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Shame that loving tank.
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Nov 15, 2015 23:50
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Here's a lazy question for you all. I've been testing my nitrates before my weekend water change, and it seems to be around 5PPM every week even with increased fish load. Ammonia and nitrites are 0, thankfully. Anyway, I'm trying to get my carpet to spread and not uproot my DHG shoots, so gravel vacuuming is annoying right now. Additionally, sometimes the idea of dragging buckets around for the change is a bit dreary sounding. If I'm not really going over 5-10PPM on Nitrates, is the weekly water change essential for fishy health? Can I do it every two weeks if my nitrates are in control, or is this asking for trouble?
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Nov 16, 2015 00:04
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If you're planting in the gravel, dont vacuum anywhere near your plants. And as long as the nitrate levels are stable you can change whenever. I change my 12 liter tank once a month because there's only shrimp and snails in there with lots of plants so the water is pristine. The big tank gets water changed every 2 weeks. I'd let it go longer but it evaporates quite a bit so it's probably concentrating other stuff that isnt nitrates.
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Nov 16, 2015 00:11
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SynthOrange posted:I'd let it go longer but it evaporates quite a bit so it's probably concentrating other stuff that isnt nitrates. Yeah, what's with all this evaporation?! I have full glass covers, and even extended the covers with the trimmable plastic bits so no one jumps out. Yet I still lose quite a bit every week...
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Nov 16, 2015 00:23
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It just depends on the exposed surface area and how much airflow that surface gets. Unless its' really sealed up tight then it's inevitable.
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Nov 16, 2015 00:35
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Filter type makes a difference in evaporation too. All the tiny little micro-spray onto your hood/light from a HOB adds up.
Slugworth fucked around with this message at 01:57 on Nov 16, 2015 |
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Nov 16, 2015 01:53
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Also ambient temperature and humidity. Dry air pulls a gallon every day or two out of my 15g during winter. In the summer, it can take as much as a week to do that.
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Nov 16, 2015 06:23
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You can think if it as a very overpriced humidifier if it makes you feel any better.
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Nov 16, 2015 08:31
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  People say that this is fine because she has enough filtration but that just looks like too drat many fish man. Filtration doesn't matter that much when there's so many crammed in there they can't move.
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Nov 16, 2015 08:48
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How's the bottom not covered in poop
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Nov 16, 2015 08:50
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I kind of want to figure out what all those fish are, count them, and enter the tank into AqAdvisor to see how overstocked it is but I don't know my way around cichlids at all. Also want to try to do the tank in the video just to have AqAdvisor shout all those warnings at me.
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Nov 16, 2015 09:50
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Looks freshly vacced. Bunch of peacocks that I've never been able to identify, some venustus, at least one auratus, I think some yellow labs, and what appear to be frontosas and even red jewels for some loving reason. Among other things.
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Nov 16, 2015 11:27
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SynthOrange posted:How's the bottom not covered in poop I'm surprised there isn't a small furball fight in there somewhere. No hiding places or line of sight breaks.
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Nov 16, 2015 12:32
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A tale of two weeks growth in pictures:pre:Purchased Oct 26th: Nov 8th: Nov 13: All my mollies have lyretails, but one recently lost the top lyre and looks to be losing the lower one. I am not certain if this is fin rot or if it is abuse from other fish in the tank (the part where the lyre attaches to the rest of the tail was speckled red and is now white). I'm not home to grab a picture, and they tend to move too much to make that easy, but if that helps in figuring it out i'll try. It's possible that the male of the 4 is doing it as all the females just gave birth last week, but I haven't seen any of the fish nip fins like that before so I can't be sure. e: apparently vegetarian/omnivorous species eating the Egeria is a thing. They don't seem to be growing all that fast which given their reputation and the growth of the other plants is surprising, so I might try letting them float in a breeder box for a few days to see if they perk up. Coolwhoami fucked around with this message at 20:31 on Nov 16, 2015 |
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Nov 16, 2015 17:04
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republicant posted:
Hah, I see we're in the same fb group. Just had to shake my head and scroll on by.
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Nov 16, 2015 23:52
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Hiya! Long time, no post! Sorry for all the  , I bolded my questions below if you don't feel like reading all this.So, I moved my divided 20g high with 3 bettas and a smattering of ghost shrimp to a new apartment 2 hrs away back in late July. Fish were happy, but the rest of my shrimp died soon after. I had a HUGE green algae bloom that I fought back with vigorous scrubbing and vacuuming once or twice a week. Incidentally, I'm in love with this power vacuum. Now I can vacuum to my heart's content without losing all my water! Got it down to a rather manageable level, then decided to give nerites a go. I LOVE my three little half inch nerites! I've got a horned bumblebee, an olive, and a dark colored one with little white dots. I have not seen algae since a few days after I put them in. These guys are amazing! Unfortunately, about a month ago, Leo the betta got really nasty finrot. Being an idiot, I just cleaned the tank really well and hoped that would be enough to make it better. He got worse, and then I was afraid he'd be so stressed by the move from the big tank to a tiny hospital tank would kill him, so I still didn't move him. Then I had to go on a week long trip. My SO called about halfway through letting me know he had passed away.   Shortly after, Clay started exhibiting similar symptoms. Bad fin rot, lethargy, listing. I can't find anything else wrong with this fish, and my water quality is tops. But, I moved him to a hospital tank and put in an indian almond leaf (they have some antibacterial properties, I've read, plus bettas just like them) and some aquarium salt. He got to the point where he was just laying sideways on the leaf all day, blowing little bubble nests. He finally passed away this last Friday. I'm really sad about him especially because he was so sick when I bought him at the pet store and I nursed him back to health. He just didn't make it this time around. I also feel really bad because finrot is apparently super contagious and I didn't know so it's really all my fault. Rest in peace, little dudes. My last betta, Ichabod, looks as gorgeous and healthy as the day I bought him. I've removed the dividers and rearranged the tank to better suit him. This image is from today.  On Sunday I went to the LFS I've been wanting to visit since we got here (IT WAS AWESOME!!) and bought some anacharis, water sprite and a val to supplement the wisteria I already have in the tank. And 10 ghost shrimp because I love them. I just did a water check earlier today and cleaned out the filter for the first time in a long time and I have a bunch of questions because I'd really like to make this into a community tank now. So first, my filter is this little powerhouse. It comes with ceramic rings which I assumed are a bio media, but when I took the filter apart today they weren't gunked up at all. Isn't bio media supposed to go brown as it gets covered in bacteria? The sponge and cotton batting I have in there sure have. I read somewhere today that the ceramics are actually used as a prefilter somehow? If these aren't going to grow bacteria, I'd rather use my sponges and batting for mechanical and replace the ceramic with something else. So, what do you guys recommend for compact bio filter media? Second, here's a picture of the tank as it is today!  If you look closely, you might see Ichabod the black fishy and all three snails.  I would love some low-growing foreground plants, but I have a low tech tank so I can't do anything too intensive. I love that anubias petite someone posted a ways back. Do you guys have any suggestions for low effort foreground plants or should I just stick with transplanting the wisteria babies?Also, I read a thing today that scared the crap out of me. Apparently foggy silicone is a sign of stressed joints? Does my tank look like it's in danger?   As for adapting this to a community tank, my major hurdle seems to lie in the water parameters. I have really really high ph (in excess of 8.4) really high kH (300+) and really high gH (300+). Nerites bettas and ghost shrimp all seem to be fine in hard, basic water, but I'm having a hard time finding community freshwaters that are. Cichlids, apparently would love it. What I'm hoping to get is a school for the midlevel of my tank, non aggressive and fast enough to get away from the betta if he gets grumpy. I am in love with the looks of the emerald dwarf rasbora, but they prefer more acidic water, I think, and republicant's posts about them being timid are making me reconsider. Maybe a type of tetra or a hardier rasbora or danio? According to aqadvisor, I'm at 311% on filtration and only 31% stocking level, so I have room to add. I'd prefer to keep to a single schooling fish to avoid stressing Ichy out. Any suggestions for quick, docile and hardy midlevel community fish that can handle hard, basic water and a betta tankmate?  Wish I could have corys, but with the water parameters being so counter to what they prefer as well as me worrying about my blasting sand being too rough, I wouldn't want to risk their health. Does anyone know anything about bamboo shrimp? I would love to get one, and the only problem I'm seeing with my tank for one is the low water flow, which I think I have a solution for. Where that ugly bubble bar is now, I'd like to add a small sponge filter, which I think would provide localized current for the shrimp to filter feed without creating too high a flow for my fancy betta to feel comfortable. How do you know if you have enough of a current for a shrimp before adding one and hoping it doesn't starve? Of course, I could be missing something else completely obvious that would make my tank unsuitable for a bamboo, so please point it out if anyone has any concerns. I'd hate to bring anything into the tank that wouldn't be happy here. Finally, I need advice on adding schooling fish to an aquarium. Because I've always had such a low bioload in the tank, the last thing I want to do is add a ton of fish all at once and crash the ecosystem. But how do you go about adding only a couple fish at a time if they're only happy in big groups? I'd appreciate any advice on how to properly add any new additions to my tank, or if I should add any more at all. Thanks!
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Nov 17, 2015 05:05
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I'm probably a bad fish tank owner. I basically don't test poo poo in mine so who knows what's actually going on.  my betta would be beautiful with a camera tho, he's like a big red Clifford in some moss rot and 'betta' plants...
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Nov 17, 2015 05:28
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go flare at something,
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Nov 17, 2015 05:29
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I hope foggy silicone isn't a sign of anything bad since every single one of my tanks looks like that, including ones that are only a few months old and one that doesn't even have water in it. That would be a lot of fun to deal with. I just popped in to say that my Sulawesi couple had another baby, I'm up to 12 babies total now. They're having a new one about every week.  I'm thinking about trying to sell my Japanese trapdoors on Aquabid since I have about 50 babies. They're cool looking and you don't see them very often so I wonder if people would buy them.
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Nov 17, 2015 09:52
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republicant posted:I'm thinking about trying to sell my Japanese trapdoors on Aquabid since I have about 50 babies. They're cool looking and you don't see them very often so I wonder if people would buy them. You said that you have a really big group of emerald dwarfs, didn't you? What kind of water parameters do you have? Are they in the same tank as your betta? I'd love to know more first-hand info about them.
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Nov 17, 2015 14:44
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Pistoph posted:Hiya! Long time, no post! Sorry for all the Firstly on the ceramic media. Normally you arrange your filter media so that you first have some sponge with large pores, to allow good water flow, but to catch any of the big chunks that are sucked up (to be rinsed out later when you clean your filter). Bacteria will grow on the sponge but the surface area isn't that high because you have large holes to allow that water to flow. Next you have finer sponge, or fibre matting style filters. These will eventually clog with gunk too, and need rinsing, but the gunk will be a mix of bacteria that has grown and random organic lumps that the first sponge didn't stop. The surface area is higher, the gaps are smaller, the flow isn't as strong. Mostly when you rinse your sponges and fibre/floss/cotton from the filter you're knocking of organic By the time your water flow gets to the ceramic media you want all the chunks to be gone, since the pores in ceramic media are very small and can clog very easily. However, they have a pretty big surface area for bacteria to grow on. Some people say eventually they'll clog and you need to replace them, other people say it doesn't matter that much if there is a bit of clogging since then you'll have an anaerobic zone and the bacteria can process your nitrates directly to nitrogen gas. The effect is most likely very small though. Seachem Matrix claims that you never need to replace it, but it feels noticably airy and foamy compared to other ceramic noodle type media that I've tried. Anyway there will be bacteria all over every surface of your tank, eating ammonia and nitrites, your filter just gives them lots more surface area as well as doing the mechanical filtering of lumps and possibly chemical filtration if you have purigen or carbon. I think it's good to have a mix of media in your filter to provide lots of different surfaces and opportunities for bacteria to colonise. I am not sure that I've seen ceramic used as a prefilter (it really wouldn't mechanically filter much at all) but I have seen plastic bioballs used to catch stuff like leaf litter in the first stages of a wet/dry filter. Again you have to rinse it out every now and then to get rid of clogs, plastic bioballs have even bigger holes for better flow than sponge. This doesn't even cover moving bed type filters but they are more of the same kind of thing. Good flow, lots of surface area, but because they move they don't clog very easily at all and don't need cleaning as often. Mostly you don't need that kind of thing unless you have a big tank full of big dirty fish and you need lots of surface area in as small as space as possible to get adequate filtration for that bioload. Secondly on adding fish: if you're looking to add fish to give your betta company, he doesn't need company. If you're adding them for yourself to look at, something like some neon blue-eyes (or maybe other blue-eye species, not sure what you'd have available there) could probably handle that hardness. They're a bit timid though, the real danger with adding fish to a betta tank is who is going to bully whom. If you have a cranky betta he will give your timid non-fin nipping fish a bad time. I was going to suggest male guppies, but they are too similar a shape to a betta and are likely to trigger aggression. I was then going to suggest cherry or other dwarf barbs but they've got a reputation as fin nippers for a reason (and might stress your betta by being too boisterous even if they don't nip). You really are better off penning the betta in for both his own protection and the protection of any tankmates in case he gets in a bad mood. Or get a betta tank for the betta, and use your bigger tank as a proper community with carefully selected fish. A betta is not a community fish. With regards to adding bioload, you do have plants which helps, your filter looks pretty good too. You can add a "group" of fish without the tank cycle instantly breaking, but you might have to do more water changes while you're waiting for everything to catch up. If you aren't monitoring your ammonia/nitrites/nitrates in your tank, you'd want to start doing it again after you add new fish to make sure everything is running smoothly and to change water as necessary. I've never heard the foggy silicone story before. I've got a siliconed glass tank out the back that is older than I am (so probably in its 40s) and its silicone has never been replaced - I'll go have a look. Yes, its foggy but it doesn't leak. So I would say you can't assume that foggy means bad. I didn't answer the plants question because I misread it at first to be about carpeting plants, and I know they are hard to do without bright light and additives otherwise the plants don't stay low. But foreground is a little different, I've got some hydrocotyle mini which I really like, when it grows too tall you cut those bits off and replant.  Not my pic but a good example on the upper right of how it grows, you can see it puts out runners and each node has both leaves and roots so it lends itself very well to cutting and replanting. It grows better if you don't have floating plants blocking light, mine is getting a bit leggy due to excessive duckweed but it still looks good. I just have LED aquarium lights, nothing particularly special or bright and I don't use ferts much (root tabs, very occasional liquid dosing) and hydrocotyle does fine. Snails love to munch it though. I like elocharis (hair grass) too but my fish ate all of it. They ate almost all the hydrocotyle as well, I managed to save a couple of scraps and repopulate a second tank from a very small amount. From the point of view of what would make a good aquascape, I don't think hydrocotyle has enough of a contrast in colour vs water wisteria to look good near each other. Lilaeopsis is a nicer dark green but doesn't do well without fairly bright light. Probably the most reliable plant I have is rotala, it's another one that loves being cut and replanted, so you might be able to find a variety that you can keep trimmed low for a foreground plant. These ceramic media grew algae on it, and my shrimp love to pick over it. It's white underneath where the light doesn't reach though.  These ones were in my DIY bucket filter for my pond (before it broke) and the tannins in the water stained them a bit yellow. Excuse the sand. Anyway it took quite a long time before these media got discoloured! But it does eventually happen. 
Stoca Zola fucked around with this message at 15:16 on Nov 17, 2015 |
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Nov 17, 2015 14:57
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Completely anecdotal :: my betta isn't shy about bossing around other fish, but he completely leaves my ottos/pleco/shrimp alone.. Only ones who see aggression are neons, who aren't real threats, and there's too many of them/they're too fast to be in any danger. I'd say some can work in a community, they just disqualify a large swath of tank mates. dumpieXL fucked around with this message at 17:42 on Nov 17, 2015 |
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Nov 17, 2015 17:38
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Pistoph posted:Yay babies! Are they cool colors like your mysteries or rabbits? If so, I'm sure plenty of people would be interested. I'd love to get more snails, but I worry that they won't have enough to eat. They're really interesting looking snails, I can't really think of anything to compare them to. Their shells are chalky grey in color and they kind of spiral off to the side. The babies are really round with clear, speckled shells. They seem to be pretty similar to mystery snails in temperament but seem to be a bit more sensitive to water conditions.   My betta lives in a 10 gallon that's primarily a dedicated snail tank, for rabbit snails/mysteries/Japanese trapdoors/pink ramshorns. He sometimes doesn't get along well with fish so it works out keeping him with what he sees as a bunch of inanimate objects. The emerald dwarfs are in a 20 high with lambchop rasboras, strawberry rasboras, pygmy cories, and I previously had a large group of celestial pearl danios but they somehow slowly disappeared one by one and now I have two left, out of 14. Never found a single body, it's just a mystery. The emerald dwarfs seem to be doing well, but they tend to be a bit shy and stay towards the bottom of the tank. They are beautiful fish though and definitely one of my favorites. republicant fucked around with this message at 18:57 on Nov 17, 2015 |
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Nov 17, 2015 17:51
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My boyfriend just came home and surprised me with four new CPDs... Except it turned out to actually be three CPDs and a dwarf puffer. Lmao he's pissed that the LFS guy caught the wrong fish but I like the puffer. (We already keep puffers so it's not a disaster like it could be.) And I'll still have a full school of CPDs again.
republicant fucked around with this message at 18:33 on Nov 17, 2015 |
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Nov 17, 2015 17:59
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Stoca Zola posted:Lots of awesome filter info Stoca Zola posted:Secondly on adding fish: if you're looking to add fish to give your betta company, he doesn't need company. A betta is not a community fish. He has this really funny/odd behavior, though. If I add anything to his tank that doesn't move away, he lays on it. For instance, here's some pics from me adding an algae wafer for the snails:  Hm? What's this? Eh, don't care. No, I totally have to lay on it.He only does it when something is newly introduced. He did it when I added his snail, too. What is he doing?  Stoca Zola posted:Plants, silicone, adding fish Pistoph fucked around with this message at 20:23 on Nov 17, 2015 |
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Nov 17, 2015 19:43
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republicant posted:My boyfriend just came home and surprised me with four new CPDs... Except it turned out to actually be three CPDs and a dwarf puffer. Lmao he's pissed that the LFS guy caught the wrong fish but I like the puffer. (We already keep puffers so it's not a disaster like it could be.) And I'll still have a full school of CPDs again.
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Nov 17, 2015 19:44
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Fish Noise posted:Okay it's not entirely him directly this time but this is still multiple stages of people not looking at what the hell they're doing how the gently caress They both have spots, so I guess there's some similarly, but jeeze.
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Nov 17, 2015 20:57
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Fish Noise posted:Okay it's not entirely him directly this time but this is still multiple stages of people not looking at what the hell they're doing how the gently caress I don't think the LFS guy knows what a Celestial Pearl Danio is honestly. My SO got to the store and asked if they had any in stock and the guy told him no, but the first tank he looked in had a few in there, along with neon tetras, harlequin rasboras, and a random puffer. Then he asked to buy some and the guy started scooping up harlequin rasboras, then finally got CPDs but also got the puffer. We went back out fish shopping and got 3 more CPDs and 4 lambchop rasboras to add to the school I already have. Shitload of fish food and random stuff too.
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Nov 17, 2015 23:11
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Hey guys! I have a bit of an emergency. I have my 40 gallon tank set up in the living room and it's only been cycling for a week but we are getting a huge cold snap tonight and the temps for the next week will be down in the 40s at night so I am forced to move my danios inside RIGHT NOW. I have about 10 little ones and 6 giant ones. If I can catch them all (not going to happen) can they survive while the tank cycles itself? I have moved a bunch of the plants from the pond into the tank to help with oxygenation as well as hopefully bringing some good stuff with them. Any advice?
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Nov 17, 2015 23:22
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Sounds like you don't have any option but you should be fairly confident going forward if you've seeding the tank decently? :v I switched tanks in under a week and had zero causalities(11 neons, handful of shrimp, pleco, betta), and all I used was bottled bacteria.
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Nov 18, 2015 00:21
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Well freezing is certain death so you'll have to take their chances in the tank. You'll need to get a test kit and test the ammonia and nitrite probably every day, and do large water changes daily to keep the levels down. It's not optimal but it's definitely possible to cycle with fish in the tank. As long as the ammonia and nitrite levels are kept down they should be fine. I screwed up and got harlequin rasboras instead of lambchop rasboras (they look quite similar especially when you don't have internet access at the pet store), but they fit right in with the lambchops I have and they've all formed a big happy school, and their care requirements fit with everything else. Honestly I wonder if the fish can even tell themselves apart since they really do look very similar. My new CPDs are very active and visible too. I kind of lost interest in this tank after my beloved CPDs disappeared and now I love it again. I swear I'm going to count the drat fish every day and keep a log just to make sure that doesn't happen again. republicant fucked around with this message at 00:25 on Nov 18, 2015 |
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Nov 18, 2015 00:22
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republicant posted:Well freezing is certain death so you'll have to take their chances in the tank. You'll need to get a test kit and test the ammonia and nitrite probably every day, and do large water changes daily to keep the levels down. It's not optimal but it's definitely possible to cycle with fish in the tank. As long as the ammonia and nitrite levels are kept down they should be fine. republicant, your tanks all sound so cool! I would love to see pics of this one, especially. I really love the look of CPDs. I have a question about alkalinity. On my test kit, KH goes from 0-300. However on sites like LiveAquaria, KH is listed more often from like 8-12. Is this a simple conversion of moving the decimal? 180->18? How important a consideration is alkalinity when looking at fish options? From my reading, alkalinity is a buffer that prevents pH from dropping. Would you guys risk keeping fish in a pH outside their ideal range?
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Nov 18, 2015 00:47
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The rule as far as I know is that a fish that prefers soft water will usually adapt to harder water (up to a point) but their eggs might not hatch or fry might not cope quite as well. Aquarium bred fish are more used to harder water than wild caught fish who have been living in rivers made from very clean meltwater. A fish that needs hard water cannot live in soft water. This is talking about general hardness though, which is stuff like calcium and magnesium, KH is for carbonate hardness which looks at the buffering capacity of the water isn't the same and the two hardnesses won't necessarily match. There is a relationship between pH and KH and as long as your pH is between 6 and 8 you're better off trying to keep the KH steady and the pH will follow. Usually those smaller numbers that you see are in German degrees of hardness (written as dH or °) and according to the chart in my test kit, 300ppm is around 16°. Here have a read. The test kit works by the number of drops it takes to do the colour change for each test is about equal to the number of degrees of hardness. My main tank has some carbonate sand which helps add buffering (the sand in my ceramic media pic is for one of my guppy grow out tubs, they prefer it hard too) and I use a mix of filtered and reverse osmosis tap water as my change water since my pH comes out the tap at 10 or so here. But, I didn't know that at first and my rosy barbs still survived in it. The pH in a tank drops over time especially if you have driftwood and that tank sits at 7.8 most of the time (and I don't use pH down type chemicals). The GH and KH in that tank were something like 8 and 10. My second tank has my lower pH softer water fish such as corydoras and a few tetras and currently sits at 6.3. I use more reverse osmosis water in the mix and add chemicals back in using seachem equilibrium for GH and seachem alkalinity for KH. I can stick a TDS meter in that water and measure 210ppm but the GH is around 3 degrees and the KH is around 4 degrees according to the test kit; I'm still getting a feel for how much alkalinity to add to get the buffering right. Anyway don't assume you have enough (or too much) hardness based solely on ppm or dipsticks, a good hardness test kit that does both GH and KH will be able to tell you exactly what you have. Mostly the thing to remember is the fish don't know or care what the numbers are on your tests, they just want to live in a stable environment where the pH and hardness aren't jumping around all over the place (some fish can be prompted to spawn by adding cooler softer water, as if to replicate Spring meltwater or rainwater but they don't want that happening all the time). One of the main reasons I switched to using filtered/RO water is because I can't trust the stability of my tap water. They dose it differently or maybe it just comes out differently during hot weather, sometimes it comes out of the tap smelling like a swimming pool and the regular dose of dechlorinator was not enough/not working. With my set up now I know what I am putting in the tanks and it makes it easier to keep it consistent. My RO system has needed the filter and carbon block changed already but the RO membrane is still fine. With the system I have it can be adjusted and used for drinking water as well as aquarium water so I feel like I have been getting my money's worth out of it. The advice I got very early on was to pick fish suitable for your water rather than trying to play chemistry catch up and I'd suggest the same for you, it's no fun getting fish and keeping them in the wrong conditions, then they get sick more easily and then you're in the realms of needing a hospital tank, trying to guess which medicine will work, which dosage will work to treat the disease without also harming the fish, whether it will kill off your filter bacteria, then after hanging on for weeks your fish dies anyway. (This is probably why I've lost a lot of my beacon tetras but if I put them in the other tank, the other tetras bully them mercilessly, it's a bit lose-lose so I won't be getting more of those even though I love them). You can use the advanced search on seriouslyfish.com to put your tank size, temperature, pH and hardness in and find fish that suit your conditions (it's a bit janky, you sometimes need to leave off ph or hardness because not every profile has the same information in it) or there are plenty of species specific websites, especially for cichlids, that can tell you more about different fish.
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Nov 18, 2015 02:31
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Errant Gin Monks posted:Hey guys! I have a bit of an emergency. I have my 40 gallon tank set up in the living room and it's only been cycling for a week but we are getting a huge cold snap tonight and the temps for the next week will be down in the 40s at night so I am forced to move my danios inside RIGHT NOW. You could also grab some cycling product, such as Seachem stability. Moving the fish in is going to wreck whatever plan you were going to do for cycling regardless, so the key now is to keep them healthy while the tank establishes its own biofilter. How have you been cycling the tank? If you've been putting ammonia in it, you're going to basically need to change all of the water out in order to get that level down to somewhere safe. If you have a bucket or a tub, depending on the filter you have you could rig it up on that while to do the water change, as this will help reduce the amount of stress incurred by moving them and at least manage the ammonia level a bit (after about a week you should have a decent level of ammonia consuming bacteria). For catching them buggers, try using two nets to herd them in (if you have two), and if possible do it without lights on as it will make it easier to catch them (as they won't see the net(s) as easily). Pistoph posted:I have a question about alkalinity. On my test kit, KH goes from 0-300. However on sites like LiveAquaria, KH is listed more often from like 8-12. Is this a simple conversion of moving the decimal? 180->18? How important a consideration is alkalinity when looking at fish options? From my reading, alkalinity is a buffer that prevents pH from dropping. Your test is probably indicating in ppm, whereas on the websites they are talking about dkH. If you multiply the result you get by .056 you will get dkH. I would recommend against it as over time it can be harmful, especially large differences. There are many products to adjust pH up or down, so depending on where you're at you might want to look into that.
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Nov 18, 2015 02:46
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Pistoph I forgot to ask you, are you testing just your tank water or have you tested your water before you put it in the tank? If your tank has had a build up of hardness over time (ie due to evaporation) it might not match your tap water at all.
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Nov 18, 2015 03:07
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Coolwhoami posted:You could also grab some cycling product, such as Seachem stability. Moving the fish in is going to wreck whatever plan you were going to do for cycling regardless, so the key now is to keep them healthy while the tank establishes its own biofilter. How have you been cycling the tank? If you've been putting ammonia in it, you're going to basically need to change all of the water out in order to get that level down to somewhere safe. If you have a bucket or a tub, depending on the filter you have you could rig it up on that while to do the water change, as this will help reduce the amount of stress incurred by moving them and at least manage the ammonia level a bit (after about a week you should have a decent level of ammonia consuming bacteria). I had a filter running in the pond for the past month to build up some bacteria in the pad which I moved inside and used household ammonia on the water (I had been planning on doing this soon so I was kind of prepared) I did a full water change by using my extra submersible pump and running the tube outside, then replaced the water and used a chlorine remover. Then transplanted 7 anacharis plants and a big leaf plant thing into the tank along with some big rocks that had been sitting in there getting slimy. I rinsed all the algae off but didn't scrub them too hard. I figured easier to clean out algae then kill my fishes, there was very little algae growth in the pond because.. I have no idea why. I caught all of them but 3 of the giant danios, they are just too drat fast. If they live through the night maybe they will be sluggish enough to be caught. Little fuckers. I even caught 3 little fry I hadn't seen before. I'm going to buy some of the testing kits and some extra liquid bacteria and try to save the little bastards. Is 12 danios too much for 40 gallons? I hope not because I want some tetras and shrimps to go in here as well. Along with a bunch more plants. Here it is as of right now. Not too ugly but I need way more plants. 
Errant Gin Monks fucked around with this message at 05:28 on Nov 18, 2015 |
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Nov 18, 2015 04:05
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Stoca Zola posted:Pistoph I forgot to ask you, are you testing just your tank water or have you tested your water before you put it in the tank? If your tank has had a build up of hardness over time (ie due to evaporation) it might not match your tap water at all. I just tested my tap water and you were right! The results are different. GH is still 300+ ppm KH is somewhere around 120-180 ppm and the pH is close to 7.8 So how do I keep my tank hardness down? More frequent/bigger water changes? I water change infrequently due to having such a low bioload. Coolwhoami posted:Your test is probably indicating in ppm, whereas on the websites they are talking about dkH. If you multiply the result you get by .056 you will get dkH. I would recommend against it as over time it can be harmful, especially large differences. There are many products to adjust pH up or down, so depending on where you're at you might want to look into that. I've heard that the inherent fluctuations that come from chemical pH modifiers are more harmful to fish than the pH itself, so if I can't find a fish that can tolerate my situation well then I'll just stick with what I have. I think what I'll end up doing is going back to the LFS and talking with them about their water and if they treat it, etc. See if they have any stock that they recommend that can tolerate local water conditions well. Also, does anyone have opinions on neon or cardinal tetras? I'm getting mixed reviews saying they're really passive, hardy little fish, or they're finicky little fin nipping terrors.
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Nov 18, 2015 04:30
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Errant Gin Monks posted:I'm going to buy some of the testing kits and some extra liquid bacteria and try to save the little bastards. Is 12 danios too much for 40 gallons? I hope not because I want some tetras and shrimps to go in here as well. Along with a bunch more plants. Aqadvisor is saying just under 60% for your current stocking level, just over 80 if you manage to catch the remaining danios. I'm not sure how they school, but if the giant danios aren't hanging out with the other ones you'll probably want to get a couple more giants if the others die in the pond. Plants are generally fine so don't worry too much about that, same for shrimp. Play around with Aqadvisor to see what sort of set up can be managed (it tends to be conservative, so going slightly over what it calls 100% is generally ok). Pistoph posted:I just tested my tap water and you were right! The results are different. Your water is extremely hard both for carbonate and mineral. These two things are separate, although frequently are high together. gH is general hardness and is a measure of metal ions in water, most commonly calcium and magnesium, while kH is carbonate hardness, and typically reflects levels of various bicarbonates. Both are important, but for different reasons. The reason gH matters pertains to how fish drink, as well maintaining important trace minerals in your fish. gH is mostly a problem when it is too low for the fish you have. Shimmies, a common problem especially in mollies, is due to low hardness, and I suspect the shimmying behaviour is a reflex to help reduce the osmosic pressure outwards. Usually the problem is mostly that water is too soft, but make sure before getting new types of fish that they are compatible with your water conditions. kH matters for a couple of reasons. High kH is usually good, as it helps scale growth, but even more importantly is its relationship to pH (pH, unlike the others, isn't referring to hardness but rather hydrogen). High kH buffers against rapid pH changes, which is much bigger problem than having fish in a pH they aren't suited to. This is likely what you heard about, as additives to change pH are often not used well and swing them too quickly. Since your local water has high values for both of these things, you're in a good spot because you won't need to do as much to prevent problems in your water (my local water is extremely soft and to ensure my mollies and guppies do ok I need to add products to increase both my gH and kH). The only problem is that you're kinda stuck for your pH, which means you're going to have to stick to fish that do well in alkaline water. African cichlids, mollies, guppies and plecos are fish I know for sure are well suited to such conditions, but there is a wide variety of options otherwise. I have neons, and my biggest complaint would be that they are a relatively boring fish if kept with anything the perceive as threatening, as they get extremely skittish. If you get them, get a lot of them (10 or more), as they tend to be more confident in larger schools.
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Nov 18, 2015 07:55
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Neons are getting a reputation for being inbred and sickly due to unscrupulous breeders while cardinals are not yet experiencing those issues. They would be boring and timid in a situation where they feel unsafe ie not enough plant cover, not enough room to swim around, not a big enough school, an overly frisky or large tank mate putting them on edge etc. All tetras seem to squabble and form pecking orders inside their schools so again, too few fish and some of that aggression may be turned outwards towards other fish who don't know the correct social response that a tetra would expect, which results in fin nipping. Barbs' fin nipping reputation comes from a similar issue although in addition they constantly test everything in their environment to see if it's edible. General hardness is the one you use to work out fish compatibility. Here is how I think of it: some common chemicals that may be dissolved in your water. Sodium bicarbonate, calcium carbonate, magnesium carbonate. The sodium ions will add to your total dissolved solids but only add salinity not general hardness. Some fish do like salinity, most do not. The calcium and magnesium ions add to both total dissolved solids and to general hardness, they are electrolytes required by the fish. All three of these chemicals add carbonate hardness to the water, and the pH of this water is likely to be alkaline. To reduce the pH you can add pH Down, which contains to sulphuric acid. This adds more to your total dissolved solids and removes some carbonate to co2 gas leaving water and sulphate ions. Alternatively you can use Proper pH (a buffer) which adds to your TDS and kills all your plants. You can't mess with one part of the equation without affecting the other parts, and you can't add something to make something else go away; the only real way to control water chemistry is to not put the chemicals in your tank in the first place. If you can get a source of aquarium quality distilled water you could mix your tap water and plain water to get the hardness you want (as long as you measure your tap water first, sounds like your water supply might be variable too). Coolwhoami you beat me to reply since I'm phone posting 
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Nov 18, 2015 08:07
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Stoca Zola posted:Coolwhoami you beat me to reply since I'm phone posting So was I, heh. Yours addressed some different aspects so it ultimately was for the best anyhow.
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Nov 18, 2015 08:17
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