8 years ago I put it all away

Yep, It's been 8 years. Now my hair is gray and my kids are gone or in college. I decided to pull by bow front corner 55 out and set it up. In my previous fish life, I was a pond and goldfish keeper. I decided to go with a low tech, low waste producing setup. It will take a while as I had to order seal kits for all my XP-3 filters. I plan to run this one tank with an XP3. 8 years ago, fishless cycling was just picking up steam. I'm curious if anyone still does it as I don't see allot of products on the net. Properly applied, I had success with it. The key was getting live bacteria which meant refrigerated products at the time. I have little faith that a bottle on a shelf in a store has any live bacteria in it.

I'm also waiting for all new test kits as I don't trust the old ones. I was surprised to find my well water at 7.4-7.6 PH. GH/KH kits should arrive in the next day or so. I was originally contemplating some Acei or Cynotilapia zebroides but now I'm thinking about going with angels as I am not willing to play with water chemistry anymore. My years of spending more time keeping water than keeping fish are over. No more RO systems and heated vats of premixed water.

My question is regarding breeders of freshwater angels. Are there any in the Champaign region?

Thanks in advance.

Kevin

There are several members in the Bloomington fish club breeding angels. Twocat (Mark) has been very active in searching out breeders to get fish from so he'd be a great resource. There are at least a couple of members with young angel fry right now.
The Champaign club's auction this Saturday usually brings out a number of decent angels for sale. I'll be there working in the morning and would be happy to introduce you some of those folks who might know of breeders in the Champaign area.
Good luck and hope to meet you at a meeting.

Thanks for the Reply Pops. I'm 3 weeks out from having a tank ready for fish. Just got my KH/GH test kits today. PH=7.4-7.6, KH ~350, GH is off the charts calculates to approx 600.

I'll search out the details for the auction you speak of for next time around.

Kevin

With the high KH/GH I decided to test my well water after it goes through the softener. I tested twice as I can hardly believe it.

PH= 7.4 to 7.6

KH ~ 350ppm

GH less than 20ppm

Does anyone keep fish with a GH of 600ppm which is what my well puts out before the softener?

K

Welcome back Kevin!

Anything we can do to help out just let us know. Are you in the Champaign area or closer to B-N?

DavidZ

So I tested 50/50 mix of soft and well water

PH=7.4-7.6
KH= 350
GH= 260


So then I tested 50/50 of well water and RO water

PH= 7.4 - 7.6
KH = 160
GH = 215

All I can say is crap! I need someone to tell me a GH of 600(original well nmber) is not a big deal for Angels and Cory's

Kevin

Hi David!

I am 45 miles north of Champaign in the middle of a corn/soy field. Closest town is Melvin.

I'm pretty sure Normal's Water has a relatively high GH and ask around about my Cory spawning problem (they wont stop). Plus, I've had my pair of Angels spawn twice in the last month and they are starting to get that 'look' again already.

Best think I can tell you is to give it a try and see.

I worked in Gibson City for a while Kevin so I know right where you are. My cats name is Sibley since thats where I got her at that old auction barn.

DavidZ

I'm extremely suspicious of the high GH number of 600. I decided to put some well water in a glass and let the iron oxidize and then retest. I imagine iron contributes to GH and I have high iron content in my well water. Will post results in a few hours.

I retested from the water sample I pulled 30 hours ago and as I suspected, the GH has dropped from the original 600 to just below 400 . The suspended iron has oxidized and no longer contributes. It will be interesting to see how much lower it goes. I need to study what all contributes to GH. Obviously its not carbonate as my softener knocks the heck out of the GH test and has no affect on the KH test.

I intend to retest all parameters again tomorrow night from the drawn water sample that is sitting in a glass on my counter. It is amazing how simple exposure to air can cause such a change.

Kevin

Keep us posted.

Today I started digging out the pieces for my water mixing vat, dug out the old Kent RO and decided I still needed to prep water. This is part of what sucked the life out of the fun of an aquarium as I really don't need to find things to keep me busy. Heading out on vacation for a week. When I get back I'll decide if I really want to jump back in or not.

On an interesting note, the well water KH reduced by 25% and the GH reduced by almost 50% just sitting exposed to air over 48 hours. The only negative is all the sediment in the bottom of the glass. A settling/mixing vat would allow all the sediment to settle out before the water moves into the tank.

K

Just got back into town and decided to keep moving forward on getting the 55 up and running. My XP3 seal kits were waiting for me, beckoning me. I started adding RO water to my water mixing vat. It will take a while as I need to use the kitchen RO filter to give about 15-20 gallons . My marine RO is short fittings and needs re-assembly which I can catch up on later. I figure to have the tank filled this week and fired up to start a cycle. I still need some rocks and wood for the aquascape.

Will make a final decision on the occupants as I see how the water matures in the mixing vat and after I cycle the tank. I'm thinking Flavesents rather than Angels at this point as I can leave the water on the hard side. The PH is a few tenths low but I'm not too worried about that.

K

I never thought I would have so much trouble with my canisters. It seems 8 years makes the plastic tube parts fit poorly. I fought leaks for a few hours. It is finally up and running but needs plants and rocks. With an 8.2 PH, I decided to stock African cichlids. Tomorrow I'm off to get plants and rocks. Maybe, just maybe a few fish will follow me home.

No fish followed me home Saturday. A few rocks and plants managed to jump in the car. Everything was looking good so I ran all my parameters and found 1ppm of ammonia. I traced it back to our well water. I decided to go ahead and cycle the tank since the ammonia was already there. A buddy gave me some of his old filter media and I added a dose of Dr. Tim's bacteria. The ammonia should go to zero in a few days and nitrites a few days later. Maybe/maybe not.

The tank is looking pretty good with black sand, dragon wood rocks and a handful of amazon swords.

On another note, I finally plumbed the old Kent RO system into my mixing vat and we are making water tonight. It seems the softner filters 100% of the ammonia out and the KH holds at a decent level. I can only measure low amounts of sodium in the softened water. I plan to experiment with a 50/50 mix of RO water and softened water to see what all the numbers look like. I really want to get away from ammonia in my fresh water supply as any ammonia is too much ammonia in my water change source.

The surprises just keep coming.

K

Glad things are coming along! Keep us updated.

DavidZ

Ammonia is down to .5ppm, Nitrites are up to .5ppm. Things are moving along. I'll try to figure out how to post a pic.

K