maverick786us
Member
Thank you, I have Hydrocotyle Japan as the fast growing stem plant. I have duckweed as floating plants
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All the fishes in my tank died
- Thread starter maverick786us
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maverick786us
Member
I think I am gonna go and plant some Rotala in the background
Just a word of warning, water testing for things like nitrites and nitrates is notoriously unreliable, and dip tests are especially unreliable.
Connswater
Member
From your picture of test results, which may not be accurate, your tap water once treated for chlorine is perfect. I, if I was you, would as I have said, try running a low tech tank first, for a year or so, before using CO2. And please, don't add fish until your filters are mature, ask in a fish shop for some filth from a filter and seed your filter, that is, if you don't have access to a genuinely mature filter media from a friend, and personally, since you are not experienced, stop testing your water and stop playing about with the pH. The science is not straightforward. Most of us don't start with CO2 injection on our journey in the hobby and testing is not normally going to tell you much of value, I kept fish successfully for decades without testing my tank water or tap water. Fish need stability and filters with lots of bacteria that convert waste into harmless products. You seem very keen on CO2 and low pH, but remember fish need O2 and they need bacteria in the filter to keep the water sweet. The alternative is, I suppose, to try a plant only tank with injected CO2, but that is an unusual route into the hobby.
Those are not enough use the below plant!
Hygrophila polysperma - Dwarf Hygrophila
Hygrophila polysperma is a robust and highly adaptable plant originating from India and Bhutan. There is also brown variety native to Sri Lanka, which has been brought into trade by the aquatic plant nursery Tropica and is sold under the na...
www.flowgrow.de
@maverick786us,
Start with the water values from your water supplier.
I found Columbus Columbus Water Works may be your supplier.
Start with the water values from your water supplier.
I found Columbus Columbus Water Works may be your supplier.
maverick786us
Member
This is my sixth Aquascape, My first Aquascape is a 50 gallon low tech tank (picture 1) that I made way back in august. That time I knew nothing about aquascaping, I paid to a guy who is into fish business but had little knowledge of aquasdaping he made that aquascape for me. When I say he had little knowledge of aquascaping you can see from picture that he planted background plants right in the foreground area.
I introduced live stock after 3 weeks, there were few casualties with the fancy goldfishes but now, this tank is stable and all the fishes are living happily. I am not planning to buy any more goldfishes.
Picture 2 was my second aquascape a nano tank, that I created all by myself, except the waterfall, because I don't have the equipment. I introduced live stock in that tank 1 week later, there was no casualty except Otto cats and few siamese who jumped, out. 3 weeks ago I Demolished that tank and moved its live stock in a 60P tank, which is m third aquascape.
Picture 3. In that tank some of my cardinal tetras started dying. I did some research and found that cardinal tetras thrive in soft water with low PH, so I was told to use RO water. Ever since then I was using RO water, until now.
My 4th aquascape was a nano tank I gifted to my sister.
This was my fifth aquascape and this was the first time I used Co2, because I had grasses. In that tank I introduced live stock within a week. There was no casualty, except a juvenile bristle nose place who was sick and few infected Cory panda. 2 weeks ago one rasbora disappeared, who I noticed was sick, weak and was isolated by her schoolmates. Since then all the fishes are having good time.
My latest and most anticipated aquascape, this disaster took place, that all the fishes died within a spam of 4 days.
Last edited:
maverick786us
Member
Ok I will buy it this weekend.Those are not enough use the below plant!
Hygrophila polysperma - Dwarf Hygrophila
Hygrophila polysperma is a robust and highly adaptable plant originating from India and Bhutan. There is also brown variety native to Sri Lanka, which has been brought into trade by the aquatic plant nursery Tropica and is sold under the na...
maverick786us
Member
I will so my research on this, they claim that they supply this water in Fort Benning so their quality is one of the purest
maverick786us
Member
I was shocked to see the amount of chlorine in these readings, do I really need a de-chlorinater?
Yes, as you never know when the local municipal Water Supplier will overdose the system with both chlorine and chloramines.
I use these products below.
Connswater
Member
That is good news. You have some experience and that you have access to filter bacteria. Your fancy goldfish look lovely and the tank looks lovely.
Cardinal tetras actually do quite well in water with a modestly high level of alkalinity. If we want to breed cardinal tetras soft and acidic water is required. I kept a shoal of around 50 cardinal tetras in hard London tap water. A GH greater than 14 and a modest alkalinity that is, a pH of about 7.5. I did this for more than 5 years, in a 5 foot 6 inch, planted tank. Cardinals, neons and rummy noses honestly do not need a low pH, very few community fish are unhappy in water between 6.5 and 8 on the pH scale. So neutral to moderately alkaline water is fine. And most fish like stable water conditions and when we start trying to change our tap water parameters things can become unstable.
The hardness, the GH, is of little interest to most fish and nearly all plants, KH is more of an issue for plants. And yes, CO2 will make a tank slightly acidic even if the tank has hard water, but with care a planted tank can run very well with neutral or even moderately alkaline water. I have a friend who even keeps discus in quite hard water with a very slightly acidic pH, not much below 6.8, and grows a good range of easy plants, Amazon swords, vallis, that type of plant. He doesn't use CO2, he just adds a little bit of natural acidity with peat in his filter. His tank is large, 8 foot, so he can't be bothered with messing about with the GH or the KH.
I am glad you enjoy the hobby but be advised, playing with pH and using CO2 and softening water with RO is quite technical. After over 55 years in the hobby I still don't fully understand water chemistry and therefore I play safe. The benefits of changing tap water hardness are often outweighed by the things that can go wrong, very wrong. CO2 is not what fish need or want. RO water must be remineralised to some extent.
Goldfish are very happy in hard water and need good levels of O2. They are just messy fish with fairly heavy bodies, so filtration and O2 is the top issue.
You might want to try a Walstad type tank with soil and gravel, the soil produces low levels of CO2 via decomposition, before using cylinder CO2, or trying a low dose yeast and sugar CO2 system.
I do use injected CO2 but with great care and I just mix some rainwater with tap water. My tank water is not especially soft, 12/10 GH maybe 10/8 KH and a pH of around 7. I keep lots of tetras but I grow some pretty difficult plants, but in the past I stuck with easy plants. I am not a fan of water testing and think that even after all my years keeping fish and plants, I should make my life easy and just use tap water and grow easy plants.
You might find this link helpful:
How to Adjust Water Hardness in the Aquarium
Written by: Tammy (@aquarist_tl) and Team Buce Plant Most aquascaping hobbyists have heard the importance of testing specific water parameters like Ammonia, Nitrate, and Nitrites. But when it comes to water hardness, many new aquarists don't test for it, or even know it exists! Water hardness...
buceplant.com
We all lose the odd fish after purchase, normally because a fish has been damaged or there is a disease present.
maverick786us
Member
in my old tanks I keep small pieces of lava rock, for beneficial bacteria, and use those rock in newly planted tanks for fast cycling. In both my high tech tanks I used ADA SUPER POUR, which seems to be as good as its expensive counterpart APT quick start to speed up nitrogen cycleThat is good news. You have some experience and that you have access to filter bacteria. Your fancy goldfish look lovely and the tank looks lovely.
Cardinal tetras actually do quite well in water with a modestly high level of alkalinity. If we want to breed cardinal tetras soft and acidic water is required. I kept a shoal of around 50 cardinal tetras in hard London tap water. A GH greater than 14 and a modest alkalinity that is, a pH of about 7.5. I did this for more than 5 years, in a 5 foot 6 inch, planted tank. Cardinals, neons and rummy noses honestly do not need a low pH, very few community fish are unhappy in water between 6.5 and 8 on the pH scale. So neutral to moderately alkaline water is fine. And most fish like stable water conditions and when we start trying to change our tap water parameters things can become unstable.
The hardness, the GH, is of little interest to most fish and nearly all plants, KH is more of an issue for plants. And yes, CO2 will make a tank slightly acidic even if the tank has hard water, but with care a planted tank can run very well with neutral or even moderately alkaline water. I have a friend who even keeps discus in quite hard water with a very slightly acidic pH, not much below 6.8, and grows a good range of easy plants, Amazon swords, vallis, that type of plant. He doesn't use CO2, he just adds a little bit of natural acidity with peat in his filter. His tank is large, 8 foot, so he can't be bothered with messing about with the GH or the KH.
I am glad you enjoy the hobby but be advised, playing with pH and using CO2 and softening water with RO is quite technical. After over 55 years in the hobby I still don't fully understand water chemistry and therefore I play safe. The benefits of changing tap water hardness are often outweighed by the things that can go wrong, very wrong. CO2 is not what fish need or want. RO water must be remineralised to some extent.
Goldfish are very happy in hard water and need good levels of O2. They are just messy fish with fairly heavy bodies, so filtration and O2 is the top issue.
You might want to try a Walstad type tank with soil and gravel, the soil produces low levels of CO2 via decomposition, before using cylinder CO2, or trying a low dose yeast and sugar CO2 system.
I do use injected CO2 but with great care and I just mix some rainwater with tap water. My tank water is not especially soft, 12/10 GH maybe 10/8 KH and a pH of around 7. I keep lots of tetras but I grow some pretty difficult plants, but in the past I stuck with easy plants. I am not a fan of water testing and think that even after all my years keeping fish and plants, I should make my life easy and just use tap water and grow easy plants.
You might find this link helpful:
How to Adjust Water Hardness in the Aquarium
Written by: Tammy (@aquarist_tl) and Team Buce Plant Most aquascaping hobbyists have heard the importance of testing specific water parameters like Ammonia, Nitrate, and Nitrites. But when it comes to water hardness, many new aquarists don't test for it, or even know it exists! Water hardness...
We all lose the odd fish after purchase, normally because a fish has been damaged or there is a disease present.
Connswater
Member
I'm glad you are working to establish helpful bacteria. I honestly don't know if these products really work or not, I've always played safe and used filter gunk, but then I've always had other tanks, even when moving. Live bacteria in yogurt also sounds like a good idea to me, but I honestly I don't know if my 'healthy' breakfast really does me any real good! Have a lovely evening, and don't worry too much. But please don't rush.
@maverick786us, lots of people have invested valuable time and effort into giving you advice to help you on your discovery of the beauty of fish keeping and aquascaping. Whilst you may be onto tank 6, you only started in August, so barely 6 months ago, and the fact the you introduced fish after one week and three weeks reflects your relative lack of experience. Please take the advice in the spirit in which it is meant by the folks in this community.
The key to successful husbandry of flora and fauna is patience and only changing one thing at a time, so that you can observe the effects of the change and draw correct conclusions. Impatience and messing with too many things at once makes it impossible to link changes to observed effects. For example, you’ve addded new filters. You should avoid making an other changes for several weeks, and that includes cha hing fertiliser, lighting, water quality, live stock. Just carry on with normal maintenance and water changes.
The key to successful husbandry of flora and fauna is patience and only changing one thing at a time, so that you can observe the effects of the change and draw correct conclusions. Impatience and messing with too many things at once makes it impossible to link changes to observed effects. For example, you’ve addded new filters. You should avoid making an other changes for several weeks, and that includes cha hing fertiliser, lighting, water quality, live stock. Just carry on with normal maintenance and water changes.
Aqua sobriquet
Member
I can’t remember now how long I waited before stocking on my last tank but I don’t think it was long. This *stuff came with one of the filters I bought so I used it. Whether it made a difference or I was lucky I don’t know but I didn’t lose any livestock.
Good luck with your next setup Maverick.
* sera filter biostart | sera
Good luck with your next setup Maverick.
* sera filter biostart | sera
48 hours quarantine is too short in my opinion. I always suggest to quarantine new fish for 2-4 weeks before adding them to your aquarium. Also, try to buy healthy looking fish. Tough lesson to learn but at least you can learn from it for future purchases.
maverick786us
Member
I don't consider these commercial products a holy grail that will immediately start nitrogen cycle, but better than nothing. I can rely on those lava rocks that I stored in the old tanks
Sorry to hear that all your fishes died. Refer to your latest post on your tank, it seems the water quality still have room for improvement. The water should be crystal clear instead of milky once the initial run-in cycle is completed. For CO2 and lighting, it seems too much lighting are being adopted and too much algae will worsen the water quality. It is better to reduce the lighting time otherwise only algae will grow not the plants. You might also consider to darken the tank for a few days to weaken the algae first.
Be caution when using CO2, you should closely observe if there are any abnormal behavior for the fishes. If you see your fishes start swimming at water surface or move slowly, it might be a signal that there are too much CO2 and lack of oxygen for the fishes. In order to supply enough oxygen for both of the fishes and plants, you might consider using a timer to turn on air pump when the light is off.
For chlorine, I get used to use air pump to remove chlorine in tap water overnight before putting them into the tank. Hope its help but it might not works for tap water with chloramine.
Last but not least, I will usually avoid too much changes in short time. For water changing, I will change one-third of the water instead of half of the water. And do water changing more frequent instead. Refer to your posts, I see that you just replaced your filter with a new one recently for strong water flow. I hope you have reused the old filter media and clean the filter properly therefore it won't greatly impact the ecosystem by preserving the bacteria in the filter media.
All above are just the sharing of my failure in the past and hope your tank will become mature soon.
Be caution when using CO2, you should closely observe if there are any abnormal behavior for the fishes. If you see your fishes start swimming at water surface or move slowly, it might be a signal that there are too much CO2 and lack of oxygen for the fishes. In order to supply enough oxygen for both of the fishes and plants, you might consider using a timer to turn on air pump when the light is off.
For chlorine, I get used to use air pump to remove chlorine in tap water overnight before putting them into the tank. Hope its help but it might not works for tap water with chloramine.
Last but not least, I will usually avoid too much changes in short time. For water changing, I will change one-third of the water instead of half of the water. And do water changing more frequent instead. Refer to your posts, I see that you just replaced your filter with a new one recently for strong water flow. I hope you have reused the old filter media and clean the filter properly therefore it won't greatly impact the ecosystem by preserving the bacteria in the filter media.
All above are just the sharing of my failure in the past and hope your tank will become mature soon.
