robbieVG78
New Member
Fellow aquarians, please take a sec to to hear me out about my tank..
Three weeks ago I cleaned out my office tank – Fluval Flex 57L – which was very neglected since the summer holidays. Heavy cyanobacteria all over the place, removed that all, took out the hardscape, cleaning the tank thouroughly. My idea was to leave the soil, at least the lower part of the bottom, and re-use the filtermedia (biorings) for a part. Then adding some new lavafilterstones and use 50% of my home aquarium water. This to quickly get the tank up and running and reduce the cycle before adding any fish.
I removed the upper part of the soil, rescaped the tank with cleaned stone and driftwood. I added some new Amazonia soil for the upper part – adding cycled tankwater 50% + 50% fresh tapwater and 3 or 4 plants. All set to go, I thought.
As I told I re-used some of the bioring filtermedia – adding some new ones. On top off that I added some lavastones for filtering / bacteria buildup. Let it run for a week before adding a fish. After one week I added a fish to the tank.. and after a few hours it died. My guess was that the water was ok – measured it and no clear spike of nitrite. I think ammonia levels were too high due to messing up the existing soil? I accidentely killed my fish. After that I did a waterchange, testing the Ph of the water which seemed to be around 6.5/6.7 – added sera toxivin to clear out poisonous parameters. From week two I added MicrobeLift Special Blend for activating and propagating the bacteria culture within my filtermedia.. adding a little after each waterchange of 50%. I noticed biofilm on my water, removed that and learned that this was caused by bacteria. Did I over do the bacteria? I don’t know. Guessed it wasn’t harmful to overdose a little on the bacteria.
Then, after two weeks I introduced some new plants, letting them float in the water for a few days to acclimate to the submersed form. I planted some little tops and stems and used Seachem Flourish and Trace, adding some every other day. After one week I noticed some grow on the little plants, so they seem to be fine for now. Some leafs are melting, but that is normal right?
During this period I constanly checked my water parameters – KH was low at the start, but by adding KH+ liquid that seems to pick up now. GH is ok after every WC – nitrate and nitrite levels are in the green zone. I use CO2 just on specific times of the day when I’m home. I don’t add co2 for the whole day, as my fish gets a little crazy after one or two hours of co2 injection.. I don’t want to kill this little guy this time.
Since a few days cyano bacteria is popping up on the edges of the tank and some spots on the soil.. I guess this will be caused by sunlight and maybe from the existing soil which is still on the bottom of my tank. I also think this cyano is popping up due fluctuating water parameters.. low nitrates? I use a bag of media which lowers/clears nitrates but my tests say I’m doing 18 on NO3 which is good, right?
I am a little confused right now – I want to stabilize this tank, have some healthy plant growth and thriving fish. But every time I try to fix one thing, another problem pops up and I don’t seem to manage water parameters well. So.. after reading this journey, what do you recommend I should do? Do you have any advice on how to get this tank running? Thanks in advance!
Three weeks ago I cleaned out my office tank – Fluval Flex 57L – which was very neglected since the summer holidays. Heavy cyanobacteria all over the place, removed that all, took out the hardscape, cleaning the tank thouroughly. My idea was to leave the soil, at least the lower part of the bottom, and re-use the filtermedia (biorings) for a part. Then adding some new lavafilterstones and use 50% of my home aquarium water. This to quickly get the tank up and running and reduce the cycle before adding any fish.
I removed the upper part of the soil, rescaped the tank with cleaned stone and driftwood. I added some new Amazonia soil for the upper part – adding cycled tankwater 50% + 50% fresh tapwater and 3 or 4 plants. All set to go, I thought.
As I told I re-used some of the bioring filtermedia – adding some new ones. On top off that I added some lavastones for filtering / bacteria buildup. Let it run for a week before adding a fish. After one week I added a fish to the tank.. and after a few hours it died. My guess was that the water was ok – measured it and no clear spike of nitrite. I think ammonia levels were too high due to messing up the existing soil? I accidentely killed my fish. After that I did a waterchange, testing the Ph of the water which seemed to be around 6.5/6.7 – added sera toxivin to clear out poisonous parameters. From week two I added MicrobeLift Special Blend for activating and propagating the bacteria culture within my filtermedia.. adding a little after each waterchange of 50%. I noticed biofilm on my water, removed that and learned that this was caused by bacteria. Did I over do the bacteria? I don’t know. Guessed it wasn’t harmful to overdose a little on the bacteria.
Then, after two weeks I introduced some new plants, letting them float in the water for a few days to acclimate to the submersed form. I planted some little tops and stems and used Seachem Flourish and Trace, adding some every other day. After one week I noticed some grow on the little plants, so they seem to be fine for now. Some leafs are melting, but that is normal right?
During this period I constanly checked my water parameters – KH was low at the start, but by adding KH+ liquid that seems to pick up now. GH is ok after every WC – nitrate and nitrite levels are in the green zone. I use CO2 just on specific times of the day when I’m home. I don’t add co2 for the whole day, as my fish gets a little crazy after one or two hours of co2 injection.. I don’t want to kill this little guy this time.
Since a few days cyano bacteria is popping up on the edges of the tank and some spots on the soil.. I guess this will be caused by sunlight and maybe from the existing soil which is still on the bottom of my tank. I also think this cyano is popping up due fluctuating water parameters.. low nitrates? I use a bag of media which lowers/clears nitrates but my tests say I’m doing 18 on NO3 which is good, right?
I am a little confused right now – I want to stabilize this tank, have some healthy plant growth and thriving fish. But every time I try to fix one thing, another problem pops up and I don’t seem to manage water parameters well. So.. after reading this journey, what do you recommend I should do? Do you have any advice on how to get this tank running? Thanks in advance!