Yet Another New Guy

[Faber12]

Hello, and thank you for creating and building this forum. I registered here after my many google searches lead me here time and again.

I am learning, of course and will have many questions. Maybe one day I will be able to answer as many as I ask.

Currently i have a 50 Gallon (190 Litre) tank that houses small schools of young (1-1.5") Zebra Danios, Red Wag Platy, and Neon Tetra. There is also a Three Spot Gourami that came free with the used 50 gallon tank/stand/filter package deal i got. This tank is a recent upgrade from a 29 gallon tank, I used the old filter material and added the startup bacteria and have been dosing with Prime to keep the ammonia at bay, as well as doing a 10% water change daily, cleaning the substrate as I do to remove food and poop. There was a mild bacterial bloom the next day after starting the new tank, but that went away after a day or so. I am testing with an API Master kit, and my six year old loves helping me "do chemistry".

My tap water seems to have high (40ppm) nitrate levels. hopefully this won't be an issue, I have a batch of hornwort coming via UPS tomorrow, that should help with the bio-load and the nitrates, especially if I get as much hornwort as I think it will be.

The fish seem happy, I have a powerhead 301 shooting across the upper part of the tank, and most of the fish seem to love surfing the current. Don't worry, there are calm areas in the tank as well. The gourami hides a lot, I think the previous owner had him in a small bowl of water in her kitchen for a few weeks, and he is blind in one eye. They all eat well, but I am feeding them sparingly twice a day to keep the bio-load down until the new filter media is better cycled.

I plan on making a DIY filter of some sort, maybe powered by the power head, or i could do a slower moving air powered one. I work in a hardware store and therefore have access to PVC, aquarium safe silicone, tubing, etc.

I can also be found at AudioKarma.org under the handle faber12.

I should stop rambling...

I apologize if I was not very coherent, I am a little tired this evening and have a mild cold.

Thank you all, good night.

 

[fozziebear]

Hi faber12, welcome, first and foremost i hope you have fun with your tank, it's a nice sized one!

so to sort of touch on a few of your points, 40ppm of nitrate is fine in my opinion, mine comes out of my tap anywhere from 30-50ppm, if you are worried about your nitrate level you can test your tap water ppm and if it is lower than the tank you can lower the level by dilution through water changes, or like you said get a few bundles of hornwort in there, the more plant the better in my opinion.

what temperature are you running the tank at? zebra danios like quite a cold tank for the most part and can be kept unheated, whereas your gourami and the neon tetras like it a little more hot, you can meet somewhere in the middle and keep them all at between 23 and 24 degrees centigrade, but all those species like to breed at higher temperatures nearer 26C.

All the best with that big old tank, try and get a few pictures.

Regards Gus.

 

[Faber12]

@fozziebear thank you for your reply Gus. I work and have a family with three kids, so I may not always reply very quickly.

I have actually been using some water from my dehumidifier in the basement for water changes, it is basically distilled water anyway and it seemed a shame to waste it. My nitrates at the tap are fairly high, I will have to measure that and then start writing down my test results from my tank as well.

My tank is running about 78℉/25℃. The Danios seem very happy in it, they are very active. My heaters are not adjustable, but if this temp is OK, I will not worry.

I will try to get some pictures up tonight. My hornwort did not arrive today, so I will have to wait until tomorrow to change the landscape.

 

[Faber12]

I got a picture sooner than expected:

 

[Toney]

Nice

 

[fozziebear]

Nice tank dude, get some easy plants in there, hornwort cabomba or elodea would be good species to get, around 4 or 5 bunches would be sufficient, i've never used water from a dehumidifier but i've read mixed reviews about it, https://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/threads/dehumidifier-water-aquarium-safe.509379/ this thread has some good reading on the subject, the trace metals seem to be the biggest problem, you can use it on houseplants or your garden veggies just fine though.

25c sounds fine as the danios will deal better with a slightly higher temp better than the other fish will deal with a lower temp, you might even get some spawning behaviour with plants in there.

 

[Essjay]

I once looked at using dehumidifier water in my steam iron. It was full of bits, I couldn't use it in my iron and there's no way I would use it in a fish tank. If I could see bits floating in the water, what other things were there dissolved in the water that I couldn't see?

 

[Faber12]

Thank you guys, I think I may stop adding the dehumidifier water. It may be suitable for adding to car batteries, or the clothes washer, but I see now how it is different than true distilled water. I was only using maybe 50/50 tap/dehumidifier anyway. Like they said I can use it in the clothes washer or some such. Not worth losing fish over a few pennies saved in water.

Hornwort hasn't arrived yet, but should soon. I will get another/more pictures after it is installed. Hopefully it survives shipping, it has been cold around here at night, and UPS does not ship over the weekend. Seller shipped it out last week, on Friday.

That is good that I can keep the water this temperature, I won't need to get adjustable heaters this way.

How long do you recommend running the lights? I would like to run them all day, but I am worried about growing algae.

 

[fozziebear]

6 hrs a day is a good minimum photoperiod, if they are dimmable then run 50% for 3 hrs 100% for 1 hr then 50% for 3 hrs again, otherwise just go 6 hrs and go to 7 or 8 after 2 weeks if you are not seeing an algae outbreak, change your water regularly too.

 

[Faber12]

My Hornwort arrived yesterday, here is the tank now:

I noticed an Ich spot a few days ago, now there are more, so I have started adding Malachite Green at a 1 drop per 2 gallons. Here is the gourami with a few spots on him, especially the top fin:

You can see the eye that I think is blind too. He has been hanging out on the bottom of the tank most of the time.

Here are my water parameters:

Tap water:
GH: 120
KH: 80
PH: 7.0
NO2: 0
NO3: 20
I did not test it for ammonia.

Tank water:
GH: 120
KH: 80
PH: 6.5
NO2: 0
NO3: 20
Ammonia (NH3/NH4+) 0.75-1.0 hard to tell exactly.

I have been reading that at a lower PH the ammonia turns to ammonium that is less toxic to the fish but still allows cycling. Any opinion on that? I am going to continue the daily 10% pwc for now.

I think the lower Nitrates in the tap water could be due to the extreme amount of rain we have had recently. Our municipal water comes from the river here, and it is very hard because the river bottom is limestone. The water level is rather high currently because of the rain.

One of the platys had some fungus on him when we got them from the lfs and it died in my old tank. As I was changing the water last night I found a dead platy that was covered in fuzz, I did not really examine it very closely, but I think some of the others may have a touch of it too. I have added Melafix to hopefully clear it up. Maintaining the daily PWC should help too.

The Hornwort was in excellent shape: