Hi, I'm new and of course have questions

[Bdoggy]

Ok... So I guess the EBA are not particularly aggressive. That's a relief.

 

[connorlindeman]

Welcome!

 

[Colin_T]

Hi Bernie and welcome to the forum

Find yourself a better pet shop or ask here before you get any more fish. The person who sold you those fish is either a moron or deliberately giving you bad info so you lose fish.

Pearl gouramis get too big for a 22 inch cube tank. Honey gourami would be a better choice but need floating plants and no blue acaras.

Get rid of the blue acaras. Take them back and tell the shop you want a refund because you were sold fish that are not suited to your aquarium's size. If you want to keep them, get a bigger tank (as suggested by Wills).

The rasbora needs to be in a group of at least 6 (preferably 10 or more) of its own kind. They need a bit of swimming room and again a 22 inch tank might not be long enough. They should be ok, but would do better in a 3 foot tank.

The gold panchax (golden wonder killifish) can be nippy and somewhat boisterous and might harass the rasboras or any other small fish you might get. They also jump so you need a cover on the tank and some floating plants like Water Sprite (Ceratopteris thalictroides/ cornuta) to hang out under.

Shrimp do best in well planted tanks and they don't usually tolerate ammonia or nitrite.

-------------------
What is the GH (general hardness), KH (carbonate hardness) and pH of your water supply?
This information can usually be obtained from your water supply company's website or by telephoning them. If they can't help you, take a glass full of tap water to the local pet shop and get them to test it for you. Write the results down (in numbers) when they do the tests. And ask them what the results are in (eg: ppm, dGH, or something else).

Depending on what the GH of your water is, will determine what fish you should keep.

Angelfish, most tetras, barbs, Bettas, gouramis, rasbora, Corydoras and small species of suckermouth catfish all occur in soft water (GH below 150ppm) and a pH below 7.0.

Livebearers (guppies, platies, swordtails, mollies), rainbowfish and goldfish occur in medium hard water with a GH around 200-250ppm and a pH above 7.0.

If you have very hard water (GH above 300ppm) then look at African Rift Lake cichlids, or use distilled or reverse osmosis water to reduce the GH and keep fishes from softer water.

-------------------
Liquid filter bacteria supplements can help speed up the filter cycle. I recommend adding a double dose every day for a week, then pour the remaining contents into the tank. try to add the bacteria near the filter intake so it gets drawn into the filter where it belongs.

Once the aquarium has cycled, you no longer need to add the bacteria supplement so tell your friend to stop buying it unless he likes wasting money.

-------------------
What sort of filter is on the tank?
It looks like an undergravel filter

Did the shop tell you how to clean it?

Do you have a gravel cleaner?

-------------------
Because you are doing a fish in cycle, you should reduce feeding to 2-3 times a week and do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate 4-8 hours after feeding. You should also do a 75% water change any day you have an ammonia or nitrite reading above 0ppm, or a nitrate reading above 20ppm. After the tank has cycled (developed enough good bacteria to keep ammonia and nitrite at 0ppm) you can feed the fish every day and do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate once a week.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it's added to the tank.

If you add liquid filter bacteria supplements to an aquarium with an undergravel filter, do not gravel clean the substrate for the first month. You can lightly hover a gravel cleaner over the top of the substrate but don't get too carried away with it until after the tank has cycled.

Having live floating plants in the aquarium can help keep ammonia and nitrite levels lower. Duckweed and Water Sprite are 2 good plants for this.

 

[Bdoggy]

Thank you for all the information. I do have access to a test kit. So I can do a full water test here at home and get a more precise reading on water parameters from the tap.. it's funny that everyone says the killifish will be aggressive. They seem like the most passive fish in the tank currently. Maybe that will change. I can always remove or add fish. Right now I'm just leaving things alone until the tank cycles.
There were six rasporas but two of them didn't survive. I think they were doomed from the start. So maybe I will grab a few of those...
Yes I am using an under gravel filter. I had a tank many many years ago and that's what was recommended to me then. I didn't realize it was a "different" way to do things. The pet store I'm going to now didn't sell me the tank and filters.
That can always be changed but I don't mind being different lol..
I am doing daily water changes maybe 50% not 75, however it seems to be less nitrates today than yesterday. I will do another water change today.
Thanks again
B.

 

[emeraldking]

Hi and welcome to TFF, Bernie...
Sufficient knowledgeable members over here that can help you out...

 

[Bdoggy]

Thanks

 

[Slaphppy7]

Welcome to TFF

 

[Bdoggy]

Hi Bernie and welcome to the forum

Find yourself a better pet shop or ask here before you get any more fish. The person who sold you those fish is either a moron or deliberately giving you bad info so you lose fish.

Pearl gouramis get too big for a 22 inch cube tank. Honey gourami would be a better choice but need floating plants and no blue acaras.

Get rid of the blue acaras. Take them back and tell the shop you want a refund because you were sold fish that are not suited to your aquarium's size. If you want to keep them, get a bigger tank (as suggested by Wills).

The rasbora needs to be in a group of at least 6 (preferably 10 or more) of its own kind. They need a bit of swimming room and again a 22 inch tank might not be long enough. They should be ok, but would do better in a 3 foot tank.

The gold panchax (golden wonder killifish) can be nippy and somewhat boisterous and might harass the rasboras or any other small fish you might get. They also jump so you need a cover on the tank and some floating plants like Water Sprite (Ceratopteris thalictroides/ cornuta) to hang out under.

Shrimp do best in well planted tanks and they don't usually tolerate ammonia or nitrite.

-------------------
What is the GH (general hardness), KH (carbonate hardness) and pH of your water supply?
This information can usually be obtained from your water supply company's website or by telephoning them. If they can't help you, take a glass full of tap water to the local pet shop and get them to test it for you. Write the results down (in numbers) when they do the tests. And ask them what the results are in (eg: ppm, dGH, or something else).

Depending on what the GH of your water is, will determine what fish you should keep.

Angelfish, most tetras, barbs, Bettas, gouramis, rasbora, Corydoras and small species of suckermouth catfish all occur in soft water (GH below 150ppm) and a pH below 7.0.

Livebearers (guppies, platies, swordtails, mollies), rainbowfish and goldfish occur in medium hard water with a GH around 200-250ppm and a pH above 7.0.

If you have very hard water (GH above 300ppm) then look at African Rift Lake cichlids, or use distilled or reverse osmosis water to reduce the GH and keep fishes from softer water.

-------------------
Liquid filter bacteria supplements can help speed up the filter cycle. I recommend adding a double dose every day for a week, then pour the remaining contents into the tank. try to add the bacteria near the filter intake so it gets drawn into the filter where it belongs.

Once the aquarium has cycled, you no longer need to add the bacteria supplement so tell your friend to stop buying it unless he likes wasting money.

-------------------
What sort of filter is on the tank?
It looks like an undergravel filter

Did the shop tell you how to clean it?

Do you have a gravel cleaner?

-------------------
Because you are doing a fish in cycle, you should reduce feeding to 2-3 times a week and do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate 4-8 hours after feeding. You should also do a 75% water change any day you have an ammonia or nitrite reading above 0ppm, or a nitrate reading above 20ppm. After the tank has cycled (developed enough good bacteria to keep ammonia and nitrite at 0ppm) you can feed the fish every day and do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate once a week.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it's added to the tank.

If you add liquid filter bacteria supplements to an aquarium with an undergravel filter, do not gravel clean the substrate for the first month. You can lightly hover a gravel cleaner over the top of the substrate but don't get too carried away with it until after the tank has cycled.

Having live floating plants in the aquarium can help keep ammonia and nitrite levels lower. Duckweed and Water Sprite are 2 good plants for this.

Ok.. So the test kit doesn't test for gh. However the city website says our water hardness is 220ppm. Which is in the moderate hardness range ya? Ph is between 7.5-8.0
I'm curious, how does the pet store get away with keeping all types of fish?. Are they using different water?

 

[Oblio]

I'm curious, how does the pet store get away with keeping all types of fish?. Are they using different water?

I've wondered this also. My suspicion is no and that the fish will succumb and die early long after they are sold.

 

[outofwater]

I've wondered this also. My suspicion is no and that the fish will succumb and die early long after they are sold.

They also could be putting chemicals to artificially lower the pH. API sells both "pH up" and "pH down" products and a few drops do indeed bring the pH to the level you want rather quickly, however the effect is short lived. Big chains and LFS alike, I would hope at least; would have water softener systems in place, or maybe their turnover and expected death ratios are enough to simply not care for that, unfortunately.

 

[Colin_T]

Ok.. So the test kit doesn't test for gh. However the city website says our water hardness is 220ppm. Which is in the moderate hardness range ya? Ph is between 7.5-8.0

Yes medium hardness, which is fine for livebearers, rainbowfish and goldfish. It's a bit hard for tetras, barbs, gouramis and Corydoras. You could mix it with reverse osmosis or rain water to drop the GH to 150ppm or less.

I'm curious, how does the pet store get away with keeping all types of fish?. Are they using different water?

In the shops I worked at we had soft water with virtually no GH, so we add mineral salts to tanks with livebearers, Rift Lake cichlids and rainbowfish. The soft water fishes just had normal dechlorinated tap water.

Other shops just shove the fish in the tanks and hope they survive long enough for someone to buy them.

 

[Bdoggy]

So the red tailed rasporas haven't done well... I had 6 and only 2 are left. I don't think it's a good idea to add any more fish at this point. So I'm just hoping those two will make it and I can add more after my tank is good.
The Electric blue acara don't seem to be bothered much. Both of them are still doing fine it seems. The pearl gourami does a bit of tank surfing during the day but seems to calm down at night.
The shrimp are being shrimp, hard to tell with them really. They are eating and moving around quite a bit.
The golden killifish have gone to the bottom of the tank at times which is odd but it has been a while since they've done that and they are eating.
The past couple water changes I have done have been followed up by a bacteria bloom. At least I think that's what it is. The tank gets a little hazy then clears up after a couple hours.
I was doing 50% but have bumped ot up to 75% daily now....
I also added a hang on top filter with some sponge material from my friends tank and some of those porcelain pellets from his canister filter as well. That's been running for a couple of days now....
The last nitrite test I did was this morning and it was a bit different than the last ones... It took almost 30 seconds to change color and it was a much lighter shade... So hopefully that's a good sign...
I still feel like I'm in the thick of it, but most of the critters are still alive...
Oh and the plants are doing great. The stem plants have new growth and of course the duckweed is just taking over.

 

[biofish]

Welcome to the forum!

I also live and California and am also suffering from hard water. California usually got it’s water from the Colorado river, but since the river is extremely low right now, California recently switched to getting its water from an aquifer! So the water used to be good as is but it’s now extremely hard. What worked best for me due to limits in pricing and needing a fast softener was api water softening pillows! It’s fast but slow enough that it doesn’t hurt the fish and you don’t need to worry about the chemicals. You need one pillow for twenty gallons of the tank and all you do is stick them right in the filter. So your tank would need 2. The pillows need to be recharged in an aquarium salt bath every couple days but they really work and my soft water fish are looking much better. Took me a couple weeks to get my water params in a good spot and now I only stick them back in the filter when I do water changes.

If you have the money, an RO system would be best to get your water to the correct params but it’s expensive, slow, and wasteful. But it IS the best for the health of your fish. A solar still is a free alternative that produces no waste, but it’s extremely slow.

 

[Rocky998]

Welcome to the forum!

I also live and California and am also suffering from hard water. California usually got it’s water from the Colorado river, but since the river is extremely low right now, California recently switched to getting its water from an aquifer! So the water used to be good as is but it’s now extremely hard. What worked best for me due to limits in pricing and needing a fast softener was api water softening pillows! It’s fast but slow enough that it doesn’t hurt the fish and you don’t need to worry about the chemicals. You need one pillow per twenty gallons of the tank and all you do is stick them right in the filter. The pillows need to be recharged in an aquarium salt bath every couple days but they really work and my soft water fish are looking much better. Took me a couple weeks to get my water params in a good spot and now I only stick them back in the filter when I do water changes.

If you have the money, an RO system would be best to get your water to the correct params but it’s expensive, slow, and wasteful. But it IS the best for the health of your fish. A solar still is a free alternative that produces no waste, but it’s extremely slow.

You're lucky, I just wish my water made up its mind
It's soft and has a high PH... How in science does that work

 

[biofish]

You're lucky, I just wish my water made up its mind
It's soft and has a high PH... How in science does that work

Science side of TFF, explain!!!!