55 Gallon River Setup

After testing the water, the cycle is active! No nitrite and no ammonia, and there is a register of nitrates as well! Seeding the cycle was a success.
Some tannins added
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Today I introduced the baby cories to the tank!

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Test results, have not been dosing fertilizer since the plecos were added, I needed to be sure the nitrate produced was due to the cycle and not additives.

Ammonia 0
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Nitrite 0
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Nitrate hovering around 5 or less
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Added the last of the swords from my other tanks lol
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fishorama said:
That was fast! I always prefer to jump start cycling when I can, it really helps speed things along. The plants help a bit too. Looking good!

Your cory fry are adorable, so much cuter than your test tube pics, lol.
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Granted, the media I grabbed was from my goldfish tank. It'd be the tank with the most cycle bacteria since my other tanks are more plants than anything, they kinda don't have much as the plants have outcompeted the filter media in terms of nitrogen uptake.

The goldfish tank I still get nitrate readings on, so I pulled a couple pieces of ceramic media from that to seed the cycle. That alone definitely gave it a good jumpstart. Plus, plants pulled from other tanks too, there'd be some level of beneficial bacteria on them as well.


The cory fry are still small, its fun trying to find the little buggers still

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Plecos still only coming out at night though.


I have to calibrate the heater still, it's sitting at 70-71F lol still doable though for the fish. I'd prefer it still around 72-74 range.
 
jake72 said:
You know - i never bother much with testing; i just fill the aquarium with water - toss the fishes in and let it run ;)

Not sure why it works but it does !
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Normally I don't, it's been years in, if things are smooth sailing then I don't have a ton of reason to. And usually I've transfered entire filter media over to a new filter when upgrading tanks, so there's been no reason to worry much about spikes.

The media in this filter though was all sterilized via boiling and everything left out to dry for weeks. Tank was totally sterilized and the fish I've started adding to it aren't exactly ammonia spike or fresh cycle friendly. So I am monitoring to make sure all stays stable in this case.

Chaetostoma plecos are a little more delicate in terms of water quality than some other kinds, and so are month-ish old cory fry.

It's the first time since I've started that I've had to set up a tank almost from scratch. Going slow and steady. Next batch of fish won't be added until next spring. It'll just be the plecos and cory fry for awhile. Gives me plenty of time to research what I want, explore my options, and locate what I want. Also time to research fish stores from over the border as well, can take a trip stateside and see what's around there since I don't have a lfs anymore in my city.
 
I was surprised to see my bronze corys often perched on sword leaves. They're adults & need extra parking spots sometimes I guess. I think your paleatus just like to cute pose for your camera. I love it!
 
fishorama said:
I was surprised to see my bronze corys often perched on sword leaves. They're adults & need extra parking spots sometimes I guess. I think your paleatus just like to cute pose for your camera. I love it!
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They're still wary if I approach close, but they're very small still so that's expected. The smallest are only about 0.5" and the largest is maybe 0.75". Very little babies, they're barely a month or so old.

Despite their small size though, they contend with the flow of the tank well, but like to relax in the more sheltered areas.

A quick little video of them when I first added them into the tank.

 
Thank you for extra cory cuteness! Our accidental bronze fry was at least .5 inch before we saw him. He's never been people shy, he's just oblivious as corys sometimes are. My loxozonas were quite shy & maybe a batch of pandas once, mostly out & about IME.
 
fishorama said:
Thank you for extra cory cuteness! Our accidental bronze fry was at least .5 inch before we saw him. He's never been people shy, he's just oblivious as corys sometimes are. My loxozonas were quite shy & maybe a batch of pandas once, mostly out & about IME.
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Yeah my loxozonus are also very shy, I don't get many photos of then because they're very wary.

My adult brochis are shy but the fry are not. But I suspect my adults are wild caught.

I'm just glad that I've got these paleatus fry. I lost the parents and they were among my very first group of cories. So while they didn't end up being a spawn from one of my rarer ones that I lost, they have a lot of sentimental value. And frankly, I love paleatus even if they're one of the most common in the hobby.
 
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