My temporary SAP tank situation

saynever · Post by **saynever** » Wed Apr 04, 2007 11:21 pm

Alrighty people, i just couldn't resist. Our dining room is almost done having its new hardwood flooring installed. From there i will be setting up a 90g seaclear tank in the room. I have posted a few posts months ago detailing my plans for a 90g SAP tank.

Reguardless, i stopped by the fish store closest to me (i usually dont shop there for a variety of reasons). Anyways, they had 4 tiny south american puffers there, all less than an inch long, who had great coloration and spunk, no nipped fins and outside of looking alittle hungry, i'd say in pretty good condition. Unfortunately they were cramped into a 10g with about 25-40 albino algae eaters(chinese or SAE, but the eaters were grazing on the corpes of one of their own). I folded and decided to get these ahead of time.

Right now i have them in a 15g(24"x12"12") barebottom qt tank with a aquaclear 150 on it and a heater. I dont forsee having the 90g up and running for another month or so. What do have is a 40g that is empty at the moment. Do you think i should fill that and put an aquaclear 300 on it and leave it bare bottom until the 90g is online or just make due with the 15g. Its just that I really dont have anywhere to setup the 40g breeder at the moment, which is probably the better option.

On the bright side, they all dined on a feast of pond snails tonight and have nice , slightly rouned stomachs. Which reminds me i need to get a few more 10g's for snail breeding, i think they'll eat through the 10g and 2.5 i currently have.

Nick · Post by **Nick** » Thu Apr 05, 2007 5:15 pm

A month in the 15 would be like a long stay in the fish store, I doubt it would stunt them, but they would be much more active and happy in the 40. How did you cycle the 15?

saynever · Post by **saynever** » Thu Apr 05, 2007 11:19 pm

Well, what i did was get them home and float them the bag in my 10g dp tank and then started adding my tank water slowly to their bag. From there i proceeded to add 5 gallons of tap water @ roughly 76-78 degrees (PRIME added ofcourse) to the 15g. From there I siphoned 5g from the DP tank and added that as well. Finally, i added 5g from my 10g snail breeder. I also transfered the aquaclear 150 from the snail breeder(after rinsing one of the sponges in tank water cause it hadn't been done in a few weeks and added a a carbon bag(so the aquaclear has 2 sponges that were pre-seeded and a new carbon bag). I did a water change today despite having no ammonia or nitrite readings. I suppose the over feeding from the snail tank has left those pre-seeded sponges high in bacteria. I'll continue with the daily water changes(5g's) for another week or so but i feel pretty confident as i am now almost a year into the hobby and have only lost a few ottos(DP attacked a few randomly after about 4 months).

Nick · Post by **Nick** » Fri Apr 06, 2007 1:34 pm

I'd probably stay with the 15, since it's getting solid water quality readings, and it's just a month. Good luck with those little guys

saynever · Post by **saynever** » Mon Apr 16, 2007 3:59 pm

Its a sad day here for me.

The 4 saps i bought were doing wonderful. Still in the 15g, still plenty of waterchanges. I fed them well last night as they only had a few snails to pick from the previous 3 days. All were happy and healthy last night and this morning and up until about an hour or so ago, i'm not sure.

Since my last post, i ordered a few things including an aquaclear 70(300gph top speed, 100gph bottom). I planned on using it as the filter on the spare 90g tank i have which would become a rcs breeder tank or snail breeder(has yet to be decided. But until then i was going to seed it and possibly use it if i bumped the saps from their 15g qt tank to the 40g breeder since school has been getting crazy. I've had the aquaclear 70 along with the old aquaclear 150 on the tank since um, last week. The AC70 has been on the lowest setting the whole time. Well today i got back from the home depot with my dad to find one of them stuck half way in the filter intake not moving and another limping around the tank, it is been squished in two places making the head, middle and tail seem to bubble outwards. I don't know if the guy is going to make it.

I am now considering another direction for the 90g display and may just keep the 2, possible 3, remaining in the 40g permanently.

Nick · Post by **Nick** » Mon Apr 16, 2007 4:08 pm

Thats terrible to hear, the downspouts on aquaclears get very narrow and I did have one of my dps briefly stuck to the aquaclear 30 in their tank, luckily he was unharmed as I saw it occur(he went right up to the thing, curious about the sucking feel, and got snapped onto it.) A plastic bottle with a neck that can be fitted to the aquaclar with lots of small holes punched in it serves as a very good puffer baffle, without stopping the filter from capturing particles the way a sponge on the intake does.

saynever · Post by **saynever** » Mon Apr 16, 2007 10:02 pm

i raised the intake tube up off of the impeller plate and the AC70 is now at trickle speed, i really just wanted it to seed with bacteria.

Boo.

More bad news was i went to order filters for the 90g display and not only were the eheim 2217's out of stock at drsfostersmith but the 101.99 sale they were having is now over and they are back at ~127.99 a peice.

Gonna go with rena xp3's as i can get two of them from petsmart for $150 bucks shipped (plus tax). Whatever quality issues i thought i had with them before are now gone at that price. shoot.

manutius · Post by **manutius** » Tue Apr 17, 2007 3:24 am

Another intake issue, this is terrible. I really hope that they pull through

saynever · Post by **saynever** » Wed Apr 18, 2007 8:17 am

Update: i came home from class yesterday and the sap who had gotten stuck but got out was lifeless, with most of its tail missing. I am down to 2 saps from 4. I am definetly considering just keeping them in the smaller 40g tank now thats its just the 2 of them. I might see if i can find a 3rd so there isn't a dominacy issue between the remaining 2.

I don't even want to gynx that setup as i still think one of the 2 remaining saps has internal parasites...i've been trying to get them to eat food soaked in the jungle internal parasite guard crystals...it has the same active ingredients as their fizz tabs....but in a powder/crystal form.

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/Product/P ... 004+113017

bleys7 · Post by **bleys7** » Wed Apr 18, 2007 9:49 am

goodluck man. Don't get discouraged! The intake issue can be preventable. It'll all pay off after you get over this hump. =)

Nick · Post by **Nick** » Wed Apr 18, 2007 2:45 pm

For the parasites you might try flubenol-15, it will work effectively just added to the water, unlike the tank buddies or other common add to the water meds. This has the added benefit of also killing any parasites thay may have passed and be elsewhere in the tank, waiting to recontaminate your fish. The 40 would be fine for up to 3 of them, but I doubt you will have dominance issues, as these are a schooling fish in nature and social. However, they definately do better in larger groups because of those same factors, so the more you get together in the larger a tank, the happier they will be.

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My temporary SAP tank situation

My temporary SAP tank situation