My 185gal build in progress (lots of pics)

[lousybreed]

It seems like you are dumping a bunch of biomass into the tank and you have had fish for only a week. Are you checking your ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates? Be careful, you have some nice fish...it would suck if you lost them......

I am sure you know that you can do WC's to keep the water in check but it is much easier to let some small fish cycle the tank for you....

 

[MikenDanielle]

Are you still putting cichlids in the tank???

 

[jm1212]

looking better with every update

 

[cvermeulen]

I'm monitoring the water levels pretty carefully. I got my hands on some bio-spira today, so I'll be looking for some nitrates hopefully!

The largest (by a loooooong way) polluter so far is that pleco. The goldfish I know are notorious, but he's pretty small. I took the snails out today (boring) and added some other small fish, and plants. The ammonia level should be slow to build if the bio spira doesn't work (based on what I've observed so far, anyways). I had to make a 4 hour round trip to get the **** stuff though, so it better do it's thing!

 

[cdfishie123]

looks like theres a really awesome future for you and your tank...if you be carefull

 

[cvermeulen]

checked the water levels this morning. no appreciable change since yesterday. Arpparently it takes a few days to see any nitrate after adding the bio spira.

 

[UCF-Planted]

If the bioload is still proportionately low enough that no ammonia was showing up yet, then you won't have any nitrates either. Bio-spira just adds the bacteria that convery ammonia to nitrite and nitrite to nitrate, so no ammonia, no nitrate, regardless of bacteria.

 

[cvermeulen]

If the bioload is still proportionately low enough that no ammonia was showing up yet, then you won't have any nitrates either. Bio-spira just adds the bacteria that convery ammonia to nitrite and nitrite to nitrate, so no ammonia, no nitrate, regardless of bacteria.

I didn't say there was NO ammonia, I siad it builds slowly enough that I can keep a handle on it by doing water changes if need be. It was at about 0.25ppm when I added the bio spira. I also put more fish in there, so there should be a steady source of ammonia to keep the bacteria fed.

There are 17 fish in there now... all are quite small, but some will likely need new homes as they grow. Some will get eaten, too. I definitely need to figure out what to do with buddy the goldfish... if I put enough food in there that everyone gets some, he gorges himself to what I'm sure is an unhealthy extent.

The stock list right now is:

8 2" clown loaches (I moved the snails out to another tank)
3 mollies (BGK food, esp. if they spawn)
1 5" L052
1 11" sailfin gibbiceps
2 2.5" blue acara
1 3" BGK
Buddy, the 3" goldfish.

I'll post some pics up in a few minutes.

 

[UCF-Planted]

ah, well then yeah, probably takes a couple days for the bacteria to get into the swing of things and start pumping out nitrates

 

[cvermeulen]

OK, here are the pics:

Gary the snail, one of the rare occasions she (yes, gary is a she) came out of her shell:

I got a kick out of this:

Her second night in the tank, laying eggs:

My sailfin, molesting my plant, and cramming himself into every possible place looking for food:

I actually did some work this weekend too (!). put rails in for my drip plate in the sump:

Drilled and deburred 160 holes in a sheet of polycarb:

Seems to work ok, may need tweaking:

Got sick of working, so I went and got the biospira and some fishies!

Even the butterfly came out. I'm amazed how much his colors will change with lighting, mood, and whether or not he's sleeping:

Whole tank: