[Azedenkae]

This is a pic of it yesterday night vs. today. Clearing up by itself, without any fine mechanical filter media.

Tossed in three MarinePure spheres from my established tank to seed the tank. Two in the internal filter, one near the sponge filter.

The sponge filter is super noisy, specifically when the bubbles hit the surface so gonna need to figure out what to do there. Though I could actually get the bubbles produced from the sponge filter to go into the wavemaker actually! So at least that idea of mine worked. Just gonna have to wait for my filter floss to come to get everything set up properly I suppose.

For more info on what the heck I am on about, see here. I also keep a full journal here.

 

[Grizleyguy]

I like ur setup. Looks nice. What do u plan on stocking with
These are my 2 aquariums 20 long and 29g

 

[Aussieman57]

View attachment 142984

The sponge filter is super noisy, specifically when the bubbles hit the surface so gonna need to figure out what to do there. Though I could actually get the bubbles produced from the sponge filter to go into the wavemaker actually!

Try putting an air diffuser in the sponge filter that is rated for fine bubbles. That will cut down on the noise.

 

[Azedenkae]

Try putting an air diffuser in the sponge filter that is rated for fine bubbles. That will cut down on the noise.

I am not being able to imagine what you are describing. Sorry, first time ever using a sponge filter. Can you elaborate?

 

[Aussieman57]

I am not being able to imagine what you are describing. Sorry, first time ever using a sponge filter. Can you elaborate?

You attach these fine bubble air diffusers to the where it connects in sponge filter. It eliminates the loud large bubbling to a fine mist which dramatically reduces noise. They look like this...

There are other brands and some are made of wood. They work well.

 

[Azedenkae]

You attach these fine bubble air diffusers to the where it connects in sponge filter. It eliminates the loud large bubbling to a fine mist which dramatically reduces noise. They look like this...

View attachment 142992
There are other brands and some are made of wood. They work well.

Ooooh I see, thanks!

 

[Auballagh]

In reading through your journal.....
Be careful when initially setting the biological filtration up. And yes.... PATIENCE IS A VIRTUE.
Not sure just how much benefit you are actually gonna get in dosing with the FrtizZyme7? Can't hurt I suppose.... And if you have the disposable income - why not?
Of MUCH greater benefit would be to actively INOCULATE your new filtration on this tank, with established biological filtration media from an existing tank. Now that? I DO have a lot of experience in doing. And can confidently say, that if done correctly - WILL shorten your cycling time for the new biological media in quite dramatic fashion.
Otherwise - wait for it. And be sure you have a full, measured Nitrate conversion happening with established, stable media before putting ANY fish in the tank. Been seeing too many people here on C-F taking shortcuts with that process lately, and paying the price for it with Ammonia and Nitrite spikes that are hurting or killing their Cichlids. The R. lentiginosus are too rare and interesting a Cichlid species to lose over something so easy to prevent like that.
Oh.... and plus one,
Be careful with aggression for these little beasts. As shown by another, CA white water Cichlid,

Theraps wesseli

Discovery, Pursuit and Capture of Theraps wesseli by Rusty Wessel In March 1991, I found myself collecting cichlids with fellow cichlidophiles Ross Socolof and Dr. Harry Specht on the Caribbean coast of northern Honduras. As usual, I was the first to enter the water. Equipped with a dive mask...

www.cichlid-forum.com

This is Chortiheros wesseli (formerly Theraps) or Wessels Cichlid. Those have proven out to be raging, conspecific killer beasts when kept in the aquarium! Minimum, six foot long tanks if more than one will be kept. And even then, losing a few of them to conspecific aggression has always been a lurking problem. Another one found often with Wessels is the Cribroheros robertsoni, the Blue Sifter or Roberts Cichlid. Same problem! And though they are generally peaceful around other species, those pretty Cichlids are extremely hard on each other when kept in an aquarium. So, your R. lentiginosus may outgrow that 40 gallon tank you are going to start them out in, much quicker than you think. Be ready to intervene if aggression starts getting out of hand, before you lose any (too many) of them.

 

[Azedenkae]

Thanks for the recommendations @Auballagh!

With seeding the tank, yeah I did use three established MarinePure spheres from my current tank. Unfortunately I cannot remove too many from it since I feed the tank very heavily and so a lot of biological filtration is needed. Very quick calculation each sphere currently handles perhaps around 0.06ppm ammonia or so a day in a 10gal. Three in a 40gal should be able to handle 0.045ppm ammonia a day (probably less because only two is in the internal filter, one I placed near the sponge filter), so not much to begin with but should be okay to seed the tank. That's why I decided to get FritzZyme 7. The quality of bottled bac products vary greatly, but Fritz is one of those that is proven to work. I did not get the concentrated version, i.e. FritzZyme TurboStart 700 though, so it won't be a super quick cycle, but should still speed it up significantly. My aim is for the aquarium to handle 1ppm ammonia/day, which is normally plenty for a normal stocking even with decent feeding.

And yeah, definitely will keep an eye on the R. lentiginosus in the aquarium. Worse case scenario we are likely to buy a house by September when an upgrade is entirely possible, so hopefully they don't grow too big by then lol.

Also I calculated, and assuming complete conversion of nitrogen in whatever the fish eats to ammonia, and assuming a 50% crude protein amount in said food, then they need to consume 1.4grams or so without using any nitrogen for growth to produce 1ppm ammonia. So should be fine for a while, just need to make sure I am not overfeeding, especially if they will also eat animals in the aquarium.