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.

New Fish are on the way...

2004-10-06T13:17:00.000-04:00

I received an email last night from Deb at Black Lagoon Fish, and it looks like my daffodils and transcriptus are on their way. The 20 gallon still hasn't cycled -- last night the ammonia levels read around .25 ppm. The fish should be arriving tomorrow, so hopefully the tank will be ready for the transcriptus when they get here.

55 Gallon Water Change and 20 Gallon Startup

2004-10-01T01:15:00.000-04:00

Did a water change on the 55 Gallon last night and started up the 20 gallon in prep for the j. transcriptus. I put about 6 gallons of water from the 55 gallon into the 20 gallon and put a little gravel in too. I hope that the cycled tank material will help this tank cycle faster. I also added a little ammonia to the tank -- it read between .5 and 1 ppm last night and about the same tonight.

The pH in both tanks (haven't tested it in a while) is about 8.5. That's it for tonight.

Fish Shopping at an End

2004-09-28T09:23:00.000-04:00

The fish search is at an end.... for now. At least until I get some more cash.

I have bid on some Neolamprologus "daffodils" on Aquabid from Black Lagoon Fish, a seller I had mentioned in a previous post. They really have the best all around deal for price of fish and for shipping. Since they raise all of their own fish, the quality is probably pretty good too -- we'll see. I am trying to see if I can free up some space for j. transcriptus as well (which the seller also has) -- perhaps by selling the j. regani I have, perhaps by starting up my 20 gallon. I emailed the seller last night to make the final arrangements.

The Great Fish Search Continues...

2004-09-22T01:37:00.000-04:00

EXOTIC TROPICALS has a $100 minimum order and appears to ship only by air freight.

Anchor Bay Aquarium seems a little on the pricey side for their fish, but not as bad as some. They seem to realize that shipping prohibits many aquarists from going the mail order route and suggest that you go in on a shipment with friends. Not a bad idea... wish I knew some folks in my neck of the woods (south of Boston, and just north of Providence) to do this with.

African Aquatics is about the same as Anchor Bay Aquarium.... perhaps a little pricier.

Amazing Aquatics has many Malawi Cichlids, but not many Tanganyikans. And again, I think they are a bit pricey. (I'm sounding like a broken record.... it's just that I have seen a few price lists with cheaper fish on them!)

Tropical fish on the Net has a $75 minimum and not much in the way of Tanganyikans. In fact, I think all of the African Cichlids are from Malawi.

Uncle Ned's Fish Factory is where I got my fish to start my tanks. I think I got six fish for around $100..... in retrospect I feel like I paid too much. The store is cool to visit, because they have such a wide variety of fish there. But the prices are high, and the service is not always superb. The guy who waited on me left me standing in front of a tank for a long time while he did something else (not sure what).... and this was after I had already picked out the fish. Anyway, this is their site. They do ship, and I think their shipping rates are pretty reasonable.

That's it for tonight....

Local Pet Store Directory

2004-09-22T00:51:00.000-04:00

These pet stores from FINS might be worth checking out in my area:

Belmont Pets, 108 Torrey St., Brockton, MA, 02401, phone (508) 586-0043. (I think I know where this is. If so, it is a no go.)

Jungle Pets, 138 South Main St, Milford, MA, 01757, phone 508-478-9667.

Debby's Pet Land & Aquarium, Galleria Mall, Taunton, MA phone 508-880-0600.

UnderWater World 2, 2 Galliera Dr, Taunton, MA phone 508-822-9664.

Aquatic InXteriors, 732 Washington St., Stoughton, MA, 02072 phone 781-344-1146, fax 781-344-1928, sales@aquaticinxteriors.com. (I actually have been to this store before.... small, but great quality.)

A little further afield:

Cape Maid Farms, 957 Falmouth St. (rte. 28), Hyannis, MA phone 508-775 3782.

Aqua World, 20 Tyler Street (Chinatown), Boston, MA, phone 617-426-2227.

Boston Tropical Fish and Reptiles, 243 Monsignor O'Brien Highway, Cambridge, MA [map], phone 617-623-4244, fax 617-623-6208.

Sea Creature Aquarium, 1455 Mineral Spring Avenue, North Providence, RI, 02904 [map], phone 401-354-6477, fax 401-354-6477.

Aqualife Aquarium, 389 Wickenden St, Providence, RI, 02903 phone 401-331-5376.

Rhode Island Aquarium, North Main St., Providence, RI, 02906, phone 401-274-2520.

KenCo Fish & Supplies, 15 Frost Ave, Warwick, RI, 02888 [map], phone 401-831-5739, kenco@kencofish.com.

Ultimate Aquariums, 146 pinnery ave, Warwick, R.I., 02886 [map], phone 401 732 8774, fax 401 885 0209, mick41@efortress.com.

Fish Bowl Aquarium & Pet Mart, 724 Providence St., West Warwick, R.I., 02893 [map], phone 401-822-0075.

More Online Live Fish Store Research

2004-09-20T21:19:00.000-04:00

Neptune Aquatics looks like they know what they are doing, but their prices and shipping costs seem a bit steep to me.

The same seems true of hotcichlids.com, which seems to prefer air freight.

Bluechip Aquatics only uses air freight and their fish list starts with some nice $600 fish (ummmm.... who has $600 to spend on aquarium fish.... let's get some perspective, folks).

Cichlid Lovers has a $50 minimum order -- which is actually not as bad as some. They won't guarentee live delivery with overnight service and prefer air freight.

Kerrigan Aquatics has high prices and their website is advertising July specials.... hmmm, a bit cool for July these days.

JD Tropheus is a little more on the sane side, but they only have... you got it... Tropheus.

Don't get me wrong with some of these. They may be fine for the hobbyist who has a lot of money and time to go to the airport to pick up deliveries. (I still want to know who buys $600 fish, though.) They might also be fine for dealers who can get cheaper fish by buying in bulk. They just won't suit a hobbyist like me with a meager budget, but who still wants great fish!

Do I want it all? Maybe so. The search continues.

Two online live fish possibilities

2004-09-20T08:58:00.000-04:00

Cape Fear Cichlids regularly advertises fish on Aquabid. I checked out their site, and the prices don't seem too bad for Tanganyikan cichlids. There is a $5 box fee built into the price, though, and they seem to prefer the more expensive overnight option on delivery.

Black Lagoon Fish doesn't appear to have a real web presence, but they do advertise on Aquabid. I emailed the address marlin48067@yahoo.com, and someone named Deb answered instantly with a price list for all of their currently available fish. Not much on the Tanganyikan cichlids side -- but enough and the pictures on aquabid look like good quality fish. I may end up ordering something from them -- especially if they list either the j. transcriptus or daffodils again on Aquabid. The prices seem reasonable and the shipping at this time of year is priority mail (I think) which is signifigantly cheaper than overnight!

The search continues....

Searching for Good Online Live Fish Sellers

2004-09-18T14:02:00.000-04:00

I am searching around for some good sites that will sell fish. I keep coming across sites that are not geared toward small hobbyists like myself. This one, for example, has a minimum order of $150. When I am ordering fish, I don't want to have to worry about minimum order requirements like this!!

Sooo, while I search for some good online sources for fish, I'll try to blog my progress. Eventually, I'll try to compile a good list of links on the sidebar of this blog.

Adding More Fish ??

2004-09-18T13:35:00.000-04:00

I am thinking that it would be nice to add some more fish, but my budget is a bit tight at the moment. I can probably afford to spend about $50 total on more fish. I have been looking on Aquabid, but haven't found a lot in my price range (once shipping is added in). I would probably like to add to the species I already have so that I have at least six of one species in the tank -- so I could get some breeding going.

Or I have also been considering the Tanganikan killifish -- Lamprichthys tanganicanus. These were made available recently on Aquabid, but far too many for me to deal with (20!!). I might email the seller, who I think actually sells fish on this site, and see if he'd be willing to ship fewer fish. Something tells me he won't as his minimum order advertised in his site is $75 -- far beyond my current budget. Sigh....

55 Gallon Water Change and Filter Service

2004-09-18T13:23:00.000-04:00

I did a water change on Thursday night, (9/16/04) and also (finally) cleaned the filter. The filter was suprisingly clean -- but then again I still only have five fish in the tank. So, maybe not so surprising

55 Gallon Water Changes

2004-08-20T20:49:00.000-04:00

Man, I have not been good about this blog at all recently. I have actually changed the water twice since the last time I wrote. The most recent water change was Tuesday, August 17 -- again about 50%. The fish all seem to be doing fine.

I still haven't serviced the filter. The load in the tank is still fairly light, so I'm not worrying about this neglect too much. But I should probably do a filter servicing soon.

Live Plant Journal - Part 1

2004-07-12T09:32:00.000-04:00

About.com's site is behaving more like a blog these days. Here's the start of a nice series on an aquarist's log of setting up a planted aquarium. Nice!

Live Plant Journal - Part 1

Water Change on July 11

2004-07-12T09:26:00.000-04:00

Ummm. . . been a little while since the last water change on the 55 gallon. Way too long in fact. Oops.

Did a 40% change last night. Lots of brown algae -- I think it might have been dead blue green algae, because it came off in sheets. The regular brown stuff that grows in low light (forget the name, begins with dia...) doesn't usually come off of the glass and rocks like that. If it was dead, could be that the reduced light cycle (8 hours a day on) is working.

Anyway, despite the grunge in the tank and the length of time since the last water change, the fish seem to be doing fine. I haven't cleaned the filter yet... starting to think i should do that soon.

Reference Desk

2004-07-12T09:21:00.000-04:00

This is a nice site of links to good references for aqarium owners: Reference Desk Thanks, Shirlie Sharpe from About.com!

Battles with Algae

2004-06-28T09:34:00.000-04:00

I kept the fish tank in the dark from June 18-24 and the algae seems to have abated a little in my 55 gallon. (Luckily there are no plants in there!) Since then, I have switched the light timer to an eight hour on cycle, so that the tank is now lit from 1:00PM - 9:00PM. There's definitely still algae in the tank, but it seems to be a little less rampant anyway. We'll see how it goes.

Water Change on June24

2004-06-28T09:15:00.000-04:00

I forgot to write this up at the time, but I did change 18 gallons of the 55 gallon tank on June 24. All the fish seem healthy thus far.

Water Change

2004-06-10T09:13:00.000-04:00

I did a water change the night before last -- changed 24 gallons. I still haven't had a chance to test the water, but everything seems fine. Algae is still a problem, so I might try to focus on eliminating that. Maybe since there are no plants I will try a prolonged blackout. Otherwise the aquarium seems to be chugging along.

Water Change

2004-05-27T08:46:00.000-04:00

I have been busy with work stuff lately, but I did manage to squeeze in a water change last night on the 55 gallon. I'd say I changed about 20% of the water this time. I'll try to test the water by the end of the week.

All of the fish seem to be doing fine, though. My main problem these days is algae. I'm wondering if it is the blue-green variety.

Back to work! More later...

One Daffodil Dead

2004-05-13T22:02:00.000-04:00

I found the daffodil yesterday. Unfortunately, it was no longer in the tank! I guess it jumped out when I was cleaning the tank. I was disappointed, because I had only had the fish for a week or so.

The hardest part was telling my three-year old son, who had really taken a liking to what he calls the "wide tails." I considered trying to hide the death from him, but decided that this would be a good learning experience for him -- a way to introduce him on a small scale to one of the facts of life. He took it pretty well, cried a little bit saying he was sad and that the fish must be sad too. He seems to have moved on and now seems focused on the remaining fish and the possibility of providing a new friend for the other "wide tail."

I think I would like to see some baby daffodils in the tank at some point, so I may get some more in the near future. I don't want to disturb the balance in the tank, though. I'll probably wait a bit on that one.

Missing Daffodil

2004-05-11T10:21:00.000-04:00

I fed my fish quickly this morning and noticed that one of the daffodils was not out eating the food. I didn't have time to look for it, though. Hope I didn't loose a fish already.

In other news, both n. caudos were out and about this morning. The one in the shell was probably just sleeping at first (because the lights were off before I started to clean the tanks) and then stressed by the activity involved in the water change last night.

Cleaned the 55 Gallon

2004-05-10T22:44:00.000-04:00

This was my first cleaning of the tank since adding the new fish. Up until this point all of the fish seem healthy and to be getting along.

The two daffodils don't seem to like each other, but the aquarium is fairly large for the two of them, so they don't seem to be tearing each other apart. I'm betting they are both males. One of them was looking a little like it had a sunken stomach and a few tattered fins when it first arrived in the tank, but after a week it seems to look normal and healthy.

The j. reganis seem to like each other quite a bit. I am betting I have a male and female there and that they have probably paired up. The same holds true for the n. caudopunctatus. Tonight before the cleaning one of them was even hiding in a snail shell with the other close by. After the cleaning was complete, the caudo. in the shell still did not emerge even after all of the other fish had come out from their caves. So, I am hoping that there are eggs in there (and not that I have sick fish on my hands!).

The water before the change was nearly perfect -- pH: 8.0, GH: 7 degrees, ammonia: 0 ppm, nitrite: 0 ppm, temp: 76 degrees. I measured again after the water change and everything remained the same.

I drained about 16 gallons from the tank (using siphon and buckets) and replaced it with water using my Python. While the water filled, I added two teaspoons of stresscoat and two teaspoons of baking soda (to bring up the pH). And that's all for tonight!

A Cichlid Wiki

2004-05-02T13:56:00.000-04:00

Though it doesn't use the name wiki anywhere on the site, http://www.cichlids.com/ appears to be one. There is an "edit this page" link on every species page and it bills itself as "a community-project, featuring a wealth of information about cichlids contributed by cichlid-keepers for cichlid-keepers. "

Cool idea and nice work to whoever created the site.

And I found out here that j. regani can reach 15 cm (or about 6 inches) in captivity. So, I'm starting to feel calmer about this fish. Though 6 inches is still pretty large for a 55 gallon.

The new fish have arrived for the 55 Gallon

2004-05-02T13:42:00.000-04:00

We just got back from Uncle Ned's Fish Factory with some nice looking fish. We're starting with two Neolamprologus caudopunctatus, two Julidochromis regani kipili, and two Neolamprologus "daffodils." They are all under two inches to start with, so should not put too many demands on the tank and I think they are hardy fish.

So, for the most part I am happy. I wish I had done my research a little more closely on the Julidochromis species before I went, though. I thought most species remained below 6 inches (really my maximum size for a 55 gallon -- and even that is a little large.) But according to the Baensch Atlas, J. regani can get up to 12"!! I am hoping that is a typo. If it isn't, then I am not happy. I'll have to trade them in eventually, I guess. I like to think I can accomodate a fish during it's entire lifespan. But foot long fish are far too big for a 55 gallon.

The Night before adding fish to 55 Gallon

2004-05-02T00:20:00.000-04:00

I just did a 90% water change on the aquarium. Before the change the pH read 7.8 and the nitrite and ammonia levels were at 0. After the water change, the pH was the same, and I tested the GH which was 6 degrees GH. I think that is a little on the low side for rift lake cichlids, but I may be able to bring it up with the coral that I have added to the filter. I also added 1 teaspoon of baking power and will add more in the morning if the GH seems too low still.

So, I think all in all the tank is ready for some fish. I plan to head up to Uncle Ned's Fish Factory in Millis, MA around 11:00 AM tomorrow. My son and possibly my wife will join me. Can't wait to finally have a tank going again!!

Day 26 and 27 of Cycling the 55 Gallon

2004-04-30T00:01:00.000-04:00

Happiness is a cycled aquarium!

I tested the water for nitrites last night and came up with none. Ammonia was also at zero. So, after doing a happy dance, I informed my three-year old son that we would be getting fish this weekend. He then did a happy dance -- he's been wanting to get fish for a while now, and has been very patient.

So, last night I added some more ammonia to keep all of the bacteria happy and since I got zero readings again tonight, I will add some more ammonia in a few minutes (before turning in for the night).

Goodnight!

Day 21,22,23,24, and 25 of Cycling the 55 Gallon

2004-04-27T00:31:00.000-04:00

The morning after the last post, I added 1/2 a teaspoon of ammonia to the tank and some Cycle. I have not touced the tank again until this morning, in the dim hope that if I let the nitrite bacteria catch up to all of the nitrtite that was being produced by the ammonia bacteria then the tank would finally cycle. Of course, the nitrite levels remain high, and the ammonia bacteria continues to do it's job well. Because I am worried about he ammonia consuming bacteria not being well-enough fed, I added a 1/2 teaspoon of ammonia to the water this morning.

I may try a water change next on the tank to see if that helps at all. Maybe if I greatly reduce the nitrites in the tank and then slowly add ammonia again, the tank will actually cycle. It could be that I have added too much ammonia to the water so the nitrite bacteria can't keep up. So, if I have time, maybe tomorrow night I will do a substantial water change on the aquarium.

My plan is to get fish whether the tank is cycled or not this weekend. Let's hope I get there with it.

Day 20 of Cycling the 55 Gallon

2004-04-21T23:07:00.000-04:00

Yawn. Wish I had more to report on this one. The nitrite levels remain high and the ammonia is not registering. Oh and the algae continues to grow.

This may be a the humane way to cycle a tank for the fish, but it is dulls-ville for the aquarist. I am tired of waiting! But I will continue to wait a bit more and see how it goes. I'll add some more ammonia in the morning and maybe some more Cycle too. Might as well give that a try since I have some left over.

In other news, I added about 3 gallons of water tonight because so much had evaporated from the tank.

About.com's fish site is RSS-able

2004-04-21T22:46:00.000-04:00

About.com's freshwater fish area has an rss feed and the site seems to be treated like a blog. I wouldn't call it true aquarium blogging though -- soo corporate.

Anyone else out there?

Any Aquarium Blogs Out There??

2004-04-20T14:04:00.000-04:00

Part of my job is to explore new software that can be used in Higher Education -- especially in the Humanities. So, I am very interested in blogging.

Recently, as you can tell by this blog, I have let this interest bleed over into my personal life. I originally started this blog as a personal journal of my work on my aquariums. It occured to me that there must be other interesting blogs out there that are discussing how to raise fish in a aquarium. I searched and searched, but have found very few. So, some of this blog will now be dedicated to finding what reading materials are available to aquarists in the blogosphere.

Day 15,16,17,18, and 19 of Cycling the 55 Gallon

2004-04-20T13:59:00.000-04:00

Still at it and nothing new to report.

I should mention for my own record keeping that I was gone from April 18-19, so missed a day. But the cycling process pretty much remains the same.

If I was only concerned about ammonia, I would be golden. The beneficial bacteria is doing it's job in that department. My main question: When is the nitrite going to decline!

Day 12,13, and 14 of Cycling the 55 Gallon

2004-04-15T23:14:00.000-04:00

I haven't written much because the pattern has pretty much been the same over the past few days. The ammonia doesn't register on the test kits, but the nitrite in the tank remains high. Each morning, after testing the night before, I have been adding 1/4 teaspoon of ammonia.

It is interesting to note that I noticed some algae in the tank starting on day 13. It could be that the nitrite is being converted to nitrate now. I think algae thrives on nitrate. If that is true, then that is a good sign.

Day 11 of Cycling the 55 Gallon

2004-04-12T23:46:00.000-04:00

Extremely high levels of nitrite tonight and no measurable ammonia. I added another 1/2 teaspoon of ammonia, which brought the water up to the 1-2 ppm of ammonia in the tank. I'm starting to get impatient! When are the nitrite levels going to taper off!

Days 7,8,9, and 10 of Cycling the 55 Gallon

2004-04-11T22:52:00.000-04:00

Got a bit behind on these posts because I went away for a few days, and forgot to post on day 7 (Thursday). So, here's what has happened so far:

Day 7: The ammonia levels were not registering again, but the nitrite levels remain high. So I added another 1/4 teaspoon of ammonia to the tank.

Day 8 (Friday): Around 12:30, I checked the levels again before leaving town for the weekend. Ammonia was again not registering, but the nitrite levels remain high. To keep the bacteria going while I was gone, I added a 1/2 teaspoon of ammonia to the tank.

Day 9: Uknown. I was out of town.

Day 10: I measured the levels as soon as I got back, and discovered that the nitrite levels continue to remain high, but that the ammonia is immeasurable. I still haven't added anything to the tank, but as soon as I post this, I will go and add another 1/2 teaspoon of ammonia to the tank. It seems like I should continue this tactic until the nitrite in the aquarium drops -- i.e. feed the ammonia consuming bacteria and hoping the nitrite consuming bacteria will catch up soon.

Day 6 of Cycling the 55 Gallon

2004-04-07T23:23:00.000-04:00

If there was any ammonia in the tank today, it was unmeasurable. The nitrite is still very high in the tank (up around 5 ppm I would say), so even though the ammonia consuming bacteria seem to be in place, the nitrite consuming bacteria are not quite there yet.

To continue feeding the ammonia consuming bacteria, I added another 1/4 teaspoon of ammonia today. I will check the tank tomorrow and possibly Friday, but then will be away Friday night, all day Saturday, and Sunday morning. So, hopefully there will be enough ammonia in the tank to keep the cycling process going.

Day 5 of Cycling the 55 Gallon: Part 2

2004-04-06T23:03:00.000-04:00

I decided to play it on the safe side -- instead of 1/4 teaspoon, I only added 1/8 teaspoon. I did this in part because the test kit looked like it was showing a little more ammonia than I originally thought was there. I don't want to overwhelm the tank with ammonia. I'll test it again tomorrow.

Day 5 of Cycling the 55 Gallon

2004-04-06T22:46:00.000-04:00

Tonight the ammonia levels are minimal -- they hardly register with my test kit. The nitrite levels, however, are way up there. I'd say the might even be as high as 5 ppm. (The test kit that I'm using doesn't seem to be all that accurate at high levels.) So, though I have a good population of ammonia consuming bacteria, I still have to wait for the levels of nitrite consuming bacteria to build up.

Since the ammonia levels are so low, I have decided add a small amount of ammonia (to keep the bacteria well-fed). I added 1/2 a teaspoon last time, so I think I will try only a 1/4 teaspoon this time.

I will continue to monitor the nitrite levels. When those have abated, it may be time to add fish!

Day 4 of Cycling the 55 Gallon

2004-04-06T22:33:00.000-04:00

I forgot to record the ammonia and nitrite levels last night:

ammonia: between .5 and 1 ppm
nitrite: between 2 and 5 ppm (basically pretty high)

I am in the middle of doing the tests for Day 5 right now and will record them in 10 minutes or so.

Day 3 of Cycling the 55 Gallon

2004-04-04T22:04:00.000-04:00

I just checked the ammonia and nitrite levels in the aquarium -- at the same time, but a little earlier because the time has just changed. (Spring forward an hour!) Here are the results:

Ammonia = 1.0 ppm
Nitrite = .5 ppm

So the ammonia is gradually decreasing and the nitrite is on the increase. I have decided not to add any more ammonia to the water at this time. I am planning on waiting until the level of ammonia has dropped to 0 before adding more.

I am hoping that the bacteria that convert nitrite into nitrate are starting to grow in the tank at this point. I will check the tank at approximately the same time tomorrow.

Day 2 of Cycling the 55 Gallon

2004-04-03T21:59:00.000-05:00

A little over 24 hours after adding the Cycle and ammonia to the aquarium, I checked the ammonia levels and the nitrite levels. The ammonia has not changed noticably since yesterday. It is still somewhere between 1 and 2 ppm, perhaps closer to one. The nitrite levels have increased to .25 ppm, though. I take this to be an encouraging sign. The beneficial bacteria are doing their job and converting the ammonia to nitrite. I have added nothing else to the aquarium at this point, and plan on checking the levels about the same time tomorrow night.

Starting a 55 Gallon Aquarium

2004-04-02T23:45:00.000-05:00

I just started setting up my 55 gallon aquarium. Actually, it has been quite a few weeks since I began the project, but I'm finally getting around to cycling it. I am hoping that in a couple weeks that the tank will be ready to go.

This is not my first aquarium; I've been keeping fish since I was a kid (and I'm in my 30s now). Where I last lived, I had four aquariums going -- a 55, a 20 long, a 10, and a 5 gallon. I also had a 2.5 gallon tank on my desk at work. I am mostly interested in cichlids, though I enjoy killifish, catfish, and tetras as well.

My 3-year old son and I are working on this aquarium together. We started a few weeks ago by looking through some fish pictures in some aquarium books that I have. We settled on some fish from Lake Tanganika -- partially because I have had success with Lake Malawi mbunas in the past and would like to try some fish from the other rift lake. Also, my son liked the bright colors of some of the fish from that lake. We will probably end up keeping some small Julidochromis and/or some Neolamprologus species. It will depend on what we can find and what will best get along with each other. Personally, I am partial to Neolamprologus brichardi, Neolamprologus leleupi, and Julidochromis transcriptus.

After we had picked out the fish we were aiming for we started to set up the aquarium. First, we went out to a local state park and collected rocks (for caves). Then, we searched around a bit for a decent looking gravel in a large bag -- not easy to find. Most fish stores try to scam you with measly 5 pound bags of ugly colored gravel. (I should say right now, I go for a natural look in the aquarium.) We finally found a 25 pound bag at a Petco (not my favorite pet store, but that is another post), and bought two of them.

We put the rocks on the glass, then filled the tank with gravel. (Having the rocks right on the glass prevents cichlids from digging out underneath them and toppling rock formations -- and cracking the aquarium!) We probably ended up using 1 1/2 of the bags of gravel and many rocks. We filled up the water and left it for a few hours.

Without my son, I started the heater in the aquarium (set at 78 degrees) and hooked up a Fluval 304 canister filter to the aquarium. In the filter, I put crushed coral to try to bring up the pH. Tanganikan cichlids require hard alkaline water, and our tap water is about average. I tested it the other day -- 7.5 pH, 4 degrees GH. So, hopefully the coral in the filter will bring the pH up to where it needs to be, if not, I can add some baking soda to bring up the pH, as I often did when keeping mbunas. The filter has been running in the tank for 2-3 weeks now.

Today I started the cycling process using the technique outlined in this article. I started by putting 6 capfuls of Cycle (TM) into the aquarium, followed by 1/2 teapsoon of straight Amonia. I let it sit for a few hours and then tested the ammonia level. It is right up where they should be (according to the above article): between 1 and 2 ppm.

After reading the instructions, on Cycle (TM), I discovered that I should have put double the amount that I originally put in the tank. So a few hours after adding the ammonia, I added another 6 capfuls of Cycle (TM).

The only other change I made to the tanks was to add an airstone to help facilitate the growth of bacteria in the aquarium.

I plan on monitoring the aquarium for ammonia and eventually nitrite levels. And I will continue to post progress reports to this blog for this and future fish tanks.

2004-01-06T12:00:00.000-05:00

Hello, this is my first post on Blogger. Not sure what I'm gonna do yet, but we shall see.