peacemaker92

I'll be using this thread as a journal for my 55 gallon tank and also a thread for other fish lovers who might get a 55g to help with ideas, recommendations, advices and layout ideas. Well, I'm not THAT experienced enough to be able to fill in everything but you know what I mean.

WORD OF WARNING: THIS THREAD AND SOME OF THE POST MIGHT BE VERY LONG... So forgive me!

Intro: I bought my 55g from a charity sale. RM65 ($20) which includes the tank, and the stand only. The money went to charity, so it's like I gain something and even the poor! My dad and I actually paid for it.


1st entry ~ Managed to get the whole tank and stand sitting in my living room. Looks so ugly with the stand so rusted. Parents gave ideas to use sand paper to clear out the rust.

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peacemaker92

After months of delay, I decided to just get it over with instead of wasting space to fill an empty tank.

Took 2 days to spray the whole stand, 1 day to clean the entire glass. My mom came up with the idea for the design of the stand.

Bought the filter, filled the tank with water and managed to get the filter running to start the fishless cycle.

mare2009

hi peace...I'm seriously wondering about that tank. I don't see the typical molding around the top portion of the glass? Its a support feature. How is it holding up?

peacemaker92

oh... LOL no idea. All I know is that these tanks are quite common here in Malaysia. Well, the low value and simple ones.

peacemaker92

Here are the pics of the designs of my 55g tank stand.

Designs by my mom.
Took me about a day to spray the whole stand.

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peacemaker92

Filled the tank with water but only at a certain level (didn't want the water to splash or overflow)

Filter installed, cycle started at a normal reading.

ammonia - 8.9
nitrite - 0.2
nitrate - 0.0

Placed an unknown water plant in the tank to maybe help with the nitrate. Plant died after 4 days. Reading as follows.

Ammonia - 9.7
Nitrite - 0.4
Nitrate - 0.0

Plant made it worse. T.T

peacemaker92

I bought the cover and the light that day. Light turned out to be pink and they only had one color while I was looking for white.

Total cost for the cover and light: RM90 ($30)

The cover fitted fine but the light gave some problems. As my dad says, 'good stuff not cheap, cheap stuff not good'

Today's readings:

Ammonia: 8.6
Nitrite: 2.3
Nitrate: 0.0

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peacemaker92

Everything was going fine for the past few days. One week actually. Water changes as usual and normal. Until problems came up.

A couple of days ago, I picked up a few graphite rocks from the road side (of course I wasn't thinking clearly about the fact that it was graphite) So my water was polluted by the rock. The water turned green! At first I thought it was an algae bloom, but my cycle wasn't completed yet, and there was no signs of algae in the tank. So I did what I could, 90% water change! Managed to clean the water a bit, didn't look green so much anymore. But still could see a light green color in the water when I turned on the lights.

Tested the water and I guess I could say I was still safe.

Ammonia: 7.2
Nitrite: 2.5
Nitrate: 0.2

But the ammonia readings were still high.
Went to my LFS (they call it the Pets Lovers here in Malaysia) and bought an anti-ammonia bag. Placed it in my filter between my filter media and left it there for 3 days I think.
After that, readings seemed to be doing fine.

Ammonia: 6.9
Nitrite: 3.5
Nitrate: 1.1

But I logged on to Fishlore and was given advice to remove the anti-ammonia bags. So i did.

I also had to remove the cover for a while to fix the lights.

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peacemaker92

I went to the local store near my place to get the substrate. Managed to compare the prices among the hundreds of local stores I knew. This was the cheapest and the better value one they said. RM100/10kilograms ($28-33??)
Filled the tank and half my nightmare came true. The water became cloudy! (cloudy as in I could not see the other side of the tank through the glass) Called up the shop and they said it was normal. The sand should settle in a day or two, and it did thank goodness! Managed to arrange the sand accordingly and leveled it properly.

I placed the two driftwoods back into the tank on top of my new substrate and it looked perfect! Now I had to wait for the plants.

~.~.~

Plants arrived a day later and I also received my ordered tweezer for the plants. Planted them and arranged them accordingly to my layout plan. It looked nice but not good enough I thought. LOL

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peacemaker92

I managed to buy more plants from the local store (cheaper than ordering online). One by one, day by day. New plants kept coming and coming, parents nearly got a headache sending me to the store almost at least 5 times a week! haha New readings as of 8th August 2009:

Ammonia: 4.1
Nitrites: 5.2
Nitrates: 4.8

2 days later, readings as follows:

Ammonia: 2.9
Nitrites: 4.5
Nitrates: 3.9

peacemaker92

I woke up 11th August morning, checked the water levels and knew it was doing okay now. (looks like I don't need Tetra SafeStart now)

Ammonia: 1.8
Nitrite: 3.4
Nitrate: 4.2

12th August 2009, took a chance and bought my first fish for my 55g. 3 Neon Tetras. I know I know! Neons won't be happy in a tank that has JUST been cycled. Well, I couldn't wait and MTS took over...

The next day after the fish were in, readings improved.

Ammonia: 0.5
Nitrite: 1.9
Nitrate: 4.0

aquarist48

Good morning peacemaker. Your tank is looking fine!
Have you thought about creating your own blog? You can private message MIKE and ask him to set one up for you. Then one of the mods can transfer all of these posts over to it if you want. Just a thought
Ken

peacemaker92

Hmm.. That's cool! I'll look into it. Thanks Ken

aquarist48

My pleasure. I'm glad I set mine up It helps to keep all of the important information concerning your tank in one place.
Have a good day today!
Ken