what's in the QT?

magpie

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OK, without a cover the evaporation makes more sense.

OK, now that the whole bottle was dumped in, how long should it take to show stuff?
 
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jaws7777

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J jaws7777 i put the whole bottle in! lol. Was actually pretty excited to do that.
OK, without a cover the evaporation makes more sense.

OK, now that the whole bottle was dumped in, how long should it take to show stuff?
Feed the danios a couple times a day. Dont do any water changes for two weeks. I'd start testing sat or sunday. Good chance your cycled by next week some time.

After its cycled never clean the media or sponges in your tap water. Use tank water while doing a water change.

You should atleast be seeing ammonia rise as long as you feed the danios
 

ocellatus

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Feed the danios a couple times a day. Dont do any water changes for two weeks. I'd start testing sat or sunday. Good chance your cycled by next week some time.

After its cycled never clean the media or sponges in your tap water. Use tank water while doing a water change.

You should atleast be seeing ammonia rise as long as you feed the danios
+1 to this :)

I used a pair of rosy barbs to cycle my QT. Heavy feedings for 2 weeks while hanging a small bag of established media did the trick. Trouble is, they spawned. Now I've got a few dozen fry poking around the QT :rolleyes:. But at least its cycled.

O
 
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clm08k

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Feed the danios a couple times a day. Dont do any water changes for two weeks. I'd start testing sat or sunday. Good chance your cycled by next week some time.

After its cycled never clean the media or sponges in your tap water. Use tank water while doing a water change.

You should atleast be seeing ammonia rise as long as you feed the danios
woo! Thanks for all this information. Just fed them! It's foreign to me to feed them every day. I was feeding every other day.

For the filter media and sponges I can just rinse them in the tank? or should i rinse them in the dirty water i take out? Well I guess I'll cross that bridge when I get there.
+1 to this :)

I used a pair of rosy barbs to cycle my QT. Heavy feedings for 2 weeks while hanging a small bag of established media did the trick. Trouble is, they spawned. Now I've got a few dozen fry poking around the QT :rolleyes:. But at least its cycled.

O
hehehe that's funny. Now you have a bunch of rosy barbs! My QT isn't cycled either. Should it be? thinking of just going ahead and buying the light you recommended. Just need to figure out the lid situation though.

magpie magpie what does the top look like on your tank? You have a Finnex light, right? I can't wait to get my plants! Want to have a majestic poly jungle like yours. Right now the evaporation is about 1 inch per week....crazy, right?!
 
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jaws7777

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woo! Thanks for all this information. Just fed them! It's foreign to me to feed them every day. I was feeding every other day.

For the filter media and sponges I can just rinse them in the tank? or should i rinse them in the dirty water i take out? Well I guess I'll cross that bridge when I get there.

hehehe that's funny. Now you have a bunch of rosy barbs! My QT isn't cycled either. Should it be? thinking of just going ahead and buying the light you recommended. Just need to figure out the lid situation though.

magpie magpie what does the top look like on your tank? You have a Finnex light, right? I can't wait to get my plants! Want to have a majestic poly jungle like yours. Right now the evaporation is about 1 inch per week....crazy, right?!
Do tou drain into the toilet or bath tub ? Use the water xoming out of the tank. Can place a bucket near your drain source, crimp the hose fill the bucket crimp again place back over drain source and clean pads in the bucket. Leave the media alone.


When your draining the tank the ac110 will also drain...back pressure.

I just let the filter run until the water is lower than the intake tube (itll start making a horribke sound) then **** it off so the media stays submerged. If the bio media dries out the bb will die
 
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ocellatus

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Jaws has you covered here for the sponge cleaning :)

I squeeze them out under the flow of water that drains from my tank during a water change as well. Gets rid of any particulate matter they've caught without killing off your bb.

The T5HO it should be good for a wide variety of plants in that 55g unless you decide to grow a carpet of HC or similar. On my 75g one 54w bulb gives a nice light without turning the tank into an algae farm. 2 bulbs is super bright and things can get out of whack pretty fast if you're not careful!

I cheated out on my glass lids and had them cut at a local glass shop from salvaged windows. They had the odd tiny scratch but were almost half the price of new.

O
 

magpie

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I just have the hinged glass lids that the tank came with. Yes, the finnex light.

For a new tank why bother rinsing the media at all? With a canister you wouldn't even be touching it....

(But yes, when you do clean it you still use tank water to rinse the biomedia)
 
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jaws7777

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I just have the hinged glass lids that the tank came with. Yes, the finnex light.

For a new tank why bother rinsing the media at all? With a canister you wouldn't even be touching it....

(But yes, when you do clean it you still use tank water to rinse the biomedia)
You should gently rinse the biomedia a couple times a year. Gunk build up clogs the pores and reduces new bb growth. A couple of squishes is all
 
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magpie

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No I agree with that, but I meant why bother rinsing the biomedia during the time that a tank is not cycled? I would think it would be best to wait until it's more stable and not mess with it until then.
 
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jaws7777

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No I agree with that, but I meant why bother rinsing the biomedia during the time that a tank is not cycled? I would think it would be best to wait until it's more stable and not mess with it until then.
Oh i got ya sorry for confusing things. Yeah completely agree.

I wouldnt even touch the foam....leave the filter untouched for a month or more. clm08k clm08k the foam pads act as bio filtration too. Anything including decor, sand, foam pads that has a surface area will have bb colonize it
 
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