Breeder Tank Journal

gwand

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Entry #1

I do not have a breeding tank, but I have several species of fish I would like to breed. I only have 30 inches of wall space left in my fish room. Given this limitation, I cannot go with a 40 gallon breeder. I decided to purchase a 29 gallon, 30 inch long tank. I am thinking that the 29 gallon tank with 18 inches of height will provide more flexibility than a 20 gallon long if I ever want to convert the breeder tank into a species only or community tank. Black Friday has provided the opportunity for me to purchase the tank and several of the accessories at a significant discount. I am hoping I can have a cycled tank up and running by mid January.
 
Entry #2
I purchased an Aqueon 29 gallon tank on sale for $49 today. I will pick the tank up tomorrow. I ordered an aquarium stand, Aquaclear 30 filter box, 25 lbs of black sand and a fluval digital heater from Amazon. The equipment will arrive next week.
 
Entry #3
I set the tank up today. I added a sponge filter from a cycled tank to aid the Aqua Clear 30 HOB filter. Tetra Safe Start bacteria added too along with ammonia. Cycling has begun. Now I can contemplate what fish I will try to breed first. I am leaning toward my Apistogramma cacatuoides. They are so neat looking and acting. They are spawning in my South American tank but fry survival is low due to predation. I have a pair of beautiful gold high fin Molly that I will breed and sell the juveniles to my lfs. I will try to breed the anomalochromis thomasi but I would have to add softer water to the tank. Before my water goes through a conditioner it has a pH of 5.5 and a GH of 50 ppm. I can siphon off water before it goes through the conditioner.
 
Before my water goes through a conditioner it has a pH of 5.5 and a GH of 50 ppm. I can siphon off water before it goes through the conditioner.
Wow that's hard water! And acid. We have neutral (lake) water here with just 4 GH and 3KH. A bit low perhaps.
 
50 ppm (mg/l calcium carbonate) is actually very soft. It converts to 2.8 dH (German degrees). That's the trouble with using different units for the same parameter, and different names for the same units :)
 
50 ppm (mg/l calcium carbonate) is actually very soft. It converts to 2.8 dH (German degrees). That's the trouble with using different units for the same parameter, and different names for the same units :)
Ahh! I see! That makes sense. I didn't notice the ppm, indeed it's soft.
And it didn't make sense to me to have such low pH with such "high" GH anyway. :D
Thank you!
 
Entry #4
Added ammonia to the tank a few days ago achieving a level of ~1 ppm. Tonight ammonia is not detectable according to my API liquid test and also a test strip. So I added more ammonia to the tank. In a few hours I will get a baseline level and then test again in about 48 hours. I’m getting close to adding my first breeding pair. It will probably be a. cacatuoides. I love these guys and gals.
 

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