Bottomdweller's 63 Gallon

Hi
I'm going to use this as a kind of diary for my tank. This is my first community tank. It's been set up since the start of December 2016.
It's the Juwel Rio 240 with mostly live plants and a couple of fake. There's a bit of driftwood and rock and 2 terracotta pots for hiding spots. I'm hoping to add some more plants and driftwood. Temperature is 22c

The fish:
8 Danios (4 zebra, 4 leopard)
8 WCMM (4 gold, 4 normal)
3 female guppies
4 female Platies, 1 male platy (sunset wag, white MM, rainbow wag, tuxedo and red wag)
Pest snails

I will update this when I add more fish or when something significant happens. Any comments are appreciated.

Thanks for reading

Pictures
Soon after setup


Now

 

very nice!

looking forward to following along.

 

Nice tank! Looks like you're having good plant growth.

 

Thanks everyone! Plants seem ok, some are doing are doing better than others

 

Okay so I got some more plants today. Eventually I want the tank to be heavily planted. I am no good with plants (aquatic or not) any advice on how to care for them would be brilliant.
Today I got:
Eleocharis

Cryptocoryne wendtiI "Green"

Bacopa caroliniana


And my favourite Salvinina

 

Yesterday I added about 400ml of seachem matrix to help remove nitrate since our tap water has 80ppm nitrate in it. I can't fit any more in the filter, will it still work if I scatter it on the gravel? I've put some of it in a breeder box.
Today I plan to get some more plants. Which are best for reducing nitrates? Thanks

 

I use matrix as a filter media. I'm not really sure how it is at reducing nitrates since my tanks have nitrates.

I've always heard pothos is the king plant when it comes to nitrates. As far as fully aquatic plants, you probably want something like anacharis or wysteria. Something fast growing with small leaves. Other plant experts should be able to help more as this is really outside of my wheelhouse.

 

Thanks! I have bought
Microsorum pteropus "narrow"
Anubias barterI nana
Bacopa "Compact
Heteranthera zosterifolia
I hope these will help

 

I'm not sure the anubias will do much. In general slow growing plants will not use up a ton of nutrients. The bacopa might chip in some. Just a quick Google search keeps pointing me to pothos. May be worth looking into

CindiL am I misremembering or do you also have nitrate in your tap

 

Thanks, I don't know much about plants and just picked ones that looked nice. I thought that out of the 4 at least one might help

 

Hi, I do have high nitrates and an annoying amount of silicates in my well water that left me with diatoms all the time so I switched to re-mineralized R/O water.

Matrix will start helping after 3-4 weeks but it does need to be in a filter. You could always dedicate a filter just for the matrix? or if you buy a slow gph could use their de-nitrate product in a filter but it has to be 40gph or less for de-nitrate to be very effective.

Have you seen this thread? Quite a few people are happy with Nitra-Zorb.
Review of Nitrate Reducers | Aquarium Water Forum | 217267

As far as plants go, the faster growing ones, the better. Aquatic plants will consume ammonia before they will consume nitrates so depending on your stocking level they may help nitrates not get higher but they may not help in reducing it much. If your stocking level isn't too high then submersed plants will help some. Mosses Christmas and Java and fast growing grasses are good and hygrophilia is another fast growing one. My Christmas Moss grows like a weed and I have clumps of it on my (fake) driftwood. My bacopa grows fast too. And though people don't like algae, letting it grow on the back wall of the tank is also a good consumer.

Plants that can use the carbon in our air will consume nitrates first. So floating plants like frogwort or is it frogbit? wysteria, and other floating plants are your best bet along with land plants with their roots in the water and plant outside the water like the houseplant pothos and bamboo (draceana), there is also ivy and others, thicker rather than finer leaves I think are a good way to go. With the bamboo you plant the stem in a container or you plant it into the substrate, just make sure the leaves are up and outside in the air or the plant will rot and die. You just buy pothos or philodendron, rinse the dirt off of the roots really well and put the roots into the tank. After 2-3 weeks, the plant will shed its thick roots and you'll be left with fine, white roots that can use the water as its food source with the advantage of having the carbon in the air.

They all add up together to help though if yours are truly at 80 out of the tap you'll need a little bit of everything.

Have you done the dilution test to see if they're 40 or 80? Use half tap and half bottled ro or distilled or nitrate free bottled water (sometimes spring water has nitrates in it), do the test and see what result you get. If the test still shows 40, then they're probably really up close to 80 but if your test shows 20 then they're closer to 40.

 

I've seen recommendations several places for Chinese evergreen (aglaonema) as an effective nitrate reducer. You put it in your HOB or suspend directly in your tank. I have some growing like mad in my windowbox sump, but I can't guarantee its effectiveness since I have no before-and-after to compare. I will say my nitrates have never hit 40ppm, even as I've added more fish and had occasional weeks where the water change didn't happen.

 

Thanks guys!

CindiL
I have seen that thread, it's why I chose the matrix. Doesn't nitra-zorb have to be in the filter as well? I'm not as keen on something that has to be replaced.
I have some floating plants (Salvinina and duckweed) and moss that I think is java moss.

vikingkirken
Does Chinese evergreen have to be out of the water or can it grow fully submerged? I don't have much space between the water and the top of the lid.

 

The nirtrazorb is pretty large and does need to be in a filter. You can re-charge it weekly with salt and so it lasts a long time.

 

Okay thanks Is there any reason for using it instead then?



This is what the tank looks like now with the new plants

 

Looking good! You have a lot of color in there!

The aglaonema doesn't grow submerged, you would either submerge the roots directly in the tank (with the leaves above your lid, through a cutout in the plastic strip on your lid back), or take the top off a hang-on-back filter and put the plant roots right in there with your filter media.

 

Thanks vikingkirken! And thanks for the info!
Honestly I'm a bit scared of cutting the lid for plants to grow through. Any other fast growing nitrate reducing plants?

 

Okay thanks Is there any reason for using it instead then?

With nitrates as high as yours it often takes a combination of plants, matrix and nitra-zorb. I'd do the dilution test to give us a better idea where they're really at.

 

Okay thanks I'll try to get some bottled water tomorrow to do the dillution test.

 

Did the dilution test today, tap water has between 40 and 60ppm nitrates

 

So the diluted test still showed 40? which means its probably close to 80.

 

So the diluted test still showed 40? which means its probably close to 80.

No, the dilution test showed 20-30ppm so I think it's between 40 and 60ppm.

 

I've probably asked you this before, but you're not drinking this water are you? Not at all healthy for you.

I'd get an RO system if you can afford one, a small one at least for your drinking water, a larger one would let you dilute your tap water for your tanks.

 

No, you haven't asked, yes we are drinking this water. Why is it not healthy?

 

No, you haven't asked, yes we are drinking this water. Why is it not healthy?

The EPA limit here in the US for safe drinking water is 10ppm as measured by nitrate as nitrogen NO3-N is 10. My guess here is that it is similar there in England? you'll have to double check.

Our API kit measures total Nitrate or NO3. To convert nitrate NO3 to nitrate as nitrogen NO3-N you divide you API test by 4.42

So, if your nitrates are really at 60 then the NO3-N would be 13.57. Honestly any number above 7 would make me nervous. Ours was around 10 here when we moved in so we did have an RO unit installed that feeds the fridge and kitchen cold tap for drinking and cooking. It has a reserve in the basement and holds about 16g total I think. So I use that for my tanks too.

 

Okay so I tested the tank water today and it has 10-20ppm (the colour on the chart looks the same to me) nitrates! Yay! I'm so glad it's dropped.

Do you think it's safe to add a couple more fish next week?

 

Yes as long as ammonia and nitrites are 0.

 

Hi
I'm going to use this as a kind of diary for my tank. This is my first community tank. It's been set up since the start of December 2016.
It's the Juwel Rio 240 with mostly live plants and a couple of fake. There's a bit of driftwood and rock and 2 terracotta pots for hiding spots. I'm hoping to add some more plants and driftwood. Temperature is 22c

The fish:
8 Danios (4 zebra, 4 leopard)
8 WCMM (4 gold, 4 normal)
3 female guppies
4 female Platies, 1 male platy (sunset wag, white MM, rainbow wag, tuxedo and red wag)
Pest snails

I will update this when I add more fish or when something significant happens. Any comments are appreciated.

Thanks for reading

Pictures
Soon after setup


Now

Very nice!

 

Yes as long as ammonia and nitrites are 0.

Yes ammonia is 0, nitrite is 0, nitrate is 10-20. I plan to add a couple of fish next week then

Very nice!

Thanks speedt102 !

 

What fish were you looking to add?

 

Some more WCMM, guppies, dojo loaches (obviously not all at once)

 

Today I bought some small rocks and a small flat piece of driftwood. They aren't beautiful but I just got them to tie plants to. I also got a larger terracotta pot.

Now for the more exiting news...I found a little yellow and black fry today! He is so cute!

 

Nice, could I see a picture?

 

The EPA limit here in the US for safe drinking water is 10ppm as measured by nitrate as nitrogen NO3-N is 10. My guess here is that it is similar there in England? you'll have to double check.

Hmmm, my nitrates from my tap is 40-80 ppm. I drink my tap for many years and there was no problem

 

Nice, could I see a picture?

Sure!


He's a little tricky to see but he's in the middle, slightly to the left of the white line

Nice, could I see a picture?

Sure!



Okay so I just went to check on him and he had swum out of the breeder net! I've caught him and put him back in but how do I stop this?

 

OMG he's so cute! Did he swim throw the holes in the sides?

 

I know right!
Anyway I thought I'd caught him and put him back in the net. It turns out he was in the net the whole time! He was just hiding in the moss. I'd caught a different fry so now I have 2 fry in the net.

 

I've just got 2 dojo loaches. They are super cute. I have researched them but does anyone have any tips for caring for them? Anything I need to know about them that I probably don't know already?
I wanted to get a BN pleco today. There was a really pretty one today. But the "expert" at the store said 22c is too cold for BN plecos and they need 27c.

 

Did a minI rescape today
Here's what it looked like a couple of days ago


And here's what it looks like today


Anyone have any tips on how I can make it look better?

Here's some pictures of my new dojos




Here's one hiding under the filter

 

I love dojo loaches. I keep 4 in my 75 and they are such characters.

As far as care keeping tips they do better in temps of 75 or lower. When my tank gets 77 or 78 in the summers they aren't as active it seems. They eat everything in sight so they are pretty easy to care for