Oliver's New Tank

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For those of you following the Oliver saga...

Oliver's Replacement Tank survived the first night last night with a half-tank of tap water. Last night I cleaned and assembled the new stand, reattached leveling shims and fine-tuned the leveling. Then I cut a sheet of black 6mil poly to go between the tank and stand - this turned out to work easily by using the glass tank lid as a template to assist guiding the box cutter for the shape of the bowfront curve. If I'm lucky, this will add a bit of moisture protection for the new stand.

Without really thinking I then began dribbling the first bucket of old gravel into the clean tank, but only until I smelled the stink! The gravel had been sitting in 3 buckets, untouched, since the previous tank broke a few days ago.

Suddenly I realized what had happened. Even though gravel had only been in the tank a very few days, it had gained bacteria and a small amount of dead plant material. The bacteria had obviously died and all this was enough to generate that familiar fish tank gravel stink! As far as I could tell, it was almost as strong as from a mature tank - kind of a surprise.

So, out came the gravel, to be rinsed and out went the tank to the back yard to be rinsed, sigh. Then in went the tank to be dried, then in went the gravel. At some point I was breaking a sweat and wishing Oliver didn't have so much homework!

Finally, by his bedtime, we had a new stand, a new tank, clean gravel and a half tank of fresh tap water and even a light and to our eyes it was a beautiful sight. Disappointingly, this one doesn't have a mirror as the back wall because they didn't have any of those and I didn't want to persue or wait for that, but Oliver's wall is blue and it made the water a bit blue, which looked nice for tonight.

The poor bacteria had to spend yet another night out in the cold shed, poor babies! I lost a bit more sleep thinking of all the electricity that Hydor was sucking to keep the bucket warm, but whenever I check, the thermometer is right on 84F! The tests last night showed my bacteria are still dropping ammonia and nitrite to zero and I'll feed them more ammonia this morning. Naturally, mother nature decided to send us a cold snap just for these days! The plants, though, seem to be loving their bucket and keep growing up out of it toward my 24hour workbench light - maybe they'd rather stay out there!

Glad to be able to start a "Happy" thread for all my wonderful TFF friends - couldn't have made it this far without you!

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[backtotropical]

I'm glad everything is looking up, WD. About time for some pics, me thinks?

 

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Now which button was it that actually takes the pic? ...Don't hold your breath.
Hey, want to see my bacteria?

OK, here's a serious question. What do you scientists think are the primary components of that gravel stink? (hint: don't forget this tank has never had fish and the gravel was in for only a week at most.)

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[Miss Wiggle]

my thoughts exactly BTT!!

 

[backtotropical]

Sounds like almost definitely decaying plant matter, i reckon.

What else was in the tank? Anything?

 

[waterdrop]

Nope, tank was bare throughout fishless cycling but then had had gravel (half Flourite, half gravel) for one week (IIR) and the -just that morning- I had planted less than 10 plants/plant-bunches and they had been in the tank only hours prior to the bottom plate cracking.

Of couse, what I'm saying is that then the gravel came out and sat in 3 buckets, still wet with tank water for 3 or 4 days while all the tank/stand shenanigans ensued, so not particularly surprised that the gravel would stink, just another one of the curiosity questions.

There were bit of plant roots and leaves floating around, not much but sort of typical after a planting day. So I guess the curiosity question comes down to whether that dead plant matter or the dead bacteria or something else would be the predominant contributor to that gravel smell.

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[waterdrop]

Humbled! Once again, humbled! Its one thing to remember all your tanks from when you were young, and I have lots of good memories. Its another nice thing to get into all the details of fishless cycling.

But BOY, I sure had forgotten how much work it can be to tear down and build back up tanks!! I'm exhausted, but Oliver's replacement system is now back up and running and we are right back where we were when it broke, namely in the final week of qualifiying the filter, proving that it is fully cycled.

Of course, we have a great concern over whether the bio-filter has survived this whole crisis, including the cold nights in the shed, but very soon we will have the answer. 92% of the water is new and the ammonia has been topped back up - in a half hour or so I will verify the ammonia level.

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[rabbut]

I recon anairobic bacteria and a nitrate source from a trace of the tank water it was sat iare the caurse for your fould smell These bacteria only need a small ammount of nitrate to go to work on, and they break is down into nitrogen gas and other components, one of which is Hydrogen Sulfide, the foul rotton-egg type smell associated with old gravel, stagnent tanks and sand if stired for the first time in ages

Good look in ensureing that the filters still are cycled, I hope nothing happened to them in the short time they were out of a tank

All the best
Rabbut

 

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Thx Rabbut! Hydrogen Sulfide sure sounds like the smell! You get the science prize for tonight.

Well friends, Oliver's tank looks beautiful, clear and alive with bubbles and water motion tonight! The plants don't look particularly happy from their bucket experience but they at least look like some may make it. So....

Fishless Cycling Day 72 :

Outdoors, Sunshine, 72F, light breeze, flowers everywhere you look, cat lounging on patio.
Tank: (hey! several hours and no leak, Yea!) (old fishtank in fishtank heaven in petsmart back room)
8% aged bucket water (Amm=0,NO2=0), 92% new tap water, dechlored & rough temp matched.
Tank tests: 84F, KH=4, pH=7.5, Amm=0ppm, NO2=0ppm, NO3=1.0ppm, Clarity=Very Clear
Add: Ammonia added to 4ppm at 8:30pm
(additional bad stuff, lol, 1 teaspoon baking soda, 1/2 capful Seachem Flourish)

Good Night! [just had to give you UKers something else to click on over coffee, while I'm getting some much needed sleep]
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[tim1]

Woah, I just read your threads and it looks like you've gone though a lot. I don't know if I would've been able to handle it.

 

[ThatGuy]

Wow this is great. TRIUMPH!! Amazing.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

phew, looks like the bacteria have made it. fairly resilient once the colony is established.

are you getting fishies this weekend then?

 

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phew, looks like the bacteria have made it. fairly resilient once the colony is established.

are you getting fishies this weekend then?

Wow, now you sound like Oliver himself!

OK now, MW, kids are an area where I have some empirical experience. Once you understand fishless cycling, you realize that when St. Nick brings a tank one holiday, you have to get all excited and explain that he did that so you can ask him for fishies on the next holiday.

That way, the argument can proceed to "Oh, can't we get them before summer holiday?, Please?" Well, son, "Fish are fine creatures to look at, but, Hey!, come over here and peer into this Zeiss microscope. Now that is one amazing thing to behold, he's called a Nitrospira Gracilis. Look at those handsome mitochondria. Look at those Golgi bodies!"

OK, back to reality.. Yes, I admit we are trying to get fish before summer holidays. Does Ian still have those angels seen in the old thread you posted the other night? Was a red, an albino, some others and a large black? I'm perplexed at coming back to "tropical earth" after 30 years and finding -zero- pictures of angles with the markings I remember from back then. Did all the vertical black stripes just blend out because of breeding in captivity. Maybe we're going to have to find Tolak...

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[Miss Wiggle]

lol, i get a bit kid at christmas about new fishies..... i don't have th epatience of a saint i'm afraid.

no not got those angels anymore, re-jigged our tanks considerably since then.

but yes you do still see angels with the natural markings (silver with black bands) they are infinitley my favourites now, however the fancy coloured varieties will always be popular so you tend to see more of them in the shops than the natural colouring.

if i ever get angels again (which i hope to at some point) then it will be just the natural ones.

well i say natural, actually there's 3 species of angels, p scalare, p altum and another i always forget the name of. what we generally see in the shops is 90% scalare and a bit of something else. so i think you rarely see 'true natural angels' anymore.

 

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I'm sure my memories are of Scalares and I'm excited to hear you say there are still traditional ones of silver with bold black stripes to be had - I will now have to somehow start the search as I've seen -none- in the several LFS or even online site pictures.

That said... I might be thrown back to my old indecision from way back then about whether Black Veiltails would be more fun than silver/black stripe ones. This was always my dilemma, and our tank is obviously only big enough for max of two I think at 28G, given we will want tetra schools etc. Of course I have to admit that even back then, black veils in good condition were considered rare and valuable and everybody coveted them.

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