55 Gal Tank Base build /Tank Progress

KaraWolf 2013-06-02, 18:36

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 2013-06-02, 19:37

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 2013-06-02, 21:19

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 2013-06-02, 22:24

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 2013-06-02, 22:41

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 Smile

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 2013-06-02, 23:04

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 2013-06-02, 23:22

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 Smile

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 2013-06-02, 23:31

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 2013-06-02, 23:33

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 2013-07-02, 19:20

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 2013-07-03, 14:04

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 2013-07-17, 22:22

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 2013-07-17, 23:56

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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 2013-07-18, 00:20

looking good

Anthraxx 2013-07-18, 00:34

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

KaraWolf 2013-07-19, 14:42

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 2013-07-22, 23:42

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 2013-08-07, 21:22

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** 2013-08-08, 00:14

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 2013-08-08, 14:15

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?

**Madness** 2013-08-08, 14:41

I have never done or needed to cycle a tank. I set the tank up, drop a few fish in it, add a few pieces of media and decor from an existing tank, and if I think that I need some help I add this. [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

I set up my 300 Red Devil tank, everything was new. The only thing I added was existing media from another filter, a couple pieces of wood, and 10 Red Devils ranging from 6"-12". Around day 5 the tank became a bit cloudy, I added the above bacteria, and no issues. All this was done in 1 week and fish enjoyed their home immediately.

KaraWolf 2013-08-08, 16:15

I haven't tried any other products as I figure eventually it will level out >> I did get my ammonia from ace Smile

it just took FOREVER to locate one big enough to carry it (the store). I'm not adding anything else just the ammonia plain and simple. I'm wondering if some bacteria starved when I went down to portland for my birthday (3 days)

nope not messing with the nitrite levels with prime or anything else.

madness: the filter was brand new no backups yet Sad

I did have a bit of seed material but not nearly enough for how I am planning to stock it (was hoping to go get all the fish at once - if one is sick then they're all sick (probably) because I'm headed to petsmart...but starting to think that is exactly what I should do. and just watch the levels in case.

Will I am 2013-08-08, 18:18

I personally wouldn't do any water changes until it cycles. If you do a water change and have to add something like prime in, I believe it will nuetralize the nitrites and amonia. I'd try getting what madness uses or stability. I've only used stability. It's worked great for me.

Will I am 2013-08-08, 18:19

How many drops are you adding per gallon?

KaraWolf 2013-08-08, 18:30

When I do a water change I use "aquasafe plus" which does not say anywhere on the bottle about neutralizing nitrites or ammonia just chlorine and chloro-something.

idk. I have a set amount I found that spiked the ammonia up to just above 4ppm and have since cut that in half since the nitrite spiked as it suggests to do in the fishless cycling thread ( [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] ) which seemed to help the nitrite to actually cycle through rather then being stuck at a huge spike(while also cycling through because I had a huge nitrate amount)

KaraWolf 2013-08-20, 16:34

Been a while. >> About a week and a half ago I managed to get nitrite and ammonia to be zero by not feeding it and shuffled all my fish from the 30 gallon to the 55, redid the deco in both tanks and picked up 10 more orange von rios for it. Then realized a better way to keep the 30 gallon filter alive rather then running it on the front of the 55 (didn't want to pull the back of the hood apart more cause it was temp) was to just put the bag of bio rings in the 55 filter.....felt really dumb for that one LOL especially since the 55 filter looks SOO empty. a single bag of bio rings, the biomedia it came with that hangs on the outflow, 2 carbon/filter media bags, a biomedia thing that came from the origional 15 gal filter and 2 more filter pads and it STILL looks kinda empty.....maybe I'll buy another filter pad thing and shove it full of it. Probably a good way to seed new tanks too. Have a few pics, the rest are on the other phone....I keep taking picks when my phones dead lol

the orange von rio's I bought...future pictures will show their stubborness to school...or hang out anywhere but near the gravel silly things >>
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updated decor and Mojo Jo Jo hiding in her new cave place. Happily (for me) fully visible from the front of the tank, and she still thinks this is considered hiding! <3 Now all it needs is updated pic with all the orange von rio's everywhere and even more fish!

KaraWolf 2013-09-30, 13:34

Welll....I am seriously annoyed at this tank. Still.
1. the Von Rio's brought a bacterial infection with them into the tank.
---had to bleach the 30 and a spare 20H
---lost 5 fish
---result of losing 5 fish is the Rio school now well...schools at a solid 8 members(usually).
2. They also brought ich in right after the bacterial infections.
---salted/raised temp of tank
---results of that = Mojo beat herself up pretty badly scale wise
---something seems to have happened to my bacterial colony during ich treatment
---now have high ammonia (.2-.5) which is stressing them out. Again.
---Mojo Grayed out because of said ammonia/temp/salt(not sure which was the flip factor) Sad

-----but Ich is now gone!
3. Can't get marble hatchets someone informed me of because of said ammonia >.<
4. Only bonus? I now have 40 feet of hose to stop using buckets to do water changes
---No more buckets YAY!!
5. My tank is still depressingly empty despite it being a month since I got the Rio's
6. Lesson learned All new fish will now go in the 20H for 2~ weeks before going into the 55.

DMD123 2013-09-30, 14:32

KaraWolf wrote:6. Lesson learned All new fish will now go in the 20H for 2~ weeks before going into the 55.

Been there! I brought in two wild caught cichlids into my established 210g tank and ended up with some horrible parasitic thing that I could not kill. I lost my favorite fish (midas) that I had raised for over three years and almost all my stock. After that I learned to always quarantine fish first.

Sorry to hear of all your problems.... hang in there. It does get better!

KaraWolf 2013-09-30, 15:02

0.o yikes!!! I've had fish for almost 4 years and have never had a major health problem not even ick(didn't have any place TO quarantine until very recently). and then bam! insanity >.< sucks to lose the favorite fish Sad

for any reason. But I have a bare 20 high that shall be for quarantine only.

Hopefully the ick will be the last of it and I can figure out why I'm getting ammonia readings ugh >> was working fine before hand. GROW bacteria grow!! I need to have a tank that finally doesn't look empty!

Anthraxx 2013-09-30, 20:44

dont remind me D, its too soon :*(. you had one gorgeous midas. really hope you can get that ammonia issue figured out. ive personally just used the bacteria in a bottle stuff to avoid things like this (its quite expensive fish chem wise) the tetra brand typically available from big box stores. i think its called safe start, bright yellow bottle

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KaraWolf 2013-10-01, 23:28

Did a fat water change last night with my new hose. Annoyed at it at first until I went to drag it outside and my husband pointed out it had a major kink which was causing the drainage problem Rolling Eyes

refilling was awesome XD
I bought a big bottle of stability which in theory should help but I think I should just suck it up and treat it like it has no cycle what-so-ever - says for new tanks treat every day for 7 days, and then whenever you add new fish/do a water change to boost it. Originally tried to do it with just ammonia and some seed took over a month and was still having stupid problems...great reminder though thanks. This evenings reading looks like 0 so I guess I'll treat it like a new tank if I get another ammonia reading tomorrow >>

ALSO, Decided my filter wasn't full enough so I snagged a bath scrubby (wasn't any plastic pot ones) pulled the hanging rope off it and stuffed it into my filter too(turns into a mesh tube when it unbunches). SO I swear there is plenty of room for good bacteria to be living in style!

BallardFishGuy 2013-10-02, 16:47

I do all my cycling fish-less..I use snails. If you want something instant and easy Cory sells a really nice instant cycle product...can't remember the name of it but it's refrigerated which is important to keep the bacteria alive.

DMD123 2013-10-02, 19:06

KaraWolf, I just noticed your signature had "55 still needs..... and what?"

What you are looking for is 'bichir'; very friendly with tetras Very Happy

BallardFishGuy 2013-10-02, 19:07

Ha...friendly like the shark in your avatar! Laughing

DMD123 2013-10-02, 19:12

Mine do good with my Australian Rainbows.... Ive only had one disappear; so far. whistle

star_rider 2013-10-02, 19:15

KaraWolf, I would suggest a a bit longer QT period.

4 weeks for me if the fish do not get sick. reason: some parasites may not manifest into an issue in 2 weeks. if the fish do get Ill I treat and restart the QT. I do not want to place mY Angels and Discus at any more risk than needed.
I've delt with some internal parasites capillaria and camallanus that usually do not show up for a few weeks .
I deal with some wild fish and will usually treat prophylactically for internal parasites .
I keep a few meds on hand in the event there are issues (parasite and bacterial)

btw, there are a lot of folks who would disagree with my methods but I learned these from very well educated folks who keep wild discus and Angels.
following their recommendations I was able to raise Dime sized wild caught Altums with very low loss.

KaraWolf 2013-10-02, 21:20

BallardFishGuy: I tried 0.o was trying for a month and a half...thought it would do ok with some fish. and it was until I treated for ick.

DMD123: OH GOD that would be sweet! But with my plans....it would be overstocked with one I think :(and it's not a wide enough tank for the poor adult(only about 12in wide). Was sooo tempted when I saw some snegals at petco they were only like 3 inches long. I'm thinking when I move and get the 90+ tank that is planned oscars I'll put a bichir too <3
annnnd yup they get too big and will eat my poor tiny fish! OM NOM NOM snacks! lol
Though on a side note all of the little fish I'm putting in are smarter then your average tetra I've observed (on purpose) so they can avoid my own shark. No swimming away in straight lines!

Now. If you have a real suggestion on fish be my guest LOL

Maybe on the QT and will probably lengthen it as I get used to getting new fish. (and away from the excitement of the first really nicely stocked tank)
Definitely restarting the QT if they get sick >> gotta make sure the bug is gone before adding. I try to keep meds on hand, as it's always easier to pull it out of the cabinet rather then running to the store for it.

Annnnnnd here goes the start of a cycle-treating bacteria as ammonia popped back up after day-before-yesterday's WC >.< blarg.

KaraWolf 2013-10-26, 17:24

Well it's been a while and I keep finding ammonia bumps >.< nothing over .5 but very frustrating when I wasn't upping the food any. I think I found my problem! (Hopefully) So i ran out of my algae wafers and the new ones are a new brand. Mojo has disdained to eat them and for the first time ever I managed to see her "eat" one, usually she waits till I'm in bed to do so, and decided to take bites, swim away and spit said bite out. Thank you MOJO for telling me you hate them you little bugger! So now there are miniscule particles of the ENTIRE wafer floating around in my tank messing with the ammonia. yay >.<
PHOTO OPP. And Mojo's recovery from insanity.

Photos: So....the treatment that killed off the ick messed with Mojo's behavior :(she decided to flip out and banged herself up pretty badly her poor black scales were pure white. But now she refuses to hold still to get an in focus picture the little turd. Photo's were initially to make sure I could see the progress of her healing/see if she was injuring herself more.
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These are my 2 otos. Have had them for 5-4 months. Not sure why the other is SO fat :/ but is eating fine and behaving normally so ??
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Much better looking see?? XD She just needed time Smile

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Video time!!!
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Got these last night XD big punk!! And I was right, I have an ammonia spike today after she did this >.<

my whole tank plus my cat who wanted in on the action LOL

KaraWolf 2013-12-31, 03:15

In the beginning I got bladder snails in my 2.5 gallon. hated them. couldn't get rid of them, loved them. they dissipated. Now they've popped up with the red root floaters I put in here even as I tried my hardest to rinse allll the snails off(and the ever present duckweed which was successful XD ). Was going to not bother them cause who cares. Well. apparently they HAPPILY demolish red root floater roots. Just after I thought I was seeing some progress on them Sad

This tank still doesn't have any extra fish. But that's cause I was gonna move and put that off. No more ammonia spikes yay XD it was indeed Mojo being a butt head.

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