Newbe new tank

[Clint Kirby]

Hello all, Im new to this forum and new to fishkeeping (even though i have been angling for over 30 yrs ) i have just set-up my first tank a Juwel Vision 180, i have also plumbed for the Dennerle co2 system-500, i have planted the tank with a few different types of plants ( that have already started to bubble ), i have run the tests as it stated in my "bible" and everything apart from the ph is spot on after 2 days, the ph reading is approx 8, the question im trying to ask (in a very long boring, snoreeeeeeeee way) is this anything to worry about? will it come down? if so how long does this take?

Thanks in advance,

Clint

p.s When i introduced my plants i seem to have inherited a shrimp of somekind! he is very happy swimming around but what does it eat ? will it do any harm ?
also how many fish do you think i can safely put into my new tank?
i,ll shut up now and await your kind answers

 

[CFC]

The pH may come down from the co2 being added, depends on just how hard your water is, unfortunately im no chemist so i cant go into lengthy explanations but co2 does have a direct affect on pH and GH making it softer.
A pH of 8 is a little too high for most tropical species, between 6.5 and 7.5 would be better, african cichlids would thrive in your water but would destroy your plants in seconds.
I wouldnt advise adding pH altering chemicals as it usually causes more problems than it solves, but if the pH dosent drop i would recomend using RO water which can be purchased from most good fish stores, adding a external filter with peat as media and placing bogwood in the tank will also help.

Have you started the tanks "cycle" yet? 2 days sounds very quick for everything to be fine. If you havent i suggest reading the artical pinned at the top of begginers questions.

Is the shrimp kind of clear looking? If so it is probably a rivershrimp, they are used as food for large and predatory fish and need cool water with a little salt to survive more than a couple of weeks but they are harmless.

 

[Clint Kirby]

The pH may come down from the co2 being added, depends on just how hard your water is, unfortunately im no chemist so i cant go into lengthy explanations but co2 does have a direct affect on pH and GH making it softer.
A pH of 8 is a little too high for most tropical species, between 6.5 and 7.5 would be better, african cichlids would thrive in your water but would destroy your plants in seconds.
I wouldnt advise adding pH altering chemicals as it usually causes more problems than it solves, but if the pH dosent drop i would recomend using RO water which can be purchased from most good fish stores, adding a external filter with peat as media and placing bogwood in the tank will also help.

Have you started the tanks "cycle" yet? 2 days sounds very quick for everything to be fine. If you havent i suggest reading the artical pinned at the top of begginers questions.

Is the shrimp kind of clear looking? If so it is probably a rivershrimp, they are used as food for large and predatory fish and need cool water with a little salt to survive more than a couple of weeks but they are harmless.

Hi and thanks for your info CFC, to cut a long story short i brought the tank and put the mixture of silver sand and the special dirt that helps root growth in plants in + the gravel and also added two large rocks and a great big lump of bogwood + the co2 thingy and i ran the system for 28hrs b 4 adding the plants. My "bible" told me to do this and it also told me to do the tests i:e ph, Ammonia, nitrate and nitrite all tests where nil and still are ph has stayed the same around 8 water is crystal clear still and temp staying at 77 degrees. Is the ph normally around this number when you start off ?
Have you started the tanks "cycle" yet? to be honest i thought what i am doing was the "cycle" ??
Regards Clint

 

[Alien Anna]

I have very high pH water too and I know several angelfish owners. The trick is to get angelfish bred locally, and also to use CO2 and put bogwood in the tank.

As for cycling, unless you are doing fishless cycling, or have hardy fish like danios in your tank, it is not cycling, it's just testing for leaks

For further information, please follow the link in my sig where I've written an article on just this subject.

 

[Clint Kirby]

So basically put some hardy fish in there then ?

 

[Alien Anna]

So basically put some hardy fish in there then ?

Er, no. You haven't read my article yet, have you?

 

[Clint Kirby]

So basically put some hardy fish in there then ?

Er, no. You haven't read my article yet, have you?

Hi all, I am Sharon, Clints wife. I thought I would give you an update on what has been happening with the new tank. We have added 6 Zebra Danios which are doing amazingly well. They have settled in better than we could have hoped for. As these are our first fish in our new tank, we are thrilled with them...so thrilled in fact that we haven't had our television on all week in the evenings!!! Clint has even moved his favourite chair to the best position to veiw the tank from!! We have found ourselevs drooling over a huge stack of library books on aquariums instead inbetween watching our fish that is

Our readings are as follows

ph 8.5 we are trying to get this down, although our LFS leaves theirs at this
kh 130
ammonia 0.0
nitrite 0.1
nitrate 25

Any opinions on these levels would be greatly appreciated as we are new to all this. But are already addicted after such a short space of time
Thanks
Sharon

 

[Alien Anna]

My opinion is that you tank is beginning to cycle. In a week or two you should get your ammonia peak (unless you've used matured filter media and gravel from another tank) and then it could take anything up to 2 months for the nitrite to peak and get to zero. An ammonia or nitrite level of anything other than zero is potentially lethal to your fish.

I did actually explain all this in my article. I appreciate that not everyone might agree with me about fishless cycling but I do hate having to repeat myself