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I use RO water, seachem makes a powder that will remineralize the water to GH of 6 called equilibrium Ive never used it because i can get the exact ingredients a lot cheaper. Calcium Chloride can be purchased in buckets at most swimming pool stores. Its about 10 bucks for about 2 pound bucket...

Byron will warn you against black diamond sand as he will against pool filter sand which is round but many aquarist have used blasting sand with bottom dwelling fish to much success with healthy fish. I have a bolivian Ram in my tank, Rams are Earth Eaters and he regulary sifts through the...

If one wants black sand on a budget use black diamond blasting sand. Its inert, meaning it wont change your water chemistry, it inexpensive, about 8.00$ for 50 pounds, its suitable for plants as it composition is perfect for holding roots and it doesnt compact and its safe for fish and doesnt...

Before doing anything or buying anything indoctrinate yourself with as much knowledge as you can on the nitrogen cycle. There is a pinned section on this board, id also suggest watching videos on you tube or reading article on the nitrogen cycle until you feel you have a pretty goid...

I lived there back in 1995 to 1997 i was on a work visa. But yes i miss it. Ive lived in 3 different states while ive had fish tanks and in each state the tap water has matched the county or city water report. Its not exact but close. That ones water would be vastly different from ones...

Byron, good stuff. I was waiting for you to reply as i figured, byron will know this stuff and i was interested in what else you would add. Excellent advice as always!

For reference colorado the state i used as comparison to New Zealand is a bit over 104,000 square miles NZ is a little over 103,000 square miles. I loved living in NZ,Where abouts in NZ are you?

Cool id add the rummys last, they can be a bit sensitive to newer tanks and sensitive in general but ive found once established are hardy fish as long as water is clean and soft. One of my all time favorite fish. Good luck.

:)

Yeah its definitely a hobby that is easy to get obsessed with.

Not sure. My only guess would be mass beneficial bacteria die off from the accumulation of excel and zyme in the water. Sorry thats all i got:)

Also stress zyme doesnt need to be used when a tank is cycled. It contains live bacteria and when a tank already has a live colony of beneficial bacteria the added bacteria doesnt have anything to feed on so will starve and die, which could also contribute to cloudiness. Id suggest stop using...

I have no idea what " leaf guard" ive never heard of it, does it have a ingredient list on the bottle?

Get rid of the excel, excel has a chemical in it that is used in embalming and for sterilizing medical equipment. It is harmful to fish and even more so to your frogs as the directly absorb it through skin. This chemical will also kill your beneficial bacteria which leads to ammonia spikes. Do a...

Ammonia spikes are no good and can be caused when beneficial bacteria die. What kind of de chlorinator are you using or any other added chemicals. What kind of filter do you have and how do you clean it?

Lookin good! What kind of fish you gonna put in there?

Thats how its been for me, it can be confusing and were all constantly learning so keep at it and Good luck and have fun!

Without test kit the best guess is county water report, which ive found to be accurate for the most part but in certain cases like yours can vary, and your situation is the exception not the rule as generally most peoples tap water will match the county tap water report. Having said that the...

GH is the measurement of calcium and magnesium in your water. Usually your county water web site will express this in ppm sometimes DGH. To convert ppm to DGH divide by 17.9. So 300 ppm would =16.7 dgh which would be hard water. Some fish need hard water some soft. If the water report doesnt...

PH is the measure of how acidic or alkaline water is. It ranges from 0-14. 7 is neutral or basic water anything below 7 is acidic which will sometimes be referred to as " soft" water, not to be confused with GH. Anything above 7 is alkaline and is often referred to " hard" water not to be...

Is that your PH or GH. Sorry i just want to make sure?

Whats your water hardness?

Apparently not wide enough ;)cuz i had no idea silver tips lived in brackish tributaries in the wild which would make them ideal tank mates for mollies and platies water wise. Though not nippy wise. Other soft water fish not so much, and again while badis do well in hard water again they should...

Im not sure, ive never dosed ammonia but increased ammonia isnt going to hurt anything without any fish. The dirtier the better. As long as there is zero ammonia or nitrite when fish added . Apparently one doesnt want to go above 5ppm ammonia as this can stall the process though ive never had...

Ive never used bio max but im familiar with it and how it supposedly works and it should be adequate as a surface for lots of bacteria growth.

Just leave out the taters and carrots and should work just fine ;)

Dwarf gourami are special in that they have their own special disease with no cure, and are usually prevalent in gourami that come from big box stores like petsmart. Id take the fish back as it will most likely die and if one really wants a dwarf gourami try and find a reputable breeder.

You know like youre stirring a big pot of soup Mmmm soup...:)

I have sand as well, just wave the tube in a circular motion above the sand to stir up the stuff on top of the sand and up goes the poop and stuff and hopefully no fish nor sand.

Its a sword plant. Im assuming if you have mollies you have hard water, while sword plants are from the amazon where the water is generally very soft they can live in hard water. Other plants that do well in harder water are crypts, Valis, as mentioned anacharis, and java ferns and...

When you use just the smaller tube part it creates more suction, the larger part disperses the water and decreases the suction. If you have the large part of tube id put it on and use that to decrease sucking up any more fish. If not guess just be more careful i guess. Hope your cory is ok

That sucks;)

What kind of filter media do you have? Bacteria needs surfaces to grow, i use lava rock. Its super porous (lots of area for bacteria to grow)is inert is light and inexpensive. I just dump it right in my hang on back filter, if a canister filter put it in one of the baskets. After that i just use...

I have zero knowledge of the referenced disagreement and id hope you would consider staying and if not good luck and i hope you find a place you feel safe and accepted!

Im confused, do you have multiple tanks and one is hardwater and the other one you are going to soften with RO water ir do you have one tank that is hard and you are attempting to soften that? If the latter mixing soft water fish like silver tip tetra( super nippy tetra) with guppies or platies...

I have a bolivian Ram with my neons. I dont have shrimp though. Bolivians are great because they dont need to be in groups or pairs as in the wild they are generally a solitaire fish except when breeding. If not going with RAM other tera species do well with neons like, glo light, black neon...

Without live plants the only reason the light is needed is to view fish. Since no fish either all your light is doing is growing algae and doing an excellent job at it. Turn the light off keep outside sources of light off the glass, maybe put a towel over it. Once fish are in id only have the...

Nerites dont eat plants and will eat a ton of and lots of different kinds of algae. Super algae eating snail that doesnt reproduce in freshwater gets no bigger than a dime is ok by me. The white eggs depends on the snail. Ive had nerites in the past lay lots of eggs my current nerite, none so far.

Thats a good thing as those grow like weeds. Im constantly throwing handfuls of frogbit in the garbage so it wont take over the world.