New from Maryland

[Sleeveless]

Hey everyone.

I’m a new member here and fairly new to the fish hobby. My wife and I started this past March. It all started with a phone call from her while she was at Petsmart saying she wanted to get fish for our son. Well she ends up coming home with hundreds of dollars to set up a 37 gallon tank. I told her this is all on her and I was not getting involved in fish maintenance. Fast forward to today and we have upgraded to a 75 gallon tank and it is just me doing the maintenance lol it’s not that bad because I kind of enjoy doing it. I also brew my own beer, so dealing with water, chemistry and certain conditions Are something I already deal with there.

We currently have one angel fish. Another passed away yesterday, but have no clue why. I posted another thread in that forum to ask opinions. We also have:

Four yellowtail Congo tetras.
Five glow/neon Tetras
Five swordtails.
One Pleco
Two shrimp
Three balloon mollies
Four Gouramis
There are three other fish that I cannot remember the names of.

Here’s a picture of our 75 gallon tank currently. If you notice the multiple filter pick ups it’s because this is when I just set this tank up and I upgraded from a Fluval 307 to the 407 and was running them in tandem for a short period.

 

[AlexT]

Welcome mate! What a funny story. Made me chuckle out loud that's if you doing the maintenance! What's your general hardness water wise, if you haven't posted it and I missed it? You have a real mix of fish that prefer different ends of the spectrum with regard GH

 

[Sleeveless]

Yeah. It is funny how the hobby was supposed to be hers yet it’s me handling everything. Funny thing is as I started researching more and more. I ended up upgrading everything to better equipment as well.

My general hardness is always very low out of my tap since I have a water softener. I treat my water before it goes into the tank and have to use additives to get it back up. It is typically around 4 to 6 when using the API test kit.

The bigger issue I typically have with my water is the pH always ends up at 8.2. Out of the tap it is seven and have no clue what is raising it.

The only other thing I can’t always figure out is my water is pretty clear, but seems like there is still a little haze in it that I can never resolve

 

[emeraldking]

Hi & welcome to TFF...
Funny how things can change... So, the magic of fishkeeping got to you as well...

 

[Sleeveless]

Hi & welcome to TFF...
Funny how things can change... So, the magic of fishkeeping got to you as well...

It did. I enjoy it, but there is a soft side of me that gets disappointed when we lose a fish. The Angel I lost 2 days back was tough. More because my wife is particuarly fond of them and I think they are a really interesting fish. We randomly also lost a yellow tail Congo that was seemingly healthy. It just disappeared. Not sure if the shrimp ate it alive or it died and we didn't notice. We lost a balloon molly the same way, but half a carcass showed up later and thats after I searched everywhere. Pull everything to find it and nothing. Lost a Swordtail to Dropsy. I treated too late and another Sword in the very beginning since we were clueless and didn't cycle the tank so had a few fish in it from the beginning and think it was overtaken by the spikes. I did save another Sword that is thriving now. It gets addicting.

 

[emeraldking]

It did. I enjoy it, but there is a soft side of me that gets disappointed when we lose a fish. The Angel I lost 2 days back was tough. More because my wife is particuarly fond of them and I think they are a really interesting fish. We randomly also lost a yellow tail Congo that was seemingly healthy. It just disappeared. Not sure if the shrimp ate it alive or it died and we didn't notice. We lost a balloon molly the same way, but half a carcass showed up later and thats after I searched everywhere. Pull everything to find it and nothing. Lost a Swordtail to Dropsy. I treated too late and another Sword in the very beginning since we were clueless and didn't cycle the tank so had a few fish in it from the beginning and think it was overtaken by the spikes. I did save another Sword that is thriving now. It gets addicting.

Sorry to hear about those losses. But how were the water conditions (so, water parameters) when this all happened?
Oh yes, once you've get the hang of it, fishkeeping is very addictive...

 

[Sleeveless]

Sorry to hear about those losses. But how were the water conditions (so, water parameters) when this all happened?
Oh yes, once you've get the hang of it, fishkeeping is very addictive...

The first Sword we lost was (started the tank with only 3 Swords) us not knowing you had to cycle a tank. The Ammonia spikes made him sick. Almost positive on that one. The second was from the same set, but save him. We actually thought it was female, but started developing the long tailed sword and is definitely male and pretty large.

The water parameters for my tank are and have always been (once cycled and losses that happened after the Sword)

PH: 8.2. I have 7 out of my tap but it always raises to 8.2. Not sure why. I have 2 real plants, everything else fake. Substrate is clay based and said to not raise PH.
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: never higher than 25 before I change water
GH: 3 to 6. I have to use wonder shells to keep it up due to having a softener on my tap
KH: 9 to 11: Not sure why this goes higher. Out of the tap it is 0, but again raises and don't know why.
Temp: 78 degrees

I use carbon in the tank filter due to having a well and very very minor iron in water. Not enough to be harmful and with my treatment systems its next to none.

 

[emeraldking]

The GH should be higher. The PH would be better if it was more around the 7.0-7.6.

 

[Sleeveless]

The GH should be higher. The PH would be better if it was more around the 7.0-7.6.

Where should I target GH? I can get it up with the wonder shells easily. I have tried PH adjusters, but only ever gets to 8ish (Seachem Acid buffer). Each daily dose is supposed to drop by .2, but then when I stop using it, it creeps back up. I can try that again.

Only other issues I have are my 2 live plants always look like crap. Like they are struggling.

 

[Essjay]

Part of the trouble is that you have both hard water fish and soft water fish so one or other will not be happy. if you use soft water for the hard water fish, they'll suffer calcium depletion. If you add things to make it hard for the hard water fish, the soft water fish will get calcium build up in their kidneys.

GH: 3 to 6. I have to use wonder shells to keep it up due to having a softener on my tap

What type of softener is it? Those which use salt swap the hardness minerals for sodium which is not good for fish, especially soft water fish.

The ideal situation would be to use unsoftened tap water and keep just hard water fish.

 

[Sleeveless]

Part of the trouble is that you have both hard water fish and soft water fish so one or other will not be happy. if you use soft water for the hard water fish, they'll suffer calcium depletion. If you add things to make it hard for the hard water fish, the soft water fish will get calcium build up in their kidneys.


What type of softener is it? Those which use salt swap the hardness minerals for sodium which is not good for fish, especially soft water fish.

The ideal situation would be to use unsoftened tap water and keep just hard water fish.

It uses salt for the brine. Overall the fish have all been doing well, but never thought of the sodium. Is there a way to test my tank water for sodium levels? My wife picked out our variety of fish and I'm too new to even have picked up on that wide range of needs for them. For now, they overall seem to be doing well though so hoping my luck continues. I never even picked up on the soft vs hard. The test kit only ever references a range for "most" fish which makes it difficult to narrow down.

I appreciate the info. I'd have never known otherwise.

 

[Essjay]

Very few store workers have a clue about fish and certainly not how hardness affects fish.

The best place for fish research is Seriously Fish. The profiles on there tell you the hardness and pH ranges the fish need, the minimum tank size, the temperature they need, suggestions for tank mates and any other needs such as needing a group or do they have to be kept singly; do they need a certain type of food etc.

Knowledge Base — Seriously Fish

www.seriouslyfish.com

Going forward, if you have access to unsoftened water I would start using that, introducing it slowly building up a bigger proportion at each water change. The soft water fish (tetras, gouramis, angelfish) won't live as long as they would in soft water but enjoy them while you have them. Then replace them with hard water fish.

The alternative is to use some sort of pure water (usually reverse osmosis, RO, water). Pure water such as RO has zero hardness so either mix it with a bit of your unsoftened hard water to add a small amount of hardness or add remineralisation salts and keep soft water fish. Again, the hard water fish (mollies, swordtails) won't live as long as they should, and when the time comes, replace them with soft water fish. But this does work out more expensive than using unsoftened tap water.



I do wish more stores would advise customers about which fish suit what hardness

 

[WhistlingBadger]

Ha! Yeah, I live this story every time Mrs. Badger says "we" need to fix something major in the house...

Sorry for your losses though. I'm glad you've figured out cycling. I concur with what's been said about hardness. It's something a lot of fish keepers don't take into consideration. Some fish species are quite adaptable and can do ok in soft or hard water, for example those that come from intermittent streams in nature. But most have a definite preference, and they aren't going to thrive or live as long if they're in different conditions.

I've read that balloon mollies (and other fish with the balloon deformity) are often prone to health problems.

 

[emeraldking]

Where should I target GH?

7,5 and up

It's something a lot of fish keepers don't take into consideration. Some fish species are quite adaptable and can do ok in soft or hard water,

Well, I truly do think that most fish keepers won't take that in consideration. Most will make choice of stock by their eyes. They'll buy those fish that are appealing to them.

 

[Sleeveless]

Very few store workers have a clue about fish and certainly not how hardness affects fish.

The best place for fish research is Seriously Fish. The profiles on there tell you the hardness and pH ranges the fish need, the minimum tank size, the temperature they need, suggestions for tank mates and any other needs such as needing a group or do they have to be kept singly; do they need a certain type of food etc.

Knowledge Base — Seriously Fish

www.seriouslyfish.com

Going forward, if you have access to unsoftened water I would start using that, introducing it slowly building up a bigger proportion at each water change. The soft water fish (tetras, gouramis, angelfish) won't live as long as they would in soft water but enjoy them while you have them. Then replace them with hard water fish.

The alternative is to use some sort of pure water (usually reverse osmosis, RO, water). Pure water such as RO has zero hardness so either mix it with a bit of your unsoftened hard water to add a small amount of hardness or add remineralisation salts and keep soft water fish. Again, the hard water fish (mollies, swordtails) won't live as long as they should, and when the time comes, replace them with soft water fish. But this does work out more expensive than using unsoftened tap water.



I do wish more stores would advise customers about which fish suit what hardness

I could bypass the softener, but then will introduce higher levels of iron into the tank. Well water is a PITA. We installed a 4 gallon RO system in our house for drinking water, but it is not large enough to effectively fill the fish tank. I am going to attempt to work the PH down slowly though. It still drives me nuts that it creeps up the way it does.