New to the forums, need help with my tank!

[jmiller]

I havent seen GSP's at any of my LFS!

Mine has only had them once. I asked and they said they would be happy to order me one but they don't carry them due to only being able to house so few per tank without them ripping each other up. The girl that runs the fish department (small chain store) of my LFS has been getting a little more daring in some of the things she's been bringing in so I never know what to expect when I go in. The last time I stopped in for a Python faucet adapter I was there almost two hours.

[melbell86]

i LOVE browsing my LFS. Sometimes i end up in there longer than my parking meter allowed for I saw a fahaka puffer there once, full grown. I used to see DP's at my local petsmart, that is where i got them before, but i havent seen them there in a long time.

[Pufferpunk]

would micro-lift special blend work in a freshwater aquarium to boost cycling?

Just dead bacteria in a bottle. Like adding extra fish waste to your tank.

[Brandon8521]

One thing i have done since my last tank crash is have half a sponge extra in my filters (and since i take care of my aunts tanks, hers aswell) so that if a new tank comes in or one crashes you always have spare bacteria. If you dont use AC then you could allways just hide a peice of sponge somewhere in the tank outasite that gets good current.

[melbell86]

thanks B! Yeah i was thinking since i have half a sponge on both tanks now, i would purchase a new sponge and add half to each, so that when i finally do get it set up i will have extra. I have the seed sponge in my filter in the 28gal behind the large filter panel.

[melbell86]

UPDATE: its been 48 hours since i added the tetra safestart to the tank. I just did a 50% water change, and added 1 tsp prazipro to my tank (possible camellanus worms) just to be sure he is treated for any possible parasites he may have had from his previous walmart home. He appears to have a white bulb out of his rectum with a creamish/orange tinted string. It has been there since last night so i treated the tank. I also just purchased an aquaclear 30 filter, so i am running duel filters on my tank. I took the ceramic pellet bag from my old tank and put it in the new filter on my new tank to boost the bacteria start, and the new filter has half a bacteria sponge and half of the clean new sponge (as well as my other tank). Before i did the water change, the ammonia and nitrates were around .25(the coloration of the tube was more like .25 than 0) so i will check the water parameters tomorrow to see if i need to another water change tomorrow. If not, i will do another water change on tuesday. George seems his happy self, swimming around crazily and eating till his belly is full, so im happy

[melbell86]

so the whiteness i was seeing earlier was the tail end of his poop. He just pooped again, and i watched it this time. Its kinda white and stringy. His poops before were brown. When i read about this, i see that it is a sign of an internal parasite. Will the dosage of prazipro that i added to the water earlier take care of this? should i not do a water change for a few days? My filters are still running, but i didnt put the carbon bag in with my AQ30

[melbell86]

Update: I took my water in today to my local FS. Its been 2 days since i did a water change, and i have been testing the water and its been good. Here are the readings
9/23/2010
nh3/nh4 = .5
no2 = 0
n03 = 0
pH = 7.6
kh= 5°

he said my ammonia was a little bit high. So i came home and did another 50% WC. How will i know when my tank is completely cycled and i can do 50% WC once a week instead of every day?
Here is an updated pic of my tank. I ended up spending a lot more money, because everytime i would go to the LFS i would see something cool that i wanted to add. I got a bubbler and i got an additional AQ30 filter running on my tank, so i have the AQUEON filter it game with as well as the aquaclear 30. The aquaclear 30 has half of my sponge from my 10 gallon established FW tank and the ceramic beads as well.
Here are some pics from today. My tank is a little cloudy because i added some decorations and it kicked up some of the sand.






Is there too much decorations in my tank? I added more plants because george seemed to be bored, just going up and down the corner of the tank.

[jmiller]

On the water changes you are looking at a few weeks at least. On the next LFS trip get your own liquid test kit. I have an API Master kit. It should run about $25. Adding the media from the other tank will speed things up a bit.

[melbell86]

i got the ammonia and nitrite test kit last time i was there, but i just wanted to double check the other things Also, its 79° in my tank right now. Should it be a bit higher?

[jmiller]

79 is fine. I keep all mine between 78 - 80. Maybe next trip go ahead and get the nitrAte one. You'll be needing it soon.

[Flutter]

Your tank looks great! Nice and busy. Your temperature is fine as well.

[melbell86]

thank you flutter I have a bad habit of being very particular about things, so i moved stuff around a lot before i settled. I finally feel happy with the outcome!

[trekenk]

he said my ammonia was a little bit high. So i came home and did another 50% WC. How will i know when my tank is completely cycled and i can do 50% WC once a week instead of every day?.

You will know your tanks is cycled when the readings are ammonia -0, nitrite - 0, nitrate 5 - 20.
BTW the tank looks great.

[melbell86]

thanks trek I will have to get a kit to test the nitrate as well. Im going to keep doing 50% wc every other day for the next week.