It’s really interesting to watch the difference in the natural Aquarium Cycle between my 20 Gallon tank and my 55 Gallon tank.  In the 20 Gallon tank the Ammonia levels began climbing starting on the fifth day after setting up my Aquarium and putting in my first set of fish.  The ammonia levels first went to 0.25 ppm for a few days, then climbed to 0.50 ppm for a few days and then went as high as 1.00 ppm for a period of 4 days before going back down to 0.50 ppm and now slowly dropping down to 0.25 ppm and less over the last few days.

Obviously the Cycle in my 20 Gallon Aquarium is well under way.  As for the 55 Gallon, it seems like the same thing is happening except much slower.  It took almost 10 days from setup and putting in fish to get the Ammonia levels to start going up.  They first climbed to 0.25 ppm for a few days, then 0.50 ppm for a few days and now have been at 1.00 ppm for about three or four days.

I’m keeping an eye on the Ammonia levels every day to make sure they don’t end up going any higher than 1.00 ppm.  I’ve also been adding in a few cap fulls (5-15ml) of Cycle into the tank on a daily basis to help establish a healthy population of beneficial bacteria.  My tests also show that my Nitrate levels have started going up as well in the last few days which means that the bacteria that convert Ammonia into Nitrate are starting to form nicely.

I did also do a 20% water change today in hopes that it will help to lower the Ammonia levels a bit.  I’ll test the water again tomorrow to see what’s happening.  So far the fish seem to be doing fine at the 1.00 ppm levels of Ammonia but I don’t want to stress them out too much so if the levels go up any higher than that I’ll do another partial water change while I wait for the biological filter Cycle to establish itself.

I also picked up a school of 8 Baby Cardinal Tetras for my 20 Gallon tank the other day and they seem to be doing very well in that tank so far.  I may end up either putting them in my 55 Gallon once it finishes Cycling, or I may move the one adult Cardinal Tetra I have in the 55 Gallon right now into the 20 Gallon tank.  I don’t like it being there by itself.  Tetras prefer to live in schools so I think the single one I have in the 55 Gallon is lonely right now.

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I’ve added more fish to both of my Aquariums in the last week.  I bought 3 Cardinal Tetra’s, 3 Bala Sharks, 3 Otto Catfish, and one really cool looking Adonis Pleco.  For some reason I lost 2 Tetras and 1 Bala Shark the very first night, but the rest of the fish have had no problems and it’s been almost a week now.

I ended up putting one of the Otto’s in my 20 Gallon as I’m starting to grow some algae in there so I hope he starts to clean that up a bit.  Also, my younger brother Bart gave me 3 fairly sized Pictus Catfish and a Pleco the other day.  I put the 3 Pictus Catfish in my 55 Gallon tank and the Pleco in the 20 Gallon.  He can have a feast with all the algae in there.

Here are some pics:

One of My Pictus Catfish

Another Angle of My Pictus Catfish

My Lonely Survivor Cardinal Tetra. He Needs Some Buddies.

I’ve been keeping an eye on my Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate Levels and finally in the last couple of days the Ammonia levels in my 20 Gallon have started to go down rather quickly, so it looks like my cycle in that tank is coming along nicely.  As for the 55 Gallon, the Ammonia has just started going up in the last few days and today I noticed my Nitrites have gone up so the Cycle is just beginning in that tank.

I’ll be keeping an eye on the Ammonia levels to make sure they don’t go up too high.  Also, I picked up this Filstar Zeolite Ammonia Remover Cartridge for my Rena Filstar xP3 Filter.  It’s supposed to help keep your Ammonia levels from getting too high in new Aquarium setups and from hitting sudden spikes later on.

I’ll measure my Ammonia levels over the next few days and report back how effective it is.

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I just finished posting a review of the Rena Filstar xP3 Canister Filter that I’m using for my 55 Gallon tank.  It’s a very well thought out product and I have no reservations recommending it to anyone looking for a filter for their aquarium.

Click Here to read the full review.

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Here are a few more pics of my new 55 Gallon Aquarium.

I bought a few decorations for it today.  It’s still not fully stocked and I still don’t have all the decorations I want, but it’s getting there.

Sunken Bell in My 55 Gallon Aquarium

My Giant Danios Zooming by the Bell

A Small Car Also Seems to Have Sunk in My Aquarium

My 55 Gallon Aquarium With Lights On

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Yesterday I went out and bought a new 55 Gallon Tank with a Stand from my local Big Al’s Aquarium Supplies store.  I’ve been looking around for a nice stand and the only ones I liked so far are at Big Al’s so I decided to get it there along with the 55 Gallon Aquarium.

This is going to be my main tank, and I’ll probably use the 20 Gallon as an intermediate place for some of my smaller fish or new fish I bring from the store as a mini-quarantine system.

Here’s what I ended up picking up yesterday for my setup:

• 55 Gallon Aquarium Tank
• Glass Aquarium Canopy
• Aqualight T-5 Light
• Some Gravel

I was going to also pickup a Rena XP3 Canister Filter, but they were sold out.  So, today I went over to King Ed’s Pet Supply and picked up the following to add to the setup:

• Rena XP3 Canister Filter
• Some Filter Media
• 300 Watt Heater
• Thermometer
• Aquarium Background
• A Bit More Gravel
• Cycle

This is a picture of the setup with just the stand put together and the aquarium and background installed.  It’s not the best picture as it was a bit dark, but you get the gist of what it looks like.  I’ve got the gravel in there now, the filter and heater setup, and I’m letting the filter run it’s course to go through the water while the heater brings it up to the correct temperature.

I’ll try to take some more pictures soon so you guys can see what it looks like lit up.

My New 55 Gallon Tank

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I’ve been monitoring my aquarium’s pH levels as well as Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate levels very closely for the last three days after the death of my two Tiger Barbs and since the pH has stabilized around 7.0 everything has been fine with the tank and the fish.

It looks like the “Aquarium Pharmeceuticals Proper pH 7.0″ did the trick of bringing my pH levels down to a neutral level around 7.0.  I’m keeping a nightly log of everything I’m doing in the tank on a daily basis and tracking the pH, Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate levels as well as the tank temperature.

Since everything has been going OK, I decided to go out and purchase two more fish to replace the two Tiger Barbs that died and this time I wanted to get a more hearty fish that has a stronger chance of survival during the initial cycling of my tank.  I decided to go and get some Danios since I’ve read that they are really hearty.

I ended up going to King Ed’s Pet Centre and they had Giant Danios there which I thought looked really cool, so I decided to get a pair.  They are rather large, and the 20 Gallon tank I have may actually be a bit small for them eventually as they grow even bigger but I’m pretty sure that I’ll eventually be upgrading to a 45-55 Gallon tank so then they’ll definitely be fine in a tank of that size.  Worst case scenario, I can always give them to my Dad or brother after I cycle my tank and they grow too big for the tank.

Here’s a few pics I snapped of my two new Giant Danios:

I also ended up picking up 12 small guppies too because I wanted to see how well they do in the tank, and they were only $5 for 12.  They’re just babies right now so they have plenty of room in the tank.  Here’s some pictures of them:

I even managed to get a better picture of my Cherry Barb:

While at King Ed’s Pet Centre I was also checking out some of their bigger tanks.  They had a special on a 50 Gallon tank kit with a Glass Top, Hagen Aqua Clear 70 Power Filter, 200W Heater, T5 Light, Gravel and a wood stand for $399.  It’s not a bad deal, but I didn’t really like the stand and when I do end up getting a bigger tank I’ll probably end up buying the components separately as I don’t want the “cheapie” components that come with the “kit”.  Maybe if I can pick up a better stand somewhere else, I might purchase just the glass aquarium with the glass top and the T5 Light from King Ed’s Pet Centre if I can talk them into giving me a good deal.

For now, I’ve got to get my 20 Gallon cycled and keep it running properly with healthy fish.

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Unfortunately the two Tiger Barbs I bought yesterday didn’t survive the night.  This morning I found them floating upside down in the tank.

Poor Tiger Barb didn't make the night.

The most likely culprit is the high pH level in my newly setup tank.  I live on well water so luckily the water that comes out of my tap doesn’t have Chlorine in it like city water does, but my water is slightly alkaline coming out of the tap and my initial setup of the aquarium put the water up to a pH level of about 8.2 – 8.4 which was too high for the Barbs to survive.

From what I’ve read, generally the Barbs prefer a more acidic environment around 6.5-7.0 pH with a broader range of 6.0-8.0 pH.  My guess is that the large pH level difference between my tank and the water at the pet store that was the shock that killed them.  Unfortunately I didn’t know I had such a high pH level in my tank when I brought the Barbs home as that was my first visit to the pet store and I got the testing kits at the same time as the fish.

The other four fish I have in there seem to be doing OK at this time, but I decided to investigate how to lower my pH levels before getting any more fish.

Lowering pH in an Aquarium

From my research I found that a high pH is actually a quite common problem in fish tanks.  The most common causes of high pH in aquariums are:

• Your tap water is already highly alkaline with a pH level higher than 7.0.
• Your aquarium decorations, such as seashells are increasing the alkalinity of your water.
• Your gravel may be causing an increase in the pH level of your water.

Of course the problem may be a combination of any of the above.  I would venture a guess that most people who live on city water probably have low pH levels below 7.0 so their tap water is acidic.  Then if they have decorations or gravel in the tank which raise the pH levels up, it creates a balance and your pH levels are fairly normal.  In my case I’m starting out with well water which doesn’t have added acids like chlorine in it to make it acidic so it’s quite easy for my water to have a higher pH.

How Can You Lower the pH in Your Aquarium?

I found two products that can be used to lower the pH levels in an Aquarium.  Firstly there is a product called “Aquarium Pharmeceuticals pH-Down“.  It’s basically a small bottle that you take and add a certain number of drops into you water in order to raise the acidity level of your water, bringing the pH levels down.

I wasn’t sure if this product was going to work, so I also bought another product called “Aquarium Pharmeceuticals Proper pH 7.0“.  This product is a bit different.  What this product does is that it regulates your pH levels and balances them out to a pH level of 7.0.  So if your aquarium pH is too high, it will buffer it down and if your pH is too low it will raise the pH level.

When I got home I first tried using the pH-Down product and after a few hours the pH level still didn’t drop much.  I didn’t want to overdo it and put too much of it into the water so I decided to leave that and try using the Proper pH 7.0 instead.  This product seemed to work much better.  I added in the recommended two scoops of the stuff for the 20 Gallon tank I have and then tested the pH about 30 minutes later and it was now showing it at an almost perfect 7.0.

I’ll have to test the water tomorrow and see whether or not it was able to keep it at that level or if the water went back up.  If the water goes back up, I might just need to accept the fact that my water is always going to be higher pH and focus on picking fish that prefer a slightly higher pH environment.

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Yesterday I got my 20 Gallon Freshwater Aquarium setup, and today I went to the pet store and picked up the rest of the things I wanted to get to finish my setup and to pickup my initial set of fish.

I need to cycle my water to build up the good bacteria in the aquarium before I can fully stock the tank with all the fish I want in there, so for the time being I just picked up 6 fish for now.

It wasn’t easy picking which fish to get.  There are so many cool fish to get out there.

Here’s what I ended up getting.  The first two are Tiger Barbs.  Here’s a picture of them:

I’ll try to get better pictures of my fish soon.  This is the best I could do for now to keep them in proper focus.  They are super fast fish and they love to chase each other around the tank.  It wasn’t easy to get a fast enough focus on them before they zip out of camera view.

Here’s another shot of them in the corner of the tank:

The next two I picked up are Cherry Barbs.  It’s so weird because at the pet store they all looked very similar, but now that I’ve got the two of them in the tank they look totally different.  I don’t have a picture of them yet, but one of them turned completely red and the other one has horizontal stripes very similar to the vertical ones that the Tiger Barbs have.

The one Cherry Barb with the stripes follows the Tiger Barbs around almost like it wants to be accepted into their little group.  The other red one just swims around by itself like a loner.  The other thing that it does that is so funny is that when I turn on the bubble maker, it goes straight for it and swims around in all the bubbles.  It totally loves bubbles.  Reminds me of that character in Finding Nemo that loves bubbles.  It’s so funny to see the personalities these fish display.

The final two fish I got were two female Bettas (Siamese Fighting Fish).  The male ones you can only keep one in a tank because they fight, but the females are OK in the same tank together, so I got two females.  The funny thing the females do is that they chase each other around and then they eventually face each other and lock lips!  It looks like they are kissing, it’s so funny.

I really have to learn how to take better pictures of these fish.  The best one I could get of the Betta Fish was this picture here:

So that’s pretty much it for now, I just got six fish for now to get the cycle started in my tank and once everything is running smoothly I’ll start adding in a few more fish.

I took a few more pictures of my setup as it is now:

My 20 Gallow Aquarium Setup for Now.

I added in a few fake plants and a decoration so that the fish have somewhere to hide.

Another picture of my tank.

Bubbles! This is the green bubbles that the Red Rainbow Barb loves to swim through.

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Here’s some pictures from my original setup yesterday.  Still no fish in the setup yet.  I’ll probably be going out today to pickup my first set of fish.

As you can see in that last picture, my initial temperature of the water was around 15 degrees celsius, which is way too cold so I had the heater on to bring it into the green zone.  I’ve now had the filter also cycling the water for about 15 hours.  Almost time to add in some fish!

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This evening I got a 20 Gallon fish tank kit from my younger brother Bart.  I got home and couldn’t wait to get it setup.  It took a while to clean off the area where I wanted to setup the aquarium but I managed to get it cleared off and got my talk setup.

It doesn’t have any fish in it yet, as I’m just filtering the water through the filter and warming it up to the right temperature.  Tomorrow I’ll go to the pet store and pickup some more supplies and hopefully some fish as well.

As part of my journey of learning about freshwater tropical aquarium fish I’ve decided to start this Blog to document what I learn along the way and hopefully inspire others to pickup this hobby.  My dad has had fish tanks ever since I can remember and still does to this day, and my younger brother has three larger tanks he’s keeping right now with various fish, turtles and a crayfish.  I’ll get some pictures up soon of my new setup as well as my brother’s and my dad’s tanks.

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