New Aquarium Question

*** Quoting Jl from a message to All ***

Jl Tank is called a 55 gal but after I measured internal dimensions it wo
Jl out to 43 gal approx. Same tank at store is "55gal"??
Jl (interior dimensions: 47.5 x 17 x 12.375 = 9992.8125 inches cubed =
Jl 43.258929 US gallons)

US gallons are larger than the other standard. This is most of your
discrepancy most likely.

Jl Set up tank, let pumps run for 24 hrs to allow chlorine to dissipate/w
Jl to age, run tests.
Jl Didn't think I'd find anything but wanted to establish base line and d
Jl find 1ppm ammonia. pH is high, 7.8 (tonight it tested at 7.2 at home)
Jl Everything else 0. Took water to store for free test (they also do
Jl alkalinity, hardness, chlorine, and chloramine and to confirm I'm doin
Jl tests correct. They find 6.8 pH and 2ppm ammonia. I get White Diamon
Jl Ammonia-Neutralizing Crystals, put into mesh bag and laid in bottom of

Wince. You killed the natural bacteria with that. This will mean the tank is
neither self cleaning, nor mainentance low.

Remove the crystals and most of the water and try again. This time, let the
tank cycle. It *will* spike and that is expected. Let it ride and it should
establish naturally.

start with 5 platys of various colors (following cycling instructions
from The Simple Guide to Fresh Water Aquariums)

Yes. Let it cycle. Most tank problems are due to inadiquate cycling, IE
getting in a hurry.


Jl Once ammonia was at 0 we put in 4 Red Wag Platys and 3 Gold Crescent P
Jl (Mickey Mouse Platys?) *Just lost a pregnant GC Platy this morning*.
Jl We'll leave them for a week or week and a half and add some more. I'm
Jl testing daily to watch the spikes as tank cycles. Looking now for a b
Jl feeder to start assisting in tank maintenance. I'm feeding flake in t
Jl morning and blood worms at night.

The feeding is fine but if the tank isnt cycled truely and you are controlling
it by having to add chemicals all the time to 'adjust' then do not add more
fish and stop the chemicals and let nature do it's thing. You may lose some
fish now over this, but in the long run you will keep fish healthy once all is
cycled right.

Jl My questions:
Jl 1. Why is my tank called a 55 gallon when it holds 45 gallons?

US gallons VS Imperial

Jl 2. Is my filter adequate? Over filtering is good, right?

Your filtering seems fine. Over is fine. Do not change the filters out while
cycling.

Jl 3. Will the aeration of the filter(s) be enough, or do I need to
Jl supplement it? It keeps the water at the top moving pretty good. May
Jl much?

With your current load of fish, it is fine as it is. Might actually be a bit
much more than the fish want.

Jl 4. Real plants are pretty much out unless I upgrade the light,
Jl correct? Would Java Fern be ok or should I just go with plastic
Jl plants?

Correct. Also with your current lights, you shouldnt have much of an algae
buildup. On Java vice plastic, you can mix them fine.
xxcarol

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"carol shenkenberger" wrote in message
news:2085614064.503.693.4174055.1853060048.RIMEGat ...


Hi Carol,



*** Quoting Jl from a message to All ***

Jl Tank is called a 55 gal but after I measured internal dimensions it wo
Jl out to 43 gal approx. Same tank at store is "55gal"??
Jl (interior dimensions: 47.5 x 17 x 12.375 = 9992.8125 inches cubed =
Jl 43.258929 US gallons) To do by hand, I used a conversion program to
go from cube inches to gallons, divide ci by 231 to get US gallons or
277.3156 for Imp gallons.

US gallons are larger than the other standard. This is most of your
discrepancy most likely.

Imperial gallons works out to about 36. 55 US = 46 Imp. Even the outside
dimensions only brings it to 51 US. I think it is the manufacturer using
outside dimensions and then even padding that so the consumer thinks they're
getting a bigger tank.
Jl Set up tank, let pumps run for 24 hrs to allow chlorine to dissipate/w
Jl to age, run tests.
Jl Didn't think I'd find anything but wanted to establish base line and d
Jl find 1ppm ammonia. pH is high, 7.8 (tonight it tested at 7.2 at home)
Jl Everything else 0. Took water to store for free test (they also do
Jl alkalinity, hardness, chlorine, and chloramine and to confirm I'm doin
Jl tests correct. They find 6.8 pH and 2ppm ammonia. I get White Diamon
Jl Ammonia-Neutralizing Crystals, put into mesh bag and laid in bottom of

Wince. You killed the natural bacteria with that. This will mean the
tank is
neither self cleaning, nor mainentance low.

At this point there still was no fish (so no 'natural' reason to have
ammonia in water) in the tank. This was either from the water company or a
false chloramine reading. "Fish-person" at store said I had to get rid of
it beore starting fish in it. Instead of using chemical treaments (I have
not added any chemicals to the water- I may have to start by treating my
water-change water though as I probably shouldn't pour tap water into the
tank when it has 2ppm in it to start with) I elected to try and absorb the
ammonia out with the crystals so the fish would start with no ammonia.

Remove the crystals and most of the water and try again. This time, let
the
tank cycle. It *will* spike and that is expected. Let it ride and it
should
establish naturally.
With no fish or live plants? What's creating the ammonia? I took crystals
out and put fish in per LFS instructions (sorry, just now reading your
writing) once ammonia went to 0.

start with 5 platys of various colors (following cycling instructions
from The Simple Guide to Fresh Water Aquariums)

Yes. Let it cycle. Most tank problems are due to inadiquate cycling, IE
getting in a hurry.


Jl Once ammonia was at 0 we put in 4 Red Wag Platys and 3 Gold Crescent P
Jl (Mickey Mouse Platys?) *Just lost a pregnant GC Platy this morning*.
Jl We'll leave them for a week or week and a half and add some more. I'm
Jl testing daily to watch the spikes as tank cycles. Looking now for a b
Jl feeder to start assisting in tank maintenance. I'm feeding flake in t
Jl morning and blood worms at night.

Now all original GCP are gone, One replacement GCP is doing ok. Red Wags
are great.

The feeding is fine but if the tank isnt cycled truely and you are
controlling
it by having to add chemicals all the time to 'adjust' then do not add
more
fish and stop the chemicals and let nature do it's thing. You may lose
some
fish now over this, but in the long run you will keep fish healthy once
all is
cycled right.

Jl My questions:
Jl 1. Why is my tank called a 55 gallon when it holds 43 gallons?

US gallons VS Imperial

See above.

Jl 2. Is my filter adequate? Over filtering is good, right?

Your filtering seems fine. Over is fine. Do not change the filters out
while
cycling.

Jl 3. Will the aeration of the filter(s) be enough, or do I need to
Jl supplement it? It keeps the water at the top moving pretty good. May
Jl much?

With your current load of fish, it is fine as it is. Might actually be a
bit
much more than the fish want.

Jl 4. Real plants are pretty much out unless I upgrade the light,
Jl correct? Would Java Fern be ok or should I just go with plastic
Jl plants?

Correct. Also with your current lights, you shouldnt have much of an
algae
buildup. On Java vice plastic, you can mix them fine.

I'm almost a week into fish in the tank and I don't see the ammonia rising.
If anything, 0.1 or 0.2 ppm, no more.


Jeff


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Tank is approx. week old. Saw several white spots on 1 Red Wag and on 1
Cold Crescent, plus 1 started to rub on rock and swim at surface. Turned
heater to 82-84 (waiting for it to stabilize) and treated my 40 net gallons
with two teaspoons of Paragon II. Took carbon out of filter. Will repeat
per instructions. My water change water ammonia is still around .75 ppm so
I can't use it yet (?) Tank water ammonia is hovering around .4 ppm,
nitrites/nitrates still 0.0.

Salt currently at 1Tbl/10 gal.

Anything else I should do?

Jeff82


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Jeff wrote:

Tank is approx. week old. Saw several white spots on 1 Red Wag and on 1
Cold Crescent, plus 1 started to rub on rock and swim at surface. Turned
heater to 82-84 (waiting for it to stabilize) and treated my 40 net gallons
with two teaspoons of Paragon II. Took carbon out of filter. Will repeat
per instructions. My water change water ammonia is still around .75 ppm so
I can't use it yet (?) Tank water ammonia is hovering around .4 ppm,
nitrites/nitrates still 0.0.

Salt currently at 1Tbl/10 gal.

Anything else I should do?



Keep monitoring ammonia, if it goes too high do partial water change to dilute
it down.
Everything else looks good!!

"Geezer From The Freezer" wrote in message
...


Jeff wrote:

Tank is approx. week old. Saw several white spots on 1 Red Wag and on 1
Cold Crescent, plus 1 started to rub on rock and swim at surface.
Turned
heater to 82-84 (waiting for it to stabilize) and treated my 40 net
gallons
with two teaspoons of Paragon II. Took carbon out of filter. Will
repeat
per instructions. My water change water ammonia is still around .75 ppm
so
I can't use it yet (?) Tank water ammonia is hovering around .4 ppm,
nitrites/nitrates still 0.0.

Salt currently at 1Tbl/10 gal.

Anything else I should do?



Keep monitoring ammonia, if it goes too high do partial water change to
dilute
it down.
Everything else looks good!!

What would be too high? (What point to start water change?)

Jeff


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Jeff wrote:

What would be too high? (What point to start water change?)

Jeff

Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate....

You wnat to keep ammonia and nitrite low (if your cycle has completed it should
be 0
if it hasn't keep it below 0.5ppm). Nitrate should be less than 40ppm ideally
less than 20ppm