Tank Setups

by **jnick** » Sun Feb 12, 2012 11:19 pm

I haven't seeded it yet. I am going to wait until tomorrow when I can get the heater. This will allow me to seed it with the right temperature

by **13razorbackfan** » Sun Feb 12, 2012 11:35 pm

jnick wrote:I haven't seeded it yet. I am going to wait until tomorrow when I can get the heater. This will allow me to seed it with the right temperature

That's exactly the reason I posted that. Good job thinking ahead!

by **Hatter** » Mon Feb 13, 2012 2:28 am

Look forward to seeing the rest!

by **jnick** » Mon Feb 13, 2012 11:21 pm

Picked up an Aqueon Pro 250w heater to start with. Hopefully that will be enough. Does the placement matter? Right now i have it on the OPPOSITE end of the tank that the intake is on. I was thinking about possibly putting it beside the intake this way it heats up water going into the filter. This will, in-turn, make use of the spray bar dispersing heated water.

I also stole some biomax and a sponge from our 55G and am beginning to cycle the tank. I was SO close to pouring ammonia with 'surfactant' in it. Luckily I shook it right before pouring and saw it foam up! I'm using the 29% ammonia that I got from a colleague but MAN is that stuff strong! I'll have the ammonia up to 2ppm-4ppm by time I go to bed tonight.

by **13razorbackfan** » Mon Feb 13, 2012 11:28 pm

Placement shouldn't be that big a deal if you have good water movement. The 250w should work fine. I love mine. I love seeing the green versus red light to know even when it is not heating that it is still on and receiving power. I also love the composite shell....I banged into it again last night..if I had my old glass one it would have shattered for the second time in a few months.

by **jnick** » Tue Feb 14, 2012 12:16 am

Yup! I love this thing. I have a 150w in my 55. It's been great thus far!

by **tim_s** » Tue Feb 14, 2012 9:56 pm

Very nice tank size

by **jnick** » Tue Feb 14, 2012 11:21 pm

Thanks!

I have started the cycling process last night! I brought the ammonia up to 2-3ppm. This was around 11pm. As of now, it's still at 2ppm. This is with transferring some biomedia from the 55G over. I will test it again tomorrow and see where we stand!

I also cleaned the two power heads as they were CAKED with salts/minerals. a 24hr soak in vinegar + water (heavier on the vinegar) made it oh so easy to clean! They are now soaking in a bucket of hot water. I will change out the water tomorrow and let them soak again for another 24 hours in just water to get rid of any lingering vinegar.

by **jnick** » Wed Feb 15, 2012 9:43 pm

I checked ammonia today and it doesn't look like it's changed at all. Maybe the [/i]smallest bit. However, when I open the lid, I still smell a decently strong odor of Chlorine. Do you think this could be hindering the cycling process? Should I do a water change then re-start cycling or just leave be?

On top of that, I just noticed traces of ICH in our 55G tonight. The bummer is, I had just used the biomedia from that tank to seed my 125G :/.

by **jnick** » Fri Feb 17, 2012 2:37 am

Water still showing 1ppm of ammonia. Something doesn't seem right. Thought this would be quicker since I seeded it from a established tank.

by **13razorbackfan** » Fri Feb 17, 2012 3:08 am

jnick wrote:Water still showing 1ppm of ammonia. Something doesn't seem right. Thought this would be quicker since I seeded it from a established tank.

How well seeded was the biomedia you moved over? How much biomedia total and from what filter to what filter? I am sure you posted it in the thread somewhere but too lazy to sort through it right now.

by **jnick** » Fri Feb 17, 2012 9:12 am

It came from a Rena XP4. The 55G has been running since August and the XP4 was setup around October-ish. I used a full gox (500G) of biomax and I also moved one of her sponges over.

I'm wondering if the Chlorine I smell is killing off the bacteria. I'm tempted to do a decent water change to make sure it's not the chlorine. While the smell went down, I find it odd that as soon as you lift the lid, I can smell chlorine even though I treated it with Prime.

I'll wait it out tonight and half of tomorrow. If there's no change, I'm thinking of a water change...

by **13razorbackfan** » Fri Feb 17, 2012 4:18 pm

The chlorine should have evaporated already out already. Just double dose with prime.

Have you tested your nitrite and nitrates at all today?

by **jnick** » Fri Feb 17, 2012 5:31 pm

Negative. The only thing I've been testing for is ammonia, which was still around 1ppm. I'll do a full check on ammonia, nitrites and nitrates tonight.

by **13razorbackfan** » Fri Feb 17, 2012 6:02 pm

jnick wrote:Negative. The only thing I've been testing for is ammonia, which was still around 1ppm. I'll do a full check on ammonia, nitrites and nitrates tonight.

Okey dokey

Tank Setups • 125G work log

Share On:

Who is online