Nano freshwater with micro fish

[Byron]

Good cause that would be tedious in the extreme. I tested for pH today out of curiosity and it’s 6.2. I assume cause the color looks between 6 and 6.4. My API master kit doesn’t go below 6. I think that’s an excellent start. But I thought the water would get more brown than it is. Does it just need more time? I finally found some ammonia today so I’m starting the cycle and I want to wait until the microbes have time to proliferate before adding the fish so I have time to wait.

I would not bother with ammonia. I never do this, as I always have floating plants. I expect you will want these, they are natural to all tropical forest habitats (either actual floating plants, or overhanging marginal vegetation or forest canopy which achieves the same effect of dimming light and is frankly necessary for the fish). Plants take up ammonia, and quite a lot, from fish and decomposition.

I did have a Tetra pH kit that went down to 5.0, but it expired and I don't know if they still make them. My API has 6.0 as the lowest, and several of may tanks are much deeper yellow that this so I assume they are down at 5 or less. Even when I had the Tetra kit, some tanks had deeper yellow than the 5.0 colour.

Wood is usually not much to create true tannic brown-tinted water. Dried leaves do this much more. My blackwater tanks do not have tinted water, or more accurately, it is tinted slightly and I really don't notice. My 10g that I use for the pygmy cories and growing out Farlowella fry does turn noticeably amber depending upon how many oak leaves I put in it. For the last batch of fry, I had so many oak leaves thee water in the bucket was so dark you could not see the bottom, and that was a off-white bucket. My 40g is Amazon blackwater, here's a photo of it as of last week. As I said, it needs a renovation, as the pygmy chain sword has spread everywhere and most of the branches have fallen apart.

 

[Wills]

Could a group of these be an option for the bottom dwellers?

http://www.seriouslyfish.com/species/yunnanilus-sp-rosy/

Im not sure where they relate to your other fish in terms of biotope but size wise I would say they are in the right ball park.

Wills

 

[Byron]

Could a group of these be an option for the bottom dwellers?

http://www.seriouslyfish.com/species/yunnanilus-sp-rosy/

Im not sure where they relate to your other fish in terms of biotope but size wise I would say they are in the right ball park.

Wills

It is in the same geographic range, depending how specific stanleo intends being with this.

I have never had this species, and it sounds lovely. SF does suggest larger groups, at least 8-10 and preferably more, due to its nature, and this would be difficult in a 10g tank. Probably rare in the hobby too.

 

[stanleo]

Could a group of these be an option for the bottom dwellers?

http://www.seriouslyfish.com/species/yunnanilus-sp-rosy/

Im not sure where they relate to your other fish in terms of biotope but size wise I would say they are in the right ball park.

Wills

It is in the same geographic range, depending how specific stanleo intends being with this.

I have never had this species, and it sounds lovely. SF does suggest larger groups, at least 8-10 and preferably more, due to its nature, and this would be difficult in a 10g tank. Probably rare in the hobby too.

Those are nice and would fit perfectly geographic and size wise. But the pH requirements concern me. SF says they need 6.5-8 and that’s a little above what I want this tank to be at. I may be over thinking that though. If I did get them I would have to give up one of the mid level swimmers as I do think them would be too much in this little tank. But it would be fun to try and find some. Maybe for my next tank I will keep them in mind (if my husband doesn’t kill me over my aquarium habit first lol). Thanks for the find, I didn’t come across them at all in my research.

 

[Wills]

No probs I had a trio (all that were left in the store) with some galaxy rasbora a few years ago in a similar sized tanks and they did pretty well, didnt get very long but did get quite fat! Funny little fish to watch a group would be good, you may be able to find them but its always a bit tricky with some fish, Im sure certain fish get imported from different countries at different times so it may be worth keeping a look out.

Wills