Hi all, newbe here.

[FishGuest5123]

Welcome to our forum!
I leave my air stones on 24/7.

 

[Mick Vallis]

It is a few years since I used a Brita jug so they may have changed the cartridges since then. My cartridges dropped the pH from 7.6 to off the bottom of the API liquid tester scale. The reason? They used an ion exchange resin which swapped metal ions for hydrogen ions, and pH is an upside down measure of the amount of hydrogen ions. The more hydrogen ions there are the lower the pH. The website now just says that Maxtra cartridges contain ion exchange resins but give no details.
Brita's website's FAQ section used to contain a warning not to use the filtered water in aquariums.


The way to test pH is to run a glass of plain tap water and a glass of filtered water. Test them both immediately, then let them stand and test again next day. Then post all four readings on here

Std 7.6, Filtered 6.7.
after 18 hours:
Std 8.3, Filtered 7.9

 

[Back in the fold]

That's a cool tank man. Your problems will resolve themselves in time. Don't give up. I just got back into the hobby myself. There's a lot of new thinking out there but most of what you already know still applies. The equipment is better except for lighting which still doesn't impress me. I still like fluorescent tubes and incandescent bulbs. This Tropical Fish Forums site is great. A lot of very knowledgable people here who are very willing to help without being pushy or snobby or judgemental. It's a good bunch and welcome to our world.

 

[Mick Vallis]

Welcome to our forum!
I leave my air stones on 24/7.

Thankyou.

 

[Mick Vallis]

Did a 50% water change about 5 hrs ago & have just tested using API drop tests.
Nitrite 0.5
Nitrate 40
PH 7.4
Ammonia 0.25
GH 14
KH 13
Water Temp 25.4c

Should I now leave things & stop chasing Ideals or is there anything urgent?

 

[Back in the fold]

Those numbers look pretty good to me. Personally, I would stand back and see what happens from here. But don't depend too much on what I say. I don't get too fussy about water. If it's clear and the fish are eating I'm happy.

 

[seangee]

That nitrate reading doesn't make sense if it was 10ppm before the water change and 40ppm after. What is the nitrate in your tap water?

As @essjay says, any nitrite is dangerous. Keep testing that and if it goes up at all do another change. In the meantime it will help if you feed your fish less (two or 3 times a week is enough, and only as much as they can eat in 30 seconds). Once your ammonia and nitrite have stayed at zero for 48 hours we can consider your stocking options.

 

[Mick Vallis]

That nitrate reading doesn't make sense if it was 10ppm before the water change and 40ppm after. What is the nitrate in your tap water?

As @essjay says, any nitrite is dangerous. Keep testing that and if it goes up at all do another change. In the meantime it will help if you feed your fish less (two or 3 times a week is enough, and only as much as they can eat in 30 seconds). Once your ammonia and nitrite have stayed at zero for 48 hours we can consider your stocking options.

Tap water Nitrate Slightly darker than 20ppm, probably around 25ppm.

 

[Byron]

I am here responding to some of the issues raised in post #12.

Ok I really disagree with this water hardness issue. I purchase most of my fish from LiveAquaria and they list the parameters needed for their fish. They post KH NOT GH and they post Ph. But many people on this forum say only GH matters, and PH and KH does not matter. If that's the case then why would one of the largest online Internet fish sellers refer to PH and KH and completely ignore GH. I've also read multiple articles (I'll try to find some links to them so I can post them here) that strongly emphasize the importance of KH and the unimportance of GH. So what's the deal? Is this a controversial issue in the fish world? I am a relative newbie but I read, read and read so I feel somewhat educated by now. I've found articles emphasizing KH while other emphasize GH so it sounds like a somewhat controversial issue. Since I buy my fish there - I follow their guidelines and look at KH and PH rather than GH.

Reliable sites for information are few in this hobby. Anyone can set up a website and promote themselves as some sort of "expert" but it is the scientific training and knowledge the individual possess (if any) that matters. I ignore any site where I do not know who runs it and that individual's level of knowledge, either personally or by acknowledged reputation in the scientific side of this hobby. Seriously Fish, Planet Catfish, Corydoras World, Loaches Online...these come to mind but there are others. As someone who has spent literally years researching in this hobby I have found that these sites rarely if ever disagree on scientific issues.

GH is the most significant parameter for fish. It is closely connected to KH (Alkalinity), and pH. I won't get bogged down in chemistry, but move to the crux of the issue, namely the effect of GH on fish. Here I am citing verbatim from The Manual of Fish Health which is authored by four professional biologists (Dr. Chris Andrews, Dr. Peter Burgess, Dr. Neville Carrington and Adrian Exell, along with four consultants.

Water hardness affects freshwater fishes in terms of osmoregulation. ... Freshwater fishes have adapted to thrive in an immense range of water hardness values, from the soft acid waters of the Amazon River, with less than 50 mg/liter calcium carbonate (3 dH), to the hard alkaline waters of the African Rift Lakes, with hardness values exceeding 330 mg/litre calcium carbonate (18.5 dH). Within any particular environment, however, fish have tuned their physiological functions to cope efficiently with a fairly narrow range of water hardness levels and therefore osmotic pressure. Altering the hardness values outside this range or disrupting the major ion composition of water hardness will lead to extreme osmotic stress and other physiological malfunctions.

Different fish species have a varying resistance to changes in water hardness, depending on their ability to alter their osmoregulatory process to changes in osmotic demand. Most fish can be acclimated slowly to to abnormal water hardness. In general, however, they will be under unnatural stress and will not achieve optimum performance in growth, breeding or disease resistance.

It is clear that it pays to provide your fish with water of the same hardness as they have evolved to deal with in their natural environment. ... If you aim to set up a community aquarium, be sure to select fishes and other creatures that share similar water chemistry requirements, most importantly the same range of hardness and pH levels--which are fairly closely linked anyway. Mixed community aquariums with softwater-loving tetras and rams living alongside hardwater species such as guppies and swordtails can only be a compromise situation. It would be storing up disease trouble for one or both groups of fish without deriving the best from either.​

On the issue of adjusting pH with chemicals, I believe I have previously spelled out why that is a real risk to fish, and it does and will affect them physiologically. This is only adding more stress and shortening their lifespans because they are struggling to overcome all this. If you have the optimal GH and KH (these two go together) the pH will inevitably be within the necessary range.

 

[Mick Vallis]

Things are moving along nicely. As my Ammonia & Nitrite levels were still just above zero, and still no sign of the Khuli, decided to remove all plants, pebbles, cave & large Mopani wood. No Khuli?.
Gave the gravel a good hoover & did a 50% water change. Re-decorated with the addition of some porous gravel around the live plants. (hopefully an anchor for Bacteria as well).
My Ammonia is now zero but Nitrites 0.25 - 0.5.
Nitrates 22.
KH & GH is around 10.
Ph is still a little high at 8.0 but stable. (tried a touch of PH down but only drops it by 0.3 for 12hrs then back up again.
I'm still putting in a capful of prime every 48 hrs.
Also vastly reduced the feeding from 1 pinch flake + 1 pinch micro pellets twice daily to 1 pinch micro once a day.

I know I have been lucky considering the tank is only 3 weeks old, in hindsight, I should of done a fishless cycle but 30 years ago (and 50 years ago when my dad kept & bred Tropical fish) cycling with fish was the norm.
As far as more fish in the (not too distant) future, I'm thinking of adding a Farlowella Whiptail Catfish & a pair of Rainbows. Think that will finish of the community nicely.

 

[Mick Vallis]

I do have one question, my filter (fluval 206) has the ability to reduce the flow. Does reducing have any effect on bacteria build up in giving them more time to anchor to bio media?

 

[Byron]

I do have one question, my filter (fluval 206) has the ability to reduce the flow. Does reducing have any effect on bacteria build up in giving them more time to anchor to bio media?

Yes, but the flow has to be fairly strong before it would inhibit bacteria in the filter. The flow is more an issue for fish, and less is almost always better than more current, except for fish requiring such water obviously.

Be careful adding Prime, this does affect fish negatively the more you use. I assume you are doing this to negate the ammonia and nitrite (whichever), but a safer way would be to use a bacterial supplement like Tetra's SafeStart (this is one of the best, but most any would probably help). Prime is OK if you have ammonia, nitrite or nitrate in the source water, as it will detoxify these for 24-36 hours [they then return to being toxic if still present] which gives the plants and bacteria time to "catch up." But Prime is not a "treatment" for these substances in the water.

The best thing you could do here would be to have some floating plants. Their uptake of ammonia is remarkable, and they have the added benefit of not producing nitrite (or nitrate).

 

[Mick Vallis]

Tank is now week 4. Test results are as follows:
Nitrate: 10
Nitrite: 0.5
Ammonia: 0
GH: 15
KH: 10
PH: 7.5
Can't seem to get nitrites to zero.
Going to remove some artificial plants & replace them with real.
Will probably do a 25% water change & hoover when plants arrive early next week.
Do you think I need to be concerned with the hardness?

All fish look good.

 

[Mick Vallis]

Hi Guys, due to my high KH/GH levels (source water issue) I have been looking into RO units.
Is it possible to buy a small portable unit & connect it to a submersible pump to create a loop that takes water from my tank & puts it back in with lower hardness.
Think most units need 3bar to run but I'm unsure if small pumps can generate this.

 

[Mick Vallis]

My BNC munching on a Courgette (Zuccini)