Is this hard or soft...Water? And other ?s

[Byron]

Might be helpful to post some photos of my 29g tanks at various times, I have re-set these usually after a year or two if I move the fish to other tanks or something. These photos will give ideas on options. All have the same lighting, one 24-inch T8 Life-Glo tube. But the two CFL 20w should give you much the same in options. The last photo is the 20g with the two 9w CFL bulbs, just to show the light. This is my QT tank for new fish arrivals, and it is permanently running with plant bits and pieces culled from other tanks. Not much of a display, and the plants do improve when fish are present (the ammonia and CO2) but it shows the lighting is adequate.

 

[HazMatt]

Thank you very much folks, especially Byron. You have been extremely helpful. I'm in Tennessee and I have a Lowes and Home Depot in my town. I'll definitely check out their play sand.

I just ordered API test kits for ph, nitrite, nitrate, ammonia, gh and kh. They should arrive Monday.

If my water the quality allows, I'm thinking of keeping fish I never have before, Celestial Pearl Danios and Emerald Danios as the bulk of the population. I'm guessing they mostly hang in the mid to upper levels of the tank. If so, I'll need to find good bottom dwellers that will be appropriate size and temperament, possibly some kind dwarf Cory Cats.

 

[Essjay]

When you say emerald rasboras, do you mean Celestichthys erythromicron?
If that is the fish you mean, just to warn you that Seriously Fish advises against keeping them with celestial pearl danios as they are "probably capable of hybridisation". The problem is that if they do breed, you can't sell any of the fry as you won't know if they are pure cpd, pure emerald rasbora or hybrids.

 

[HazMatt]

When you say emerald rasboras, do you mean Celestichthys erythromicron?
If that is the fish you mean, just to warn you that Seriously Fish advises against keeping them with celestial pearl danios as they are "probably capable of hybridisation". The problem is that if they do breed, you can't sell any of the fry as you won't know if they are pure cpd, pure emerald rasbora or hybrids.

I just saw that in a care video on YouTube. I guess I'll stick with one or the other. Thanks for the heads-up.

 

[HazMatt]

I filled a 1 gallon pitcher with tap water and let it sit on the counter, without a the lid, for 3 days. I tested the water. I'm slightly alkaline and fairly hard. Here are my aged tap water results...

pH= 7.4
GH= 9
KH= 8

Now that I have my "natural" water results, the search for my community of fish begins. I have 2 setups in mind...

Since 29g tanks are kind of tall, one of my ideas is to keep a school of fish with a tallish body. Something like, tiger barbs, black skirt tetra or serpe tetra. Keeping a school of one of these, with a group similarly sized cory should make for a decent presentation. Are there any other fish that might fit this tall body description and these water parameters?

My other thought is to keep a larger number of smaller fish. A school of CPD was on my mind but, I read that they can be reclusive. I'm wondering if the are still reclusive in a group of 12-15+ in a densely planted and scaped tank. Are there any other fish, smaller than 1.5 inch (3.8cm) that are fairly colorful? I have not looked up these smaller fish much and do not know of many species that would fit these water parameters.

 

[TekFish]

I keep CPD's, they were not reclusive in a heavily planted tank with dither fish.

 

[HazMatt]

I keep CPD's, they were not reclusive in a heavily planted tank with dither fish.

What dither fish do you recommend or currently have?

 

[Byron]

Since 29g tanks are kind of tall, one of my ideas is to keep a school of fish with a tallish body. Something like, tiger barbs, black skirt tetra or serpe tetra. Keeping a school of one of these, with a group similarly sized cory should make for a decent presentation. Are there any other fish that might fit this tall body description and these water parameters?

A GH of 9 dGH is moderately hard so that is quite workable. Any of the three ideas here would be fine. All three species (TB, BST, Serpae) are best alone in a good sized group (10-12+) and this suits a 29g as the minimum tank size for any one of these three species. A shoal of cories would have no trouble, if the common commercial species like Corydoras anaeus, C. paleatus, C.panda. And some others would manage too. The smaller common Whiptail (Rineloricaria parva) is another, singly or 2-3.

If something not the above, that is, no Tiger Barbs, Black Skirts or Serpae...there are still quite a few options. Thinking of the harder water fish, some of the livebearers (platy, but not mollies or swordtails), some of the rainbows, the CPD. Pristella tetras. Some of the danios and other barbs.