New Juwel Rio 240

Hey guys,

Just a post about my new tank as described above... I got it in the dark wood finish and I'm very impressed with the overall quality. I bought some nice mopani wood for it. I'm not sure if it would have changed my mind but it was only afterwards that I read about it being associated with deforestation... It only took two days for the wood to become waterlogged and lose its buoyancy. And one large water change to remove most of the leeched tannins.

I was going to get a Juwel 3d background but they are crazy money so I just went with a black poster instead. Black gravel too to bring out the colours of the prospective fish. Plus I bought some nice plants (don't have the names of them with me right now) so hopefully they cover the back anyway.

I bought 12 Cherry Barbs today, 6m and 6f. I put them in while dosing the tank with Tetra Safe Start. I've read a lot of reviews on the stuff from different sources and most say it's excellent. The only negative reviews seem to be from people who did not use it properly or didn't put enough fish in to produce enough waste to feed the bacteria. So fingers crossed that it works for me. Oh I also put some filter media from my established Fluval Edge into this new filter to seed.

I plan on getting maybe some rams, cardinal tetra, possibly apistos and maybe some angelfish at a later stage and depending on compatibility...

I bought pressurised a CO2 system and while connecting the last piece of tubing to the glass U-bend I broke the bloody thing! It's very delicate. Anyway, new one ordered and should arrive early next week. I'll be more careful next time!!

Here are a few pics of the progress.

sounds like you have done some reading and have a fair idea of what your at. the only thing I would suggest however is make sure you have a decent test kit and test the water daily for the next few weeks.
Last thing your going to want is a spike in the ammonia etc that will wipe out your lovely new fish!

Best advice i can give ya is to be patient!
Take your time and enjoy setting up the aquarium exactly the way you want it to look...Take your time stocking with fish..Build the stock up gradually..

Research! research! research!
Fish compatibility and eventual fish size!

Biggest mistake new fishkeepers make is wanting to run home and fill a fish tank with all kinds of incompatible creatures!

Seems like your on top of things though ...

Tetra Safestart in conjunction with existing media will work perfect for ya....

Just feed small amounts while your establishing the bacteria colony in your new filter/s....Overfeeding will cause problems with ammonia spikes

Tetra Safestart usually cycles tanks in about 10 days but i reckon with you using existing media you wont even see Ammonia or Nitrites...I reckon you will have an instant cycle...Just dont overstock too quickly either....

Usually when cycling with Tetra Safestart alone you see about 0.5ppm Ammonia for about a week to 10 days, you would expect to see NitrItes at this stage but that doesnt happen...Ive never seen NitrItes when using Tetra Safestart...What always happened for me was readings of about 0.5ppm for 7 to 10 days of Ammonia then it falls to zero and then the tank is cycled..Ive never seen NitrItes using Safestart..It goes from ammonia to NitrAtes..dont ask me how..this is just what ive always seen...if you do see NitrItes expect it to be miniscule....

Just be sure to get a good test kit (API Liquid Master Test kits are very good) and keep a daily eye on you Ammonia and NitrIte readings while establishing your filter bacteria colonies to be sure nothing crazy happens...

Best of luck with the new tank...

Oh and BTW - Terrific looking layout!

Something else to consider is a small Quarantine tank...

It will save you alot of heartbreak!

I learned this the hard way...

No matter how trustworthy the fish supplier is theres always the chance a new healthy looking fish will bring in a disease or illnes leading to disaster...

4 weeks quarantine period to watch for physical signs of illness and odd behaviour is recommended...

Its actually a good excuse to set up a second small tank LOL...

Thanks for the advice guys. Forgot to mention I have the master test kit that I bought with my fluval edge. It says wait 48hrs before first test for some reason when using the safe start. How big a tank would be required for QT? Like if it's only going to be home to them for 4 weeks something small should suffice, right?

And regarding compatibility, initially I was thinking I could put in all sorts of rams and angles because of the size of the tank but then I read about the territory issues. Although I'll be waiting until the tank is established a little longer before adding something delicate I now know that I have to just choose perhaps one pair of rams as my cichlids. Am I right or could I add angles with the rams?

Any other stocking suggestions?

Angels with Rams will be fine...

As regards quarantine tank size...I use a little 20 litre tank...Its fine for when fish are young and small..As you said its just a temporary home....

@gunnered1972
Thanks for clarifying that.
And yes, I must invest in a quarantine tank but right now I'm fairly broke due to the new setup and the unplanned purchase of the pressurised CO2 setup...

Also @mods is this a suitable place for this post or should it be moved to the members profile section?

An update regarding Tetra Safestart progress and also my livestock...

Ok so I tried to seed my new tank from my Fluval edge but I added the media too soon, a day before adding fish, so I presume the beneficial bacteria has died.

I added 12 Cherry Barbs to my tank and dosed the recommended amount of Tetra Safestart. I tested the water with my master test kit 48 hours after dosing the Safestart. The results: Ammonia .5, Nitrite 0, Nitrate 10(I'm dosing Tropica Plant Growth Specialised Fertiliser which might explain the nitrates)
I tested again after 72hrs initial dosing and results are the same. Ammonia still at .5. Nitrite 0, Nitrate 10.

I have lost one fish due to what I believe is an injury, please see pic below. Last night I observed her looking very fatigued and floating around with the water flow, sometimes making an effort to swim. On closer inspection I saw a red mark on her side. I didn't notice any other fish attack her but some are chasing and showing semi aggressive behaviour. There were 6m and 6f cherry barbs added together, nothing else. Anyway I took her out and had to put her out of her misery using the blunt force method. Not nice to have to do but she was definitely suffering and I don't have a treatment tank or meds to treat injuries at the moment.
The rest of the fish seem fine and it just seems to be the males chasing each other... I'll keep a closer eye now though as I've a couple of days off work.

I'll try keep you all updated with my progress and readings although I'm not going to test every day as I don't see any point. As gunnered1972 has already mentioned, the Ammonia should remain at .5 and Nitrites 0 for a week or two. I will test in a few days maybe just out of curiosity and let you know the results...

Sorry about some of the photos being in the wrong orientation... They are the right way around before I put them up...

The tank looks fantastic, you really got a nice piece of wood there!

Thanks a lot Aroshni. I got it in Seahorse if I'm allowed to name them. They have a few nice pieces out the back stores. I fell in love with that piece as soon as I saw it. It's amazing how Mopani wood grows into itself. It only took two days to sink too

Oh and just another update re the Tetra Safestart cycle progress, tested ammonia today(day 4) and it's between .25 and .5. Fish are doing great with no signs of stress.

My plan for stocking is (pending approval from the experts) 15 Cherry Barbs, 15-20 Cardinal Tetra, 1 pair or Golden Rams, 1 pair of German Blue Rams, a pair of Angels and 1 Pleco. I really want a L-183 Starlight/White Seam. Is that way too many or...?

Its a pretty good plan...Just watch out for aggression amongst the Rams and also watch for 1 angel picking on the other...Should be fine though

Are you positive it's Mopani?.....sure don't look like any Mopani wood that i have had in the past!! But regardless of what it is,it's a magnificent looking piece

I haven't kept Rams in a good while but if i remember correctly from when i did there was some really sh*tty strains (German blue's in particular) coming in from the far east and it was a challenge keeping them alive in an established tank never mind a newly set up one!! I never kept them but Bolivian Rams were the Ram of choice for a lot of people maybe 1-2 years ago because of there hardiness,but in saying that it was 1-2 years ago and things could of all changed and there is some really good quality German Blue's out there now!! Somehow doubt it though!!

Ger

I've 2 german blue rams about 4 months now. There doing great, they even got white spot when I first introduced them to the tank. Lucky I only had a small bristle nose in there at the time.

I have them in with apistos and corys and some guppies and they are the king and Queen of the tank!

Great color from them! So maybe the strains have gotten stronger recently or I was just lucky with my pair!

Thanks for the advice. I was told by one of the, who I believe to be reputable, LFS that the electric blues are weak at the moment... Either way it'll be a few months probably before I introduce anything "delicate". I'm glad that my planned stocking arrangement should be ok.

@Ger310: I wouldn't swear it's Mopani. I'm sure that's what it was sold to me as... I've been wrong once before though! Haha!

Try and get Irish bred German Blue Rams!
The imported ones are notorious for being weak...

Electric Blue Rams are very hard to keep alive and are even weaker again...

Some say that Electric Blue Rams require Discus quality conditions to thrive (I tend to believe it)

I thought that I posted this already but can't find it... I had a mishap yesterday. I turned the CO2 and lights on yesterday before leaving for work, 13 hours later I returned home to find the fish gasping for air and looking very fatigued. I obviously had the co2 up too high and was asphyxiating the fish. Anyway I turned the filter output pipe in a way to cause as much surface agitation as possible, I then took a bucket load of water from the tank and poured it back in again to try get some oxygen back into the tank... After a while they seemed to come back to life. I felt awful that I was basically poisoning them all day!!

It's always good to keep and air pump and air stone handy incase something like this happens!

Hope the fish are sorted now!

@swai, that's definitely a good idea in case it happens again. I'm happy say that all fish are back to normal today.
No tests done today but yesterday ammonia was .5. I'll check again tomorrow just out of interest.

Maybe test ammonia and Nitrites daily just to be on the safe side...At least until they are both reading zero...Tank is cycled for sure then and ur all set up

@Gunnered1972, I know it's still not cycled yet and was trusting in the Safestart to keep Ammonia .5 or below but ok, no harm checking everyday since I have the test kit. I really hope it does only take a max of 14 days to cycle. I'm going away for a week on day 15 and hope to be able to do a water change by then.

The SafeStart should keep everything in check...But ya cant be too careful...Better to air on the side of caution!

Yea you're right. Better safe than sorry.

Just a few more pics here also.

Any updates