Lana Bollers

Okay we just spent the weekend at the lake and I noticed lots of freshwater shrimp there, so I told the kids to scoop up a bunch seeing as I am having problems with my tank I thought they would be good to feed them? I did not want to feed them without asking first... Lana

I am with you....come on lottery!!! Lana

Wont the convicts eat my betta? Lana

Do you think the fish can sleep in there, or do you think they would worry about being taken out by rotating corral... :smokey: I love the tank though it is stunning, and would make a great center piece... the price... I don't like that so much.... Lana

Thank you for the idea's, my daughters splended betta seems to be a more agressive eater then my son's crown tail. I like her betta he is so cool, and he doesn't seem to have an anger managment problem like the crown tail, he seems to get huffy at his own shadow... I need to buy him a bigger tank too so he can be more enjoyed, but right now I don't have room until I move the one tank to my daughters room, but I have to wait until this other tank is done it's cycle. Then the fish will all get new homes and will be much more happy! Cynthia has stated she would like my congo tetra's and black skirt, however if that falls through Aquarium illusions also said they would take them, so they will go back to the store and hopefully someone with a much larger tank can purchase them. Lana

Cloudy, greenish water sounds like an algae bloom. I know what you're thinking: "Oh great! Another problem to deal with!!!" Don't worry about it for now. The high levels of ammonia are feeding the algae and it should hopefully straighten itself out once the tank cycles properly. Hang in there... OH for Bloom sakes!!! I am starting to hate blooms...haha I went to one store and I couldn't find the sponge filters, so on Monday when I get back home or tonight I will try wal-mart to see if they have any good sponge filters, not sure if they do. For those in the Edmonton area where did you purchase your sponge filters? I would for sure like two one for each of my smaller tanks. I wish the people at the pet store's would tell you, you should have two filters minimum on any tank. That sure would save a lot of heart ache. When I purchased my corner tank, I specifically asked will I need anything else... he said no... well what the shoot I have since purchased another filter, but if he would of said something I could of had it purchased when I purchased the darn tank! My big corner tank is starting to clear, ammonia is still high, but I am working on it, and the only fish that seems bothered is my electric yellow, he seems like his skin/scales bother him, as he rubs on the sand, so I am guessing he is a bit burnt. So here is hoping everything moves quickly and my levels drop to 0, now let me dream, I want the levels to 0 by the time I get home from work... do you think if I wish hard enough it will happen... sigh.... Lana

OH shoot I better add more water, I just put it in a cup...eeek... good thing you posted!!! I have good ammonia growth sitting at about 5-6ppm, so I will add it tomorrow when I add my dose of ammonia. hopefully it will do it's thing... Lana

How long should I let it sit for? I think it has been sitting for about a half hour now.... Lana

2. Cycling using ammonia: 1. Introduce pure ammonia to cycle the aquarium. You can buy unscented ammonia with no additives from a supermarket or a bottle of ammonium chloride. 2. Add ammonia from a dropper, 3 - 5 drops per 10 gallons of water per day to get and maintain a reading of 5 ppm. 3. Initially there will be no nitrites. Monitor nitrites daily and continue the daily ammonia dose until you get a nitrite reading. At this point you can reduce the daily amount of ammonia to 2 - 3 drops per 10 gallons. Continue this until both the ammonia test and the nitrite test reads 0 ppm. 4. This method can take as little as three weeks or up to six weeks to complete the nitrification cycle, but adding a starter culture as described above can speed the time up considerably. 5. When the cycle is complete reduce the temperature slowly back to 74° to 80° F(26° - 28° C). Reducing it quickly can stress the bacteria. 6. Do a major water change, about 90%, and add activated carbon to remove any possible additives which might have been in the ammonia. This is the method I am starting however it is unclear when to add the septo bac. Currently nitrite is at 0ppm so I am guessing I have to wait until the nitrites reg. onto the test kit, then add the septo bac, once everything is back to 0ppm then I complete a 90% water change and add activated carbon to the filtration system... does this sound correct? Lana

I think I will put him in my daughters room, when we went to aquarium illusions the shrimp they had were salt water. Can those same shrimp be kept in fresh water? What can be housed with the betta safely? Any suggestions? I am getting rid of my tetra's. I will however keep the neon and the bandit tetra (I think that is what he is called) they are smaller and I think will be fine with the guppies at least. Lana

Congrats on your soon to be bigger family. Sorry they are giving the others hellp to pay, but look on the bright side at least their gestation is not like an elephant... :smokey: There is a bright side to everything :smokey: Lana

OKay I also read on the previous fishless cycling that someone used the septo bac, from wal-mart. I did buy some and now it is sitting in my window sil so hopefully it is growing a bunch of bacteria... I will have to read it again... because I screwed up and completely cleaned out my filter in the one tank and my other tank is blooming I don't have a good tank filter to use... so I am trying to do it right with this third tank... third time is a charm so they say...haha Lana

Ooops word error, I mean stability not strategy....ummm... silly me. Lana

Okay as you all know I had a bit of a burp with my tanks, so now I have a new tank set up - NO FISH in it....haha, Anyway, I have started the fishless cycle, but I just wanted to clarify the steps for myself. I have been adding ammonia for three days, today I finally reached the 4.0+ ppm of ammonia, Nitrites are 0ppm I have not tested for the nitrates thus far. Once I am at this level for a few days, when will the nitrites start to develope? When do I start putting in the strategy and how big of a water change should I do before adding fish? I am also wondering if I should just throw in a sponge for the nitrites etc to grow, right now there is only a couple plastic plants and gravel. Any help is greatly appreciated... Lana

I have used them as well, my first order with them was wonderful, communication fantastic, second order was one with Lisa and not sure what all was going on but communication seemed to slip drastically. The cichlids in my tank are from them. I only lost one so far when my tank went into bloom. All the others are tough and doing very well, the color on the fronts is fantastic as is the color on the electric blue's. With everything if you want a good price you have to shop around. For example the baby blue whale I obtained was supposed to be a blue dolphin... they charged me $40.00 for him and if he would of been a dolphin that is the price they would of charged. Then I found out Big Al's sell's the dolphins for $10.00. Price that is paid being a newbie. But now I have found AA and you all have what I need so no need to really go to the store. Well with the exception of supplies etc... Their store is a warehouse, they are still in the process of converting it so right now, it doesn't look like much. In fact it looks like nothing... he has a couple aquariums up stairs, nothing downstairs, but it will come. Are they trust worthy yes, I believe they are. Do they get you the best possible price, their prices for most items are comparable to wal-mart. I think with some of the cichlids I obtained only a dollar more. These were imported so I think the price is fair when you concider the freight and other costs associated with imported fish. Lana

Nothing like being taught humility by one of gods creatures! I do understand the frustration and the wanting to throw your hands up in the air and surrender for sure, but I have sunk a lot of money into this and I am not about to fail as of yet...hehe :smokey: Lana

What I did wrong with both my tanks, was listen to the people at the pet store!!! The first tank I let sit empty for a couple of weeks before adding fish it was only a 5gal tank, thought I was doing everything right, took the filter out and rinsed it all off, however my mistake was rinsing it off under tap water, I killed off all the good bacteria, so now that tank is going through a small bloom, but now I know what I am dealing with I have done partial changes, added prime and stability to the tank and will continue to do so. With my large tank, I set it up and was told I could add fish, so one week after having it set up I added two cichlids, everything was fine and dandy a week later I added the other fish, things were not so fine and dandy well they were for a week. At which point my tank was 3 weeks old on the fourth week it went into a wonderful bloom...NOT, anyway I have since been told that I should of waited six to even 8 weeks before adding fish... I am trying to complete a fishless cycle with a new tank I have purchased so that when one of my tanks pukes up I have some place safe for my fish... All mistakes that have been made were made due to being new to the fish world and simply not knowing, and not having adequate advise. I have since joined this group hoping that I don't have any more newbie lapses and when something arrises I can look for help. I have had so many people suggest different filters and when I went to purchase the filstar filter I was told not to buy that filter but to purchase an aqua clear, now was I wrong to do that, shoot you know what I have no idea, so now my tank has the fluval 205 and the aquaclear 70 running on it, with an airstone, my tank is clearing up. I have tested the levels and I am still having problems with the ammonia, so I am continuing to do partial water changes and adding prime and stability. I add the prime when I complete the water change and following morning add stability, we have just completed about a 30% water change last night, would not of done such a large one, but we had to move the tank a smidge away from the wall so we could put the new filter in. Tonight we will just remove 2.5 gal of water and replace with new water. so just a small change, that will let the good bacteria grow. Because I am new to fish I was not aware that you had to let the tank cycle before adding fish, now that my tank has or is going through this bloom once it is done I believe it will be safe to add the fish I was hoping to add. So lesson learned and I am trying to do better by my fish. Lana

Last time I had it tested I just brought it to work and they did it for me in the lab. Lana

Okay I just completed the ammonia test on my tap water.... needless to say it has a ton of ammonia in it, I just did the test and it right away went to 1ppm, the test finished at about a 2ppm. I don't think this water is suitable for the aquarium... Lana

Okay dookie, so I guess he is a lonely boy forever... I think right now he is only in a 1 gal tank, if that... maybe a 1/2 gal... my son's is also in a smaller tank... I love the betta's they are so showy, just wish they could be with others, and I know or read somewhere that they can not even be kept with a female for long periods of time, as they will go after her.... maybe they need to take an anger management course...haha Okay so everything will stay as it is... Lana

I will look into the test kits. Lana

Do you take the water from your tap? or do you take it from the well, and let it sit for a bit? Lana

Okay I started a new thread with the last water test we had done. Let me know what you all think... I will see If I can get work to run more tests and test for salinity as well... Lana

Please note that the tests provided were taken before our softener, therefore there is no added salt in this water, the test show it as it is in a raw state. Sample ID: 1/2 2/2 pH : 7.19 7.01 Conductivity (mS/cm): 3.26 3.28 Total Hardness (as mg/L CaCO3): 1608 1612 Ca as CaCO3 (mg/L): 1058 1071 (as mg/L Ca2+ : 423 428) Mg as CaCO3 (mg/L): 550 541 (as mg/L Mg2+: 134 131) P Alkalinity (as mg/L CaCO3): 0.00 0.00 T Alkalinity (as mg/L CaCO3): 399 411 Chloride (as mg/L Cl-): 33.6 22.6 Sulphate (as mg/L SO42-): 1484 1751 Ferric Iron (as mg/L Fe3+): 7.8 10.5 When I did the nitrate and nitrite tests on my well water it was negative (0) when I completed the combination kit, amm/nit it showed 0.25ppm. I have not completed a salitity test, not sure where to get one done, I will ask at work if one can be done. (I work for a chemical plant) they are the ones that did this testing for me. Lana

Thank you Lisa, I have used Cycle, so far in all my tanks. It came with the tanks I have purchased with the exception of one. I purchased a product called stablelizer yesterday as well as the prime. I tested my water and the Nitrite was sitting at 0.25ppm and the Nitrate was sitting at 5ppm when I used my combination Amm/nit kit, it was still through the roof. So now I am just hoping that it hurries up and clears up... Lana