240 Gallon Planted Freshwater Tank Build

Two nets was what I was going to suggest, sorry, not much help beyond that! Try to do it when your water is low from water changes, too.

As for acclimating, is there any particular reason why the pH is so low in your tank compared with your tap? How are you doing water changes without huge pH swings?

 

We have a continuos water change system. We keep adjusting it. It used to be 30 gallon a day but is now 15ish a day. The ph is so low from the substrate and plants. We don't put chemicals or peat moss or anything. We eventually want discus or altum angels and they prefer a low ph.
vikingkirken
Do you think large water changes once in a while could help?

 

I trapped a Krib in my 120 gallon with a plastic water bottle. Cut the top off and flip it so its inside the bottle, basically the neck is the entrance. Put food in the bottle. Worked like a charm for me.

 

@alyeskagurl
Sounds cool. I thought about that I was just worried a tetra and red tailed shark might both get trapped together and attack or something
I'll try it as a back up though. How did you weigh the bottle down? With rocks or something?

 

You might look into a big net. You can get one around 10 inches. Use the smaller nets to herd them in

 

@alyeskagurl
Sounds cool. I thought about that I was just worried a tetra and red tailed shark might both get trapped together and attack or something
I'll try it as a back up though. How did you weigh the bottle down? With rocks or something?

I didnt have to weigh it down. Being full of water it sat on the substrate. I ripped my planted tank apart trying to get him too with nets. Bottle was in the tank not even 5 minutes and he went in. Lol

 

AlyeskaGirl
It worked perfectly. After 1 minute we caught 4 fish.
We got the red tail but the 2 kribs have been in hiding. They have a big underground tunnel like a ft long under the driftwood.

 

 

Sounds like you have a great water change system You might want to switch to a different schooler, rainbows prefer harder water for sure. I'm surprised that your pH drops so much with your hard tap water!

I'm a relative novice about KH/GH/pH questions, however. You might want to get an opinion from someone more experienced.

 

Big update but no pictures right now. We took out the 4 angels 1 red tail and only 1 krib. We took them to our lps and got 35$ I think. We bought 18 cardinals for 45$

A couple other things:
mbkemp thanks for the idea I missed your post, I just saw it right now.

We still have 1 krib we want to remove but he hides all day. His tailed is messed up from being chased but he should start coming out.

Idk if I mentioned it already but we have 2 bamboo shrimp on the bottom. My dad bought them not knowing too much about them. I know a bit. It there any tips for bamboo shrimp?

2 of the 4 rams we got 3 days ago died and we can't figure out why. We got them at petsmart so my thought was that the water parameters (mainly ph temperature and water hardness) were too different and they didn't adjust well.
Do you have any ideas vikingkirken or Drummindot ?

The new cardinals are from a store that has very similar parameters and they were in a display tank at the store so they should mostly all live so I guess if they die, we'll know we have a serious problem.

Another thing. We've tried lots of things to stop fish and shrimp in the sump from going in the baffles but most restrict the flow a lot any ideas?

Finally plants. We need something on the right side. We probably won't get co2 for a while so carpeting plants aren't really an option. Is the anything that fills in horizontally quickly without ferts? We want a large open swimming area on top but some cool interesting plants on bottom. We saw some red plants that looked cool but they usually need ferts.

I know that's a lot of questions but if anyone can help with any part go for it. Thank you everyone who's helped so far. This has been a really fun (and challenging) project and it's so much more fun when we can share it and get help at the same time.

Thanks everyone,
Austin

 

Big update but no pictures right now. We took out the 4 angels 1 red tail and only 1 krib. We took them to our lps and got 35$ I think. We bought 18 cardinals for 45$

A couple other things:
mbkemp thanks for the idea I missed your post, I just saw it right now.

We still have 1 krib we want to remove but he hides all day. His tailed is messed up from being chased but he should start coming out.

Idk if I mentioned it already but we have 2 bamboo shrimp on the bottom. My dad bought them not knowing too much about them. I know a bit. It there any tips for bamboo shrimp?

2 of the 4 rams we got 3 days ago died and we can't figure out why. We got them at petsmart so my thought was that the water parameters (mainly ph temperature and water hardness) were too different and they didn't adjust well.
Do you have any ideas vikingkirken or Drummindot ?

The new cardinals are from a store that has very similar parameters and they were in a display tank at the store so they should mostly all live so I guess if they die, we'll know we have a serious problem.

Another thing. We've tried lots of things to stop fish and shrimp in the sump from going in the baffles but most restrict the flow a lot any ideas?

Finally plants. We need something on the right side. We probably won't get co2 for a while so carpeting plants aren't really an option. Is the anything that fills in horizontally quickly without ferts? We want a large open swimming area on top but some cool interesting plants on bottom. We saw some red plants that looked cool but they usually need ferts.

I know that's a lot of questions but if anyone can help with any part go for it. Thank you everyone who's helped so far. This has been a really fun (and challenging) project and it's so much more fun when we can share it and get help at the same time.

Thanks everyone,
Austin

It sounds to me like your tank is still doing what I call 'maturing'. It takes a month or two until a tank is mature enough to be stable. The more you water change the longer it will take. I would suggest dropping your ATO down enough to compensate for evaporation only and then up in another month or so.
Also another trick to help with maturing is using Pristine. It is designed for rapid waste decomposition. I've found that it also helps the newer tank mature faster. Along with using Stability for a month or two and then just maintaining with Pristine for the long term should help your system be better able to handle more fish.
I certainly do love your setup! I think your filtration is pretty good. I do think adding more lava rock would get you more surface area. For our 265 the sump is in a 40 gallon long but hold about 15-30g. I have since added a UV unit but even before that it stayed crystal clear. We used an entire 20# bag of lava rock (washed) in our sump though and also have a tray of kitchen scrubbers, at least 50 of them, that are right after a poly-fiber tray and before the lava rock. So, there's LOTS of biological filtration going on.
Between the rest of the sump and the pump chamber I have an eShopps sponge which does retard the flow a bit but not enough to make a huge difference. I have two so when one clogs up I simply pull it out, rinse it, and then throw it in the washer and dry it for the next time. I have found that the eShopps sponges are the only ones with large enough pores to give me good flow without much restriction.
Geez, I didn't plan to write that much but I hope I've been of some help to you!
Your tank looks great!