New Aquarium

I have it currently at a 45º angle on the back wall of the tank, with about four inches of water above the high end (thermostat end), so is that the wrong position then? I am aiming to have the filter running tomorrow which will get the flow going.

If I do eventually get an external filter, should I have it draw water from the same side of the tank as the built in one, and then also return the water to the opposite side in the same place that the built in one does? My thinking is that if I have the two working in opposite directions that I would either get poor circulation or a very turbulent one?

I have a couple of el-cheapo digital probe thermometers (surprisingly accurate for their cost) which we used for home brewing; somewhat ironically, they are actually fish tank ones, as they have a picture of a wee fish on them - so, after a good wash, one of them has bene moved to fish duty.

 

I've just looked at that external filter I was looking at earlier has a spray bar, so that is better for water agitation at least; hopefully it will aid flow when in conjunction wth the other pump? Pretty sure it will be one of the first additions.

 

@Freddy - please don't apologise, or feel that you are butting in, the more advice and input I can get, the better!

I was aware of the nitrogen cycle, mostly as we have wanted a tank for nearly 20 years. We came very close to doing it twice in the past (in fact, I have just opened one of our old books and a brochure fell out for new tanks, and this was from around 10 years ago, so obviously the last time we had the book out), so we have done a lot of reading and trying to learn stuff before actually taking the plunge and getting a tank.

Something has always come up in the past (unsuitable floors, moving house, money...) and in all honesty we would not be doing it this time if it were not for someone else's misfortune and generosity - it transpired they were hoping that we would be the ones in the family to say yes to re-homing this tank, given the year we have had so far - if they had more time available to them before they had to move, they could have sold this setup very easily indeed. We've put a lot of work into it so far (scrubbing, cleaning etc) and I will be faffing about with lights later on today to get them working. Mother in law wants to take us out tomorrow to a different aquarium shop to have a look (we couldn't come home with any fish even if we wanted to, as the tank is not yet cycled) so it looks like she is also interested in the hobby. I won't complain - I have loved visiting aquarium shops since I was a kid.

Anyway, I am rambling again... One of the few things I have bought is a bottle of the good bacteria/filter start in sufficient quantity to treat our tank according to the instructions. Is this something I should keep 'in stock', to top up if I have to change filter media or anything?

I also have two types of test kits - one is for KH, GH, NO2, NO3 and pH and the other is for Ammonia so once I get things going I will be able to test the water.

One question @Freddy @ricky101 - should I be adding a few flakes of food to the tank to let them decay to provide something for the bacteria to get going on?

 

It is Maidenhead Aquatics own brand one - I will read the instructions again, but I don't think it said to add more after the initial three days.

We were speaking to our next door neighbours yesterday - sadly to say goodbye, as they are moving to the coast to retire, and he had spotted the tank being carried in the other day; turns out he had three tanks until a few months ago when they decided to sell and move, and his only real advice was about black algae - apparently the water around here makes it almost a cert that at some point we will get black algae, and he suggested getting a couple of silver flying fox fish to counteract it. Advice from the fish shop was to consider plecs, with the number to be determined on the type of plec chosen, and maybe even shrimp (which Mrs C really likes the idea of). Obviously all of these are a good few weeks/months down the line as the tank gets settled.

As we are being taken out to a fish shop tomorrow for a browse, I will ask there about phosphate remover.

 

Between the tank and the composters, it is looking like I can avoid going upstairs to the loo occasionally then

I have just re-read the label, and the stuff I have is called BioBoost - again, the shop's own brand - it says it is beneficial bacteria to treat ammonia and nitrates; it also states that it should be added weekly, which is not going to happen to be honest - occasoinally, yes, weekly..... no chance, as I simply couldn't afford to do so at the rates they are suggesting. I thought that the bacteria in the filter would naturally grow and colonise the filter noodles and spongey stuff?

 

Well, I have had a bloomin' nightmare with this tank today - plants have arrived, all really healthy and now planted - I would take a picture, but I still don't have working lights, and that leads me on to my other problem!

I quickly discovered that I couldn't (safely) repair the light connector so I am going to have to replace it - not an issue, got one ordered on ebay and it was only a few quid, BUT it is not going to get here until Monday. Now that I have plants in the tank, I took a paranoid fit about filtration, so a quick phone call drew the assistance of going to pick up that external filter for me - he managed to get there and to me fairly quickly, and also decided to get an air pump, some tubing, check valves and a couple of bubble discs, and I pay him back for the lot once I am back at work and on my feet - happy days! So, air pump and bubble discs went in first as they were the easiest, and then we moved on to the external pump - - what a disaster of a job that turned out to be!

Getting the assembled pipework tubes for the in and out lines into the tank was a bit of a wriggle, but not too terrible - then it was a bit of a pain getting them in through the wee hole in the back of the cabinet; next, we realised that the plug would not fit through the hole in the cabinet, even if we did take the hoses back out, so we had to hack the plug off it, feed the wire through the hole, and then fit a new plug (thankfully, I had some in my toolbox).

The next move was to prime the filter, which took Mrs C ages using the primer on the top of the filter, then once the incoming pipe was full of water (as per instructions), we switched on - - a couple of minutes later, just after the outgoing part of the filter pump switched on, a bubble developed on the incoming side and in short the water simply wasn't coming out of the tank at more than a dribble.

So, I have arrived at the conclusion that the problem is because the hoses go down the back of the tank, the cabinet, and then in through the wee hole near the bottom of the cabinet before rising back up to get to the top of the filter - thus knackering the natural syphon effect. So, we have no choice but to cut a hole nearer the top of the back of the cabinet so the hoses are not going down to come back up. As it was 8pm at this point, we decided enough was enough for today (we could have cut a hole, as we have an empty house next door at the moment, but we were tired and hungry), so we decided just to let the bubble discs do thier bit, and we have the powerhead pump running with a bit of flexi-tubing that would connect it to the lid filter just running back into the top of the tank as we don't want to wet the filter until we have the lights fixed - my thinking is that we at least have circulation and gas exchange for the sake of the plants, even if we don't have any actual filtration just yet.

We then went to put the hood on to stop anything unwanted getting into the tank, and the internal filter tray fouls on the pipes for the external filter, pushing the back of the hood up by about 5-7mm, which in turn flips the back filter cover open

So, I gave up at this point before I lost the rag with it, and had dinner. Eye test tomorrow, plus this arranged visit to the aquarium shop after that, so it will be the afternoon before we can cut a hole higher up in the cabinet and then we will have to see what we can do to get the hoses in without fouling the internal filter (I suspect it will be a case of taking the hard pipes inside the tank and then running the green hoses out through the holes as they are a bit more compressible to allow the internal filter tray to sit in its rightful place.

All this, and not a single fish!