55 Gal Tank Base build /Tank Progress

[KaraWolf]

I'm going to be building a 55 gallon tank base in the near future. It was going to be last weekend but alas we found out our saws are useless.

It's going to be a 50"x 20"x26" and one half of it will hold a 15 gal tank on the floor(under the 55). the 15 will probably be storage or for use as a hospital tank but it needs a place to hide in my little house that isn't my extra bedroom. I already have the 55 sitting in my living room with all the parts just need a place to put it, even have the 2x4s it will be built out of (plywood will come later)....this will be the new home for my current fish XD

Pictures will come later when I have more then just a fuzzy picture of the design.

I am wondering though. I was going to do a fish-less cycle and went in search of pure ammonia only to well, not find it, but in the process of setting up my current-old tank (we just moved) I found out my tap water has a whopping 20ppm ammonia in it!! and I'm thinking if I simply do water changes each day on it that will provide plenty of food for my new bacteria colonies. Not to mention I'm attempting to jump-start their growth by dumping the bacteria-colony-media-plastic-thing that came with the tank setup right into my 30 gal several days ago and will leave it there until i finally get this tank ready to cycle!! looks ugly as all get out sitting there in the black gravel but whatever XP

 

[Addicted2CAs]

Seems to me that 20ppm ammonia out of the tap is incredibly high and unusual. Possibly getting the chloramine reading? Is your test kit pretty old? That would start a really nice BB colony, but your fish are going to have considerable issues in that water. What is the stocking/ aqua scape plan?

 

[KaraWolf]

Yeah it seemed really weird to me as well. But this is a new home and I never tested my previous home water. I don't have a test for chloramine :/ so idk if that is a possibility. The test kit is actually really new from the store a few months ago. and I will probably get an ammonia lock for large water changes I did a water change recently and the filter/water conditioner took care of it, my tank has a reading of 0ppm. so it shouldn't be a problem for water changes. Stocking current and future plans are in my signature.

 

[Anthraxx]

ive known ppl on JBLM who have kept fish just fine, so im gonna venture a guess at a false reading for purification chemicals. as for testing your water from the tap, youll need to run it in a bucket or some container with an airstone for a cpl of hours. its the only way to get a better reading. id also suggest that you consider uping your numbers on both tetras. the von rio's stay small and i found that the lemon's are rough on each other (as to be expected with tetras) unless you plan on having a ton of algae issues i wouldnt really worry about the oto's. maybe consider glass cats instead? a nice little schooling fish thats a trip to look at in larger numbers. i wish you the best of luck here, as for places to buy your stock visit petco in lakewood (i know i know its bassackwards to go here but Josh is the MAN and will go above and beyond big box stores) tattooed guy with lots of piercings and gauged ears. if josh cant help you i would hit either a place for pets in burien, or try to place an order with cory at aquarium co-op. i will only buy stock from one of these three places (besides from hobbyists)
GL to ya and Welcome to WAfishbox!

 

[KaraWolf]

That might help. I ran water from the tap straight into the test tubes. And I do indeed have buckets and an airstone to do that with.

7 von rios wouldn't be enough? my current ones are full size the poor guys my previous tank was only 15 gals and that's all I had room for. I don't know much about the lemon's behavior yet I haven't had them before. How many would you suggest?

I am gonna stick with the ottos because they're just so cute. And yeah, I usually have some kind of algae issue because my tanks aren't planted. I think I might have issues if glass cats are what I'm thinking they are(and yes they are) because I have a red tailed shark in there who isn't going anywhere. I've heard the glass cats are really fragile and anything in my 55 will have to stand up to her half chases/be smart enough to dodge in new directions.

Thanks I did a trip to the local petstores in this area and LOVE the petco in lakewood that place was amazing. and Josh probably asked if I needed help way more times then I've EVER been asked before which was really nice since he knows what he is doing. Do you know by chance if their dwarf gourami are local bred or not? I forgot to ask while I was in there :/

 

[Anthraxx]

unfortunately most of what josh can buy is dictated by petco itself. he does have multiple sources however so its possible. Cory at aquarium co-op does a LOT of local fish and much of it being less about cichlids. he does shipping pretty cheap as well. as for the rios they just don't get big enough to not end up as fodder for that RTS (or at least ime) i tried 6 lemons myself and had them for quite awhile but it was clear after a few months that it just simply wasn't enough. i would honestly recommend u double that number to start, being that something can always happen and you lose a couple. as for the source of mine it was actually josh who ordered them in for me years ago when he worked at the petco near tacoma mall.

 

[KaraWolf]

Alright. Next time I'm in there I'll have to ask then. Im afraid of losing the dwarf's I want to order to the gourami death disease I hear about the ones that come out of india a lot of them die after a few months.
I'm lucky my RTS is over 3 years old now and just over 5inches and doesn't bother my other fish too bad. I've had my Rio's for 10 months now and haven't lost any to anything the RTS dishes out.
12 lemons would be cool I just hope I can find a little more colorful stock then I saw up here. Poor guys bodies were mostly gray with yellow fins. If I lose them they're small enough that adding new ones wouldn't be too bad on the school. I'm excited about working with this Petco they have a much better selection and staff then any other I've ever seen.

 

[Anthraxx]

ooo hey sry i didnt mention but the lemons wont display awesome colors until they fully settle in. took mine a few months but once they went yellow that was it. looked like little candies swimming around. just thinking about it makes me want some of those lemonheads (or whatever theyre called)

 

[KaraWolf]

That's what I'm hoping for!! I started out with a black and silver fish layout all phantom tetra, RTS and black skirts. But now I want all the species I keep to pop and swim all over the place!!

 

[KaraWolf]

I got it all set up and running. Pictures are being a pain in the butt to upload but I'l get them up eventually.

My problem now is that I DID find the ammonia pure-diluted stuff (10%). I dosed to just above 4ppm(probably about 7 mL for the whole 55 gal), not sure how far above, the test colors jump from 4 to 8 with nothing between. Put in some old filter media that was extra in another filter and let it go, testing each day. But it's not converting anything to anything else. I still have about 4ppm ammonia, 0 nitrite, 0 nitrate and I haven't dosed any more ammonia because I don't want to make it impossible to grow anything.

Anyone have suggestions for me? Should I be adding in ammonia anyways? leave it as I have been? Add different material like a handful of gravel in case the media I stuck in there died off?

 

[KaraWolf]

Making guesses here then. Reseeded the filter with 3 of the ceramic rings from the 30 gallon (which is doing wonderfully) and will hope for some progress when I get back Sunday night. My theory is that the bacteria were killed off the first seeding because i don't recall if I let the chlorine air out of the tank first or not. If it's eaten through all 4~ppm by then I will be happily astounded and count today as day one of the cycling (I want to see how long it takes to completely cycle using this ace ammonia stuff).

 

[KaraWolf]

Late update but once I reseeded the filter it happily took off and is eating up all the ammonia I feel like feeding it and was off the charts nitrate like it was supposed to be doing. Did a huge water change and tested all three nitrogens and am rater annoyed to find that my nitrite while still actually being converted to nitrate (and sending it off the charts) is ALSO off the charts so much so that I keep thinking the test chemicals got contaminated because that bright of a purple color isn't even on the list(like nowhere near 0.o). Have decided that even though I just did a water change the day before yesterday that I'm going to change out almost 100% of the water and dose ammonia. See if I cant get a rating of 0 in 24 hours with a "normal" batch of ammonia uncomtaminated with huge amounts of nitrite.
I know it's trying really really hard to bring the numbers down but even with a 50% water change the nitrates shot back up to past test colors >.>
I soooooo want to get this tank going with it's new occupants so badly that I'm having nightmare/dreams about it

 

[KaraWolf]

http://s276.photobucket.com/albums/kk25/Kara_Wolf_Brisingr/20130610_193614_zps4f73f217.jpg
http://s276.photobucket.com/albums/kk25/Kara_Wolf_Brisingr/20130611_181114_zpsd8d4478d.jpg
http://s276.photobucket.com/albums/kk25/Kara_Wolf_Brisingr/20130611_205959_zps3e259d09.jpg
http://s276.photobucket.com/albums/kk25/Kara_Wolf_Brisingr/20130612_115823_zps76c7d71a.jpg
http://s276.photobucket.com/albums/kk25/Kara_Wolf_Brisingr/20130612_115848_zpsf764c476.jpg
http://s276.photobucket.com/albums/kk25/Kara_Wolf_Brisingr/20130614_123841_zps07997394.jpg

 
http://s276.photobucket.com/albums/kk25/Kara_Wolf_Brisingr/20130621_211922_zps15e37b06.jpg
http://s276.photobucket.com/albums/kk25/Kara_Wolf_Brisingr/20130711_112138_zps600570c9.jpg


Well...I TRIED to make them proper pictures >.> but only one wants to link right with the image coding sooo...I guess you get links for now until I figure out the difference

 

[DMD123]

looking good

 

[Anthraxx]

i like the look. has a sort of refurbished building materials thing going on.

 

[KaraWolf]

Thanks guys XD didn't even think about it looking refurbished just started using what I could cheaply get my hands on. I'm really loving it's look.

37 hours given from time of ammonia-fying the tank and I still have nitrites. Tank officially not done cycling :/ seriously disappointing. Going to double check my ammonia dosage here in 20 min see if I've been overdosing by accident causing the backup....if not this is seriously frustrating.

edit: nope. not overdosing possibly slightly under dosing. Still not fit for fish.

 

[KaraWolf]

I'm pretty sure I figured out my problem and feel REALLY REALLY stupid. >.<

Once the nitrite spikes you're supposed to cut the ammonia supply in half. Which I didn't do, I've been grumpily full dosing the aquarium for what seems like ages now. But I started half dosing yesterday(?) on a guess(and a double check now says I was right) and it's started to go down so crossing my fingers it can eat everything up here soon and I can finally look forward to new fish next week. XD and then another set of figuring out a new aquascape for the 30 gallon before I pick up my gourami's which honestly are making me nervous if they decide to fight....but that's not this build. XP

 

[KaraWolf]

TBH I'm really frustrated right now(and if my tank had a soft face like a stuffed animal I would probably punch it for misbehavior). My tank has been cycling for a MONTH now and it's still wonky. They cycle can process all of the nit-anything but refuses to do both in 24 hours. first the nitrite spike refused to go down, and then for some reason the ammonia refused to go down but the nitrite finally hit 0 which is where it's sitting now trying to devour ammonia and I'm really crossing my fingers that it stays there and tomorrows reading will make me a happy person but as of now the inner monolog goes something like this: "oh look my wonderful giant tank it looks so pretty!! UGH but I want to punch it's face for invisible misbehavior! CYCLE already! But maybe I can put the rest of the deco in there...oh but that will disturb my current fish who just got their whole tank relocated last week and I don't really want to disturb the gravel until I have it cycled...." (most of the current gravel, all of the deco and all of the fish in the 30 gallon will go in the 55 as I'm redecorating the 30 gallon >> )
end rant.

 

[lloyd378]

Have you tried seachem's. stability ? I used it after A collapse in one of my tanks and it straightened everything out in about a week

 

[Will I am]

I've done fishless cycles on all my tanks with stability. I found the amonia you want at ACE hardware. They were the only place that had it. I called everywhere.

Are you adding prime or something in everyday to keep the nitrite lvl's down?