Zikofski's Ada 60H (45) Iwagumi Tank Journal

[Mamashack]

If it's worth doing, it's worth doing well!
Hope they have recovered from the thunder-clap moment! lol
Hopefully you'll post more pics when they're settled?

 

[Zikofski]

yea i sure will, hard to see them with my water looking like pea soup il even get a in tank video once it clears with the UV unit, and i hope they have recovered from that moment haha poor fellas almost jumped out of the tub 

 

[Mamashack]

They might actually be enjoying the pea-soup algae as fodder since they are so small. I doubt they'd be able to clear it for you tho! lol

 

[Zikofski]

sad sad news today i lost 2 of my cherry's not sure why they looked completely normal and not even discolours so must have only just happened i wonder if its because a lack of food, i don't really see any of them eating the food i put in my blue fantasy are so hard to find two days ago i thought i had lost them all but today i have noticed 2 fully blue ones and i noticed yesterday the one with the white stipe on his back i also noticed one of my red ones has white stripe across his back too is this a coincidence or a genetic to these type of shrimp to have these markings? i also found a shrimp within my filter intake, i suspect he was on a piece of cuba that was stuck on the intake and just got stuck, it had a red tail but middle body was blue was large so i am guessing was a red not a blue one as my blue ones are small enough to into the filter lucky no filter dramas yet.
 
my cuba is continuing to grow rapidly now it has really bed in there was a large piece floating on Sunday so i removed it and cut it into smaller pieces and re planted around the tank to help it spread quicker i shall get a picture soon as my UV unit arrives and the algae clears up, i did however receive my pipe cutter today so i can start making this overflow and the pump should arrive within the next few days for this veggie filter that I'm trying to do, not sure if i will need it by the time all the parts get here but i guess it will help non the less.
 
more updates to come and pictures to follow soon thank you 

 

[Mamashack]

I'm beginning to think those white stripes are in the gut. They certainly are in mine.
I've heard someone say that shrimp want to survive so they will eat. If they aren't eating what you give them they must be getting enough biofilm or algae. I had this problem and was advised not to attempt to feed them more frequently than every 2 weeks. Have to say they do go mad for the snowflake when I put it in. Did you ever manage to get any?

 

[Zikofski]

hmm posible my tank is riddled with GDA and the green water so they could be eating that i guess, the tank is well established now so the bio film you speak off to must be there, and no i have not had the chance to get the snowflake food yet, i wanted to sort the algae out first.
 
which by magic today my UV Steriliser came and i have installed so here are the pictures of the unit, the equipment setup for this tank and a before shot of the algae, il shall see how the day goes and see if the algae reduces i also bought clear tubing and that arrived last week so now no more green tube
 

 

 

 

 
this is the before picture

 

[Dandyman3]

Wow that picture really shows how green it has got doesn't it! Hope it gets sorted for you. 

 

[Zikofski]

Thnx, but today it's a sad day, I turned lights on to check on the algae state most algae has gone and did look very cloudy more white than green which is what I was expecting BUT I found 2 dead cherry shrimp so I proceeded with my WC 90% to remove water and cloudy was, changed the floss in my filter and cleaned my filter generally and found another shrimp within my filter this 1 was tiny so may have been a blue one I then decided after I took all the water out to do a test ammonia nitrite and nitrate and I was shocked 0.5 ammonia. 1ppm nitrite and 20-40 ppm nitrate, omg my filter has become useless il fill water back up and test after a few hours again just incase this is caused my dead shrimp and dead algae, and hopefully I don't haft to seek some mature media from my other tank here is the test results



This is the first picture taken with my new iPhone 6 plus so hopefully better quality than my old phone pics, also good news I saw 3 fantasy blues so I have at lease got 3 left

 

[Zikofski]

okay just a little update, so far no dramas. tank looking very clear, and ammonia is i think 0.25 and nitrite 0 with a nitrate around 10ppm these results are a few hours after the WC, i shall check in the morning again and do a large WC if need be but as promised a picture of the clear tank on my new phone
 

 

[Mamashack]

So sorry for your loss Zik! It's so disheartening.
Difficult to tell with the angle that the test was at compared to the colour card, but that nitrate looked to be over 40 ppm. What's the nitrate in your replacement water? A 90% water change should have reduced 20 ppm by more than half unless you've high nitrates in your tap water.
EDIT: Have you got any Prime? It's supposed to help reduce the effects of ammonia and nitrites

 

[Zikofski]

nope i have 0ppm nitrate in my tap water, sorry the 10ppm was a guess but it was the first colour on the chart above 0, which is 5ppm, so 5ppm nitrate not 10, thnx for pointing that out yea 90%wc would reduce it by a lot. i just hope the nitrite and ammonia can stay at 0 or close to 0 over night, i received my pump today to i shall get the veggie filter setup over the next week that will reduce my nitrate hopefully

 

[Mamashack]

I don't know if algae blooms are the same as bacterial blooms, but I guess they could be - in that they can increase the ammonia level and reduce the oxygen. Can you increase the aeration of the tank just in case?

 

[Zikofski]

Infact opposite, an algae bloom will photosynthesis so will make oxygen, but no i did a large wc so no need for airation at the moment.

Because the algae was dyeing off that is like decaying plants or fish so that would have created some of the ammoni and nitrite I'm hoping I removed most of it and enough for my filter to cope with now the next big test is in the morning I'm getting up at 5am for the f1 so il test then and fingers crossed they are at 0 I am hoping also the remaining green water algae will die off even more from the uv and won't come back so my fingers are crossed for no more problems

 

[Mamashack]

Ah I didn't realise that about algae blooms.
Hope today's tests will be good!

 

[Zikofski]

No problem it's so easy to mix up an algae bloom and a bacteria bloom but sadly results where bad and another dead shrimp one other shrimp looks in bad health to I think I may loose some more, so I did another 90+ WC took the water so low the fish started jumping, stressing them out but in the wild they loose water during s dry season so I am not worried to much, fresh water they seem very happy once filled and I gsme them a treat with some frozen food, I can confirm I have 3 fantasy blues I'm sure I have lost at least 1 maybe 2 but the second may be an expert at hiding, the Cuba is doing amazing looked a little pale after the black out but survived and is spreading rapidly I am just waiting on a part for my GoPro camera and once that arrives il do a video from inside the tank.

I am very surprised I have not lost any rasboras to the high nitrite seem perfectly fine like normal but the shrimp seem to be suffering the most poor things, tomorrow I will go out and buy some foam to cover the filter inlet as a few shrimp have made there way into it I rather not take the risk maybe once the shrimp are bigger and I can get away with it.

Another thing that UV steriliser OMG words can not describe how clear the tank looks, with the low iron glass the tsnk looks like there is no water in it seriously it looks amazing I would highly recommend getting one for any tank not to scprnsivr pretty big unit but so worth it and if u calculate it correctly will provide level 1 steralization and remove bad things from the water colum ie bacteria and viruses.

Il post a picture tomorrow as an update