrimp eggs. I've done it before, but that was pre-kid, pre-house... i.e. when I had more time on my hands. I'm also not look forward to the messiness of trying to hatch those buggers.

I'm also behind in this blog. I did 1/2 water changes to both tanks on March 5 (with my son helping! He had a blast!), and on February 24 (by myself).

Just another post about cleaning

2005-02-21T23:06:00.000-05:00

I'm a bit behind on posting to this. I did water changes on the two tanks on Tuesday, 2/7, but because I was at a conference last week, didn't get a chance to do another. So much for my attempt at a weekly regimen. I will try again tomorrow.

I think my 20 gallon has been doing fine with the one sponge and the new powerfilter. Since it has been a couple weeks, I can probably assume that the power filter has a good bed of bacteria in it now. So, probably tomorrow night (my next scheduled "weekly" change) I will remove the sponge filter.

Cleaned the 55 Gallon and the 20 Gallon

2005-02-07T20:55:00.000-05:00

I'm getting better at cleaning the tanks more frequently, but at posting here... not so good. The last cleaning I did on both tanks was last Tuesday (2/1). I'm hoping to clean the tanks once a week now -- hopefully stay on a bit of a schedule. So that would mean tomorrow night is cleaning night again.

On another note, I have not seen the j transcriptus babies since the day of my last post. I'm beginning to wonder if my eyes were playing tricks on me. I suppose it could be that they died off because I didn't feed them any baby brineshrimp, but I thought I might have seen them for at least a few days. I'll keep an eye out for them.

Baby j. transcriptus

2005-01-31T21:10:00.000-05:00

I was looking at my fish tank last night before their lights go out. (They're on a timer - usually go off around 10 pm). And I was noticing that a pair of j. transcriptus in the 20 gallon were being a little more aggressive than usual. Ah ha, I thought. They are about to breed. Then I noticed a tiny speck rise up briefly from the rocks that the two were defending! They have already hatched some little ones apparently!

Thus far my approach to the Tanganikan tanks has been pretty low key. In the past, I would have immediately tried to find and hatch baby brine shrimp to feed the baby cichlids. I didn't even think of doing that when my baby j. reganni's were born -- I was just to busy. And they appear to be still alive and growing! So, I'll see what happens with the j. transcriptus. If they don't survive this time, hopefully there will be more, and by that time I will know better and have some brine shrimp eggs on hand.

Water Changes on 55 and 20 Gallon Tanks

2005-01-29T23:14:00.000-05:00

Been pretty busy at work lately, plus all of the snow we had earlier this week really threw me off schedule. I did manage to do a water change on both aquariums, though. But I did not manage to post to this blog about it... at least not until now. So now I'm trying to remember which day it was that I actually did the cleaning. I'm pretty sure it was Wednesday 1/26.

I also installed the new power filter on the back of the 20 gallon. Unfortunately, my original plan of putting some of the media from one of the sponge filters into the filter didn't work out -- too big for the box. So new plan: I decided to shut one sponge filter down (but leave it in the tank) and leave the other one running. Hopefully the good bacteria growing on the sponge filters will spread quickly to the new power filter. I'll give the it a little time to build up some good bacteria colonies in it and on it's biowheel. Then I'll shut down the other sponge filter and remove both from the tank. So far, all seems to be going well in the tank.

Water Changes and 20 Gallon Filter thoughts

2005-01-13T22:32:00.000-05:00

Just a quick post to note that I did a 50% water change on both aquariums on Tuesday, 1/11/04.

Also for xmas, I got a new biowheel powerfilter for the 20 gallon tank. Up to this point I have been running two sponge filters using old noisy air pumps. I can't wait to quiet things down with this new filter, but I think I probably need to approach this carefully. The sponge filters have undoubtedly developed a nice colony of beneficial bacteria on them. If I suddenly remove them from the tank, I may get a sudden spike in ammonia.

So, I'm thinking outloud here... maybe the media from one of the sponge filters will actually fit inside the new filter. If so, I could leave it there for a bit and allow the bacteria from that sponge to move into the new filter. I could leave the other one up and running for ... maybe a week... just to be safe. Then maybe remove the sponge from the new filter after another week or two.

Perhaps an over-cautious approach, but I've heard that Tanganikan cichlids are very sensitive to ammonia, so better safe than sorry.

Fish Names

2004-12-19T11:55:00.000-05:00

My son has decided that all of my fish need names! So, we sat down together in front of my tanks the other night and he named them all. I thought I would write them down here, because I have no hope of remembering them otherwise:

In the 55 gallon:

the two Neolamprologus caudopunctatus
- Shelley
- Blub
the large daffodil
- Hampshire
the male j. reganni
- Stripey
the fremale j. reganni
- Striper
The seven small daffodils
- Mauler
- Club
- Flower
- Dasher
- Dancer
- Luke(was Rudolph at first)
- Claudia

In the 20 Gallon (all j. transcriptus):

Borderland
Jeeprider
Zamboni
Igloo
Chaser
Vixen
Elf

Cleaned the 55 Gallon and the 20 Gallon

2004-12-19T10:52:00.000-05:00

Just a quick note that I did a water change and cleaned the glass on both the 55 gallon and the 20 gallon thank on Friday (12/17).

Everyone in both tanks seems to be doing fine, save for one j. transcriptus -- who appears to be the target of one of his tank mates. I noticed yesterday that it looks like he's missing a few scales. Hope he makes it -- I don't really have anywhere else to move him at the moment.

New Fish Have Arrived!

2004-12-02T23:10:00.000-05:00

Finally, my new fish arrived yesterday. I was beginning to think this shipment was truly cursed: First the fish were sent to the wrong address (Aquabid had an old mailing address on file). On the second attempt, all but three fish survived the cold journey. Then I sent some extra money to Deb and Al at Black Lagoon Tropical Fish to cover the cost of shipping for attempt three, and didn't hear anything from them for a while. When I emailed them a reminder, Al replied with an apology, saying that I had somehow fallen off their shipping list.

So, they are now here, alive and well -- seven daffodils and four additional j. transcriptus.

My four year old son was almost as thrilled as I was to see them yesterday. When we got home from our day at work and school, we went to look at them floating in their bags in my 20 and 55 gallon tanks. (I had come home from work earlier in the day to wait for them and floated them almost immediately after they arrived.)

He, of course, wanted me to release them immediately, but I calmly explained to him that I needed to help them get used to the new aquarium water first. I then had him help me open the bags and pour some water into them. We did that a few more times before dinner, and then a few more times after dinner. When the fish were ready to be released, my son expected that I would dump them right in. I told him that the new fish were nervous and scared and that the fish who were already in the aquarium weren't nice to newcomers. "So," I said, "We have to make sure that every fish in the tank feels like they are new. If they all feel the same way, none of the fish will think to be mean to the new fish." I think he got it.

I turned off the lights in both aquariums, and my son "helped" me do a 40% water change on both tanks. During the water change, he and I also rearranged all of the rocks in the aquarium (except for those near the baby j. reganni). I then filled both aquariums with new water using my "Python" (a feat that amazed my son -- "Wow, you can actually put that on the faucet! The water goes through there and comes all the way over to there!") After the tanks were filled, I netted the fish out of their bags and put them into their aquariums.

Tonight, my son, wife, and I checked on the new arrivals and they are alive, adjusted to their surroundings, and doing well. Only one j. transcriptus and one daffodil seem to be being picked on by the other fish -- the others seem to be fending for themselves well.

Water Changes

2004-11-17T23:52:00.000-05:00

Just a quick note here -- did 50% water changes on both the 20 gallon and the 55 gallon. At last! (Far too much going on in my life.)

The tanks were full of algae, but all of the fish were in good health. The "new" fish in the 20 gallon (the transcriptus) have pretty much recovered. And there are still baby j. reganni in the 55 gallon.

In other news, still haven't received the replacement fish from Black Lagoon Tropical Fish (Deb and Al). I sent them a reminder email today. Hope something comes of it.

Flickr: Aquarium

2004-11-08T08:53:00.000-05:00

I just joined Flickr and I am loving it. Might even consider paying?!

Anyway, nothing on it yet, but I noticed that Flickr has a spot for people who want to post pictures of their aquariums. anyone gonna try? I think I might (if I can ever find the time.)

Flickr: Aquarium

More Fish Observations

2004-11-04T01:47:00.000-05:00

The baby fish are still there... or they were when I checked yesterday. I forgot to feed the fish today, so I hope they aren't starving.

The three surviving transcriptus seem to be doing really well. I hope they keep it up.

I wonder when my replacement fish are going to arrive.

Fish Observations

2004-10-26T23:35:00.000-04:00

I noticed today that the j. reganni have babies! I have only counted two so far, but there may be more hidden in among the rocks.

The transcriptus continue to improve. They are now eating and moving about the tank, but very timid.

Water Change on 55 Gallon

2004-10-25T23:23:00.000-04:00

The 55 gallon was really disgusting -- lots of algae all over the place. So, I finally got around to doing a 50% water change on the aquarium!

New Fish Take 2: DOA, Pt.2

2004-10-23T23:10:00.000-04:00

The seller wrote back and told me that the fish are not guarenteed because they were sent two day mail and not overnight. However, if I pay for shipping again, she will send me more fish free of charge. I sent her a paypal payment tonight.

Incidentally, the three surviving transcriptus are still alive. Their gills are pumping like mad and they are hidden amongst some rocks in my 20 gallon tank. But they are actually moving around the tank. So, maybe they will make it. I will have to wait and see.

New Fish Take 2: DOA

2004-10-22T22:27:00.000-04:00

I am at a conference in Baltimore right now and my wife called to tell me that my fish arrived. The seller had agreed to send me a new batch -- free of charge -- because of the shipping error they made. Unfortunately, my wife informed me that all of the daffodils died and only three transcriptus survived the trip -- and just barely at that!

I will have to write the seller and see what we can do from here.

No Fish

2004-10-08T20:09:00.000-04:00

After three days of no delivery, I decided to email the seller. She checked the package number online and found out that the package was delivered. When I checked USPS's site, I discovered that it was delivered to an address I lived at three years ago!! Aparently, Aquabid had an old address for me and she used that as a mailing address.

I had sent her my correct address in an email and I know for a fact that paypal has my current address as well. I emailed her with that information. I guess now I just wait and see what she says.

Final Prep for Fish Arrival

2004-10-06T23:40:00.000-04:00

The ammonia levels were still around .25 ppm tonight, so I decided to take out 6 gallons of water from the 20 gallon and refill it with water from the 55 gallon. Needless to say, I then had to top off the 55 gallon with tap water.

I also added some rocks to the 20 gallon tonight that I had picked up on the New Hampshire shore over the weekend. As always, I boiled them before adding them to the tank.

So the new fish should be here tomorrow and I think I am ready for them.