# First NPT adventure - 30g



## ashleylyn (Mar 30, 2013)

Set up and planted on 10/3/13.

I'm going to keep track of the trials and tribulations of my very first NPT, a 30g I got off Craigslist for $30 (with the cherry stand, filter, heater, hood, air pump, and air line). 

*Plant locations are tentative. Depending on how things grow/thrive, I'm certain there will be rearrangements. This is just for the time being.*

For the substrate I used Miracle Gro Potting Mix capped with black diamond blasting sand. 95% of the plants were purchased from peachii and I also used some from my already cycled 10g. There are two pieces of Mopani wood (one is quite small and not visible in the photos) which was boiled for hours. I know there will still be tannins leaking, but I'm not too concerned. The filter is a Penguin Biowheel 150B. Lighting: Zoo Med Ultra Sun Trichromatic Super Daylight 6500k Fluorescent Bulb T8 15 Watt, 18-inch. 

I used about 3-4 gallons of water from my cycled 10g to hopefully jumpstart things. There are also around 20+ snails (also from the amazing peachii), though most are babies and hardly visible. Ramshorns and MTS. Too many plants to list and to be honest, I don't know all of their names yet! Peachii sent me so many clippings, I will have to wait for them to grow a little more to be able to identify some of them! They include rotala, ludwiga, wisteria, green hygro, pennywort, java moss, and more!

*Excuse my king, Poseidon, just floating in his cup, lol. I brought him home from school for the weekend, I am going to transfer my sorority into the 30g and put him in my already established 10g. It will all depend on water parameters, though. For now he's floating so he has heated water. If I can't transfer my sorority this weekend (input on that?), he'll come back to school with me on Sunday until things are ready to go!


Photos taken approx. 30 minutes after water was added. Prior to the water being added, there was about 1" of soil and 1 1/2 - 2" of cap. The cap has compressed and the soil has expanded. Sand still settling, but it's already starting to clear up.


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## RowdyBetta (Feb 1, 2013)

I'm excited to read how yours goes. ^^ And like you, I used non organic potting mix too.
I just started mine yesterday and my test kit arrived today.


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## ashleylyn (Mar 30, 2013)

I couldn't find any organic potting mix, so this was the next best thing! Keep me updated on how yours progresses as well, I love hearing about everyone's NPTs.


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## ashleylyn (Mar 30, 2013)

And the two biggest snails peachii sent me. The giant one is Santiago.  They're lively as anything and already doing their job!


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## RowdyBetta (Feb 1, 2013)

Agh! I love your snails' shells. ^^


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## ashleylyn (Mar 30, 2013)

Hehe, thank you! I love them too. Such cute little guys!

Tested ammonia today - at 0.


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## RowdyBetta (Feb 1, 2013)

Lucky you. XD I tested mine earlier this evening and it's at 8 ppm! O.O


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## ashleylyn (Mar 30, 2013)

RowdyBetta said:


> Lucky you. XD I tested mine earlier this evening and it's at 8 ppm! O.O


Omg, that's crazy! I was surprised. I was waiting for the color to turn, but it stayed yellow! I'm hoping it doesn't spike, but so far all of my snails are lively and moving about everywhere and the plants look good. Here's to hoping our tanks get situated soon!


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## ashleylyn (Mar 30, 2013)

Second day of ammonia at 0ppm.  Added my sorority and guppies. Monitoring the ammonia very closely. While I'm at school this week my dad will monitor my tank for me - he's in love with my snails too lol.

Pics to come later!


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## RowdyBetta (Feb 1, 2013)

Lol, great dad.  My dad didn't want any fish in the house but kept pestering him and finally even wrote a research paper on bettas. XD That got him. Haha, now they've sort of grown on him. He asks me how they're doing and comes to the tank and watches them sometimes. Gallifrey is his favorite. 

Can't wait for pics!!  Man, I just gotta say, that black sand really looks gorgeous in there.


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## ashleylyn (Mar 30, 2013)

RowdyBetta said:


> Lol, great dad.  My dad didn't want any fish in the house but kept pestering him and finally even wrote a research paper on bettas. XD That got him. Haha, now they've sort of grown on him. He asks me how they're doing and comes to the tank and watches them sometimes. Gallifrey is his favorite.
> 
> Can't wait for pics!!  Man, I just gotta say, that black sand really looks gorgeous in there.


Haha my dad used to have a 55g tank so he at least has *some* knowledge. If anything really goes wrong, school is only 30 minutes from my house so I can always run home. Plus I'll be working by my house too this week, so I'll be in the area to keep everything in check.

And thank you, I love the black sand and the contrast it provides! It really brings out everyone's colors. I prefer sororities to have more cover than this, but my girls have been together a while now and there really are a lot of plants at the surface to hide in. I may add some more in the upcoming week, too. 

Pictures - I think I notice plant growth already.


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## ashleylyn (Mar 30, 2013)

Tested the ammonia a second time today, hours after adding all of the bettas/guppies/cories and after feeding. Ammonia was still at 0ppm. Hopefully it stays that way!


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## RowdyBetta (Feb 1, 2013)

Hooray for pictures! And for 0 ammonia!  Your tank looks fantastic and your fish (and snails! ;D) are beautiful! 

I'd love to have cories someday, but I don't know if 5-6 are ideal in a 10g with a betta and nerite? A tank with just cories would be cool too. X3


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## peachii (Jan 6, 2013)

Looks really great, you did a great job. If I were you I would give it a month to grow in before you buy more plants, just in case you have a diatom bloom and make sure it doesn't choke out any plants. Almost all the plants I sent you have a crazy high growth rate and should grow in pretty quickly - sub 1 month- to be tall for the girls. Much easier to clean and water change for the diatoms if the plants aren't quite as crazy tall and packed in there. Sometimes it's hard to get it all cleaned if you have to many plants stuffed in. After the first 2 months or so any diatom blooms you have should be gone.

The snails look very happy, glad you are all enjoying them and they found a great new home. I have TONS of babies growing and just had 2 more clutches hatch yesterday of the dark purple shell/ dark purple black foot - can't wait to see what the babies look like from these.


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## ashleylyn (Mar 30, 2013)

peachii said:


> Looks really great, you did a great job. If I were you I would give it a month to grow in before you buy more plants, just in case you have a diatom bloom and make sure it doesn't choke out any plants. Almost all the plants I sent you have a crazy high growth rate and should grow in pretty quickly - sub 1 month- to be tall for the girls. Much easier to clean and water change for the diatoms if the plants aren't quite as crazy tall and packed in there. Sometimes it's hard to get it all cleaned if you have to many plants stuffed in. After the first 2 months or so any diatom blooms you have should be gone.
> 
> The snails look very happy, glad you are all enjoying them and they found a great new home. I have TONS of babies growing and just had 2 more clutches hatch yesterday of the dark purple shell/ dark purple black foot - can't wait to see what the babies look like from these.


Thank you for the information and compliment peachii, I appreciate it! I need to test my ammonia again today, hopefully it's still at 0. How often do you think I should be doing WCs while the plants are still growing? I figure it's best to ask you since you know your plants. 

And I adore the snails! They are so much fun to watch, my dad and sister come in all of the time and ask where the giant one is so they can watch him move around the tank lol. Those dark purple shells/purple-black foot snails sound gorgeous. I can't wait to see pictures of them as they mature.


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## Olympia (Aug 25, 2011)

Pretty!
Have you thought about putting a black paper background on the tank?  Really puts the focus on the tank.


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## ashleylyn (Mar 30, 2013)

That's not a bad idea, thank you! 

I tested the ammonia. It looked like it was between 0 and .25ppm before so I did a 10-15% WC and it's back down to 0.


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## ashleylyn (Mar 30, 2013)

My sorority is crashing. Two had passed in my cycled tank very quickly but with hardly any symptoms. Fine, then gone.  Now some kind of rot is taking my other girls. I have some in quarantine being treated but I don't think they're going to make it.  it's like ridiculously accelerated rot, I can only presume this is what got my other girls too so quickly. I'm doing all I can.. If they all pass, I'm taking a long break from a sorority I think.


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## RowdyBetta (Feb 1, 2013)

Oh no!  I hope they make it! *hugs*


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## ashleylyn (Mar 30, 2013)

Me too, I love them.


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## Elsewhere (Dec 30, 2012)

Don't you just hate sororities sometimes? :-( I really hope things work out for you, it really sucks that disease has hit.


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## ashleylyn (Mar 30, 2013)

Elsewhere said:


> Don't you just hate sororities sometimes? :-( I really hope things work out for you, it really sucks that disease has hit.


4 out of my 7 girls have died in 24 hours and I lost another two earlier this week. One has been hanging on like a warrior since last night, another is being treated (though still looks healthy aside from early signs of deterioration) and the other looks perfect so far. 

It's a viscious circle. I had a guppy give birth yesterday, so at least there is some new life... but I'm so sad to see my girls go like this. :-(


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## ashleylyn (Mar 30, 2013)

As of last night, aside from the sorority collapse everything else is doing fine. Two girls are still very active and look good (the one in quarantine I had floating for a couple of days evidently got fed up because when I woke up yesterday morning, she was back in the tank. She literally cleared 2" to get back in there, despite being quite blocked by the glass lid :shock. Also have guppy fry too - counted 7 yesterday, which is kind of exciting. Snails, plants, guppies all look good too. *sigh* I still don't know where the outbreak came from. One day all fish were fine, a few days later half are dead.


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## ashleylyn (Mar 30, 2013)

1 week of growth


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## ao (Feb 29, 2012)

Wow it really looks great!


Sent from Petguide.com App


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## ashleylyn (Mar 30, 2013)

Thank you so much, it means a lot! 

I hadn't tested the ammonia for a couple of days since everything looked fine and fish were all active and normal, but tested it today just to be sure. It was at 0ppm.


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## ashleylyn (Mar 30, 2013)

Just an update. I had gone over a week without a WC and ammonia was between 0ppm and .25ppm, so I did a change yesterday. My remaining two girls are doing great and the one that started being attacked by the bacteria or whatever it was has fin regrowth from where it was damaged, so I'm praying my girls are in the clear. Snails and guppies are all doing well, too.

It's tough. I only have the two girls left, which is clearly not good. It is a 30g though and the filter is kind of strong, so they get easily deterred swimming and if they're together, they usually go their separate ways in 5 seconds and explore another part of the tank or look for food. I could remove one, but I don't have a spare heater for another small tank at the moment and with working 2 jobs and being a full time student, on top of dealing with whatever happened, well, quite frankly I'm too tired to have to do constant WCs on a smaller tank. These girls have been together for months and both seem fairly docile, so hopefully things stay mellow until I figure out what I'm doing. I don't want to introduce any more girls yet since I may be getting into wilds, which would eventually be moved to the 30g. I guess I could pick up another 2 or 3 though as they could go into the 10g if the wilds go in the 30. Since I see them at work all of the time, it's kind of like its own quarantine period. Maybe on my next shift I'll buy a couple. Haven't seen any that really caught my eye though and after losing so many fish, I am not in a rush to add more. I need to treat and clean my 10g since the bacteria ran rampant through there as well. Ugh.


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## ashleylyn (Mar 30, 2013)

Update:

2 of my original betta girls made it. I've purchased 3 more since the whole bacteria thing and all are doing well. I bought 4 ghost shrimp over a week ago and all are thriving and super fun to watch. My snails are really growing now and I have tons of plant growth! 2 of my female guppies have given birth, another is due any day, and the others appear to be in the early stages of pregnancy. 

This is how far my tank has come in less than a month!


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## ashleylyn (Mar 30, 2013)

Hey guys... back from a little hiatus! My tank is well stocked, plants are thriving, I have a plethora of snails... and someone gave me a 40 gallon with filter and other miscellaneous equipment totally free today!


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## kodawg9 (Dec 25, 2013)

I really like your tank set up. Just curious, just how different is the black diamond blasting sand compared with regular black sand? I've been trying to figure out what substrate and what color I should use and I feel like after looking at your set up, going black sand as cap would be perfect for my NPT


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