A few questions i cant find answers to.

[Alexbet813]

hi i have a ten gallon tank and to save some money i got a kit with a light fixture, tank, rocks and plants and a power filter, i bought a heater a few more plants an air pump with bubble wand and cause im a college student a skeleton drinking rum haha. ive had four x-ray tetras since i got the tank and they are all doing fine and actually gained some bright orange and black stripes on their fins so they look very healthy. needless to say im excited and addicted to my tank now.

Q1: it ends up the power filter isnt any brand name that i can find filter inserts for. Is it common to use filtermedia like sponges, bioballs, activated carbon ect. in a power filter and not a premade insert?

Q2: why cant a get my ph below 8? i know tetras are very hardy fish and can handle a high ph but i was hoping to get a dwarf gourami or an angle and i know they are a bit more sensitive

Q3: if you were to get a somewhat colerful nonschooling fish what should i get?

thanks for everyones help

[smaug]

Your tank is too small for the angel,a ph of 8 is very high for tetra but if your lfs has similar water you should be ok with some tetra,maybe 6 or so smaller ones such as the black widows.

[Billythefish]

Q1. No idea
Q2. try some tapsafe wen you do your weekly water changes
Q3. How about a angelfish

[smaug]

Q1. No idea
Q2. try some tapsafe wen you do your weekly water changes
Q3. How about a angelfish
No angelfish in a 10 gal

[Wild Turkey]

As said before you need a bigger tank for an angelfish sorry bud. You can use bio balls in powerfilters but usually u would use alot more bioballs than that and in a powerfilter i would suggest nano balls. But a simpler option is to just buy the activated charcoal and a filter pouch and make one urself, or a few and pack em in. If you use nano or bio balls make sure u get a mesh bag for them as they will float away in the powerfilter otherwise and it makes cleaning them much easier since you cant really "clean" them.

Also adding wood or logs to ur tank can lower the ph some, chemicals usually only lower the ph temporarily

[jbeining75]

Q1: Try biobags from whisper filled with aquaclear biomax
Q2: No angels or dwarf gourami
Q3: Try some neons or glo light tetras, zebra danios, something small..... I know neons are shoaling but you need small fish and almost all small fish are shoaling species as it is a natural defensive mechanisim.

[Billythefish]

No angelfish in a 10 gal
OOps didnt see that! Lol

[Wild Turkey]

Q1: Try biobags from whisper filled with aquaclear biomax
Q2: No angels or dwarf gourami
Q3: Try some neons or glo light tetras, zebra danios, something small..... I know neons are shoaling but you need small fish and almost all small fish are shoaling species as it is a natural defensive mechanisim.

haha yea. A solitary half inch fish is a eaten half inch fish.

[Halelorf]

The ph isn't too big of a deal, most tetras shouldn't have a problem with it. It would be better to have ph at 8.0 constantly than trying to use a chemical product or something to lower it and get a swinging ph value. For the powerfilter I use ceramic rings in all of mine as they hold lots of nitrifying bacteria. Also I put a sponge at the bottom, you don't have to buy filter inserts and I never use them anyways because I don't like using activated carbon and there isn't much room for bacteria on the floss of the inserts. Usually you can find large sheets of foam sponge insert for cheap and you just cut it to fit, that's what I do. There is a petco near me that sells marineland Rite-Size bonded filter pad for $6 and you get 312 square inches of it, it's a great deal. Hope that helps!

[Wyomingite]

Q1: it ends up the power filter isnt any brand name that i can find filter inserts for. Is it common to use filtermedia like sponges, bioballs, activated carbon ect. in a power filter and not a premade insert?

Have you tried measuring the inserts to see if one of the name brand ones are close?

Q2: why cant a get my ph below 8? i know tetras are very hardy fish and can handle a high ph but i was hoping to get a dwarf gourami or an angle and i know they are a bit more sensitive

10 gallons is too small for an angel. I'd suggest adding wood to help lower the pH. Another possibility is to take a fine mesh bag, stuff a bunch of rinsed peat moss into it, insert an airstone into the middle, wrap a rubber band around the neck of the bag and then drop it into the tank, with the airstone running. Include a small rock to weigh the bag down. This will lower the pH. Remove the bag when you have the pH you're shooting for. Whenever you do a water change, however, you'll replace the low pH water with higher ph water. I'm assuming the high pH is due to your tap water, so you may have to do this every second or third water change to keep the pH down. Your water may become tinted tan due to the tannins in the peat moss being released, if this happens change out your activated carbon.

Get the pH down and a dwarf gourami will be fine. Provide plenty of cover, though. Make sure the sides and back of the tank have plenty of plants.

Q3: if you were to get a somewhat colerful nonschooling fish what should i get?

Platies or guppies are 'bout as close as you're going to get to a small, nonschooling fish. Hardy, a variety of colors to choose from, and lively. A male and a couple of females of one or the other would fit in with the X-rays.

[smaug]

The ph isn't too big of a deal, most tetras shouldn't have a problem with it. It would be better to have ph at 8.0 constantly than trying to use a chemical product or something to lower it and get a swinging ph value. For the powerfilter I use ceramic rings in all of mine as they hold lots of nitrifying bacteria. Also I put a sponge at the bottom, you don't have to buy filter inserts and I never use them anyways because I don't like using activated carbon and there isn't much room for bacteria on the floss of the inserts. Usually you can find large sheets of foam sponge insert for cheap and you just cut it to fit, that's what I do. There is a petco near me that sells marineland Rite-Size bonded filter pad for $6 and you get 312 square inches of it, it's a great deal. Hope that helps!
I disagree with that,8.0 is too high to keep most tetra,if you can keep it about 7.5 that is not too high.Im not saying they will die,I know they will not reach there potential in ph of much higher then 7.5,There coloration will be bland,there finnage will be lessened and there life span considerably shortened.The use of quality chem products such as seachem acid buff is a once a week thing thats very easy to control and actually uses very little chem.