An Introduction and some WQ questions [Archive]

View Full Version : An Introduction and some WQ questions

Masala

08-26-2008, 09:48 PM

Hello! My name is Aaron, and I live in San Jose, CA. I have a 30(ish) gal freshwater tank that I've had for just over 2 years. I've been pretty fortunate these past 2 years to have relative success with some of my fish (though not all) and with decent water quality. By "decent water quality," I mean that it's never turned green, I haven't had a huge algae breakout, and I've never come home to find all of my fish floating on top of the water. That said, I know it hasn't been perfect, either.

My tank is 24"w x 19"h x 12.5"d, but the front edge is bowed, thus the "30ish" comment above. I have a Whisper Power 40 HOB filter (with carbon, currently) and a Neptune 150 in-tank heater (basically looks like a glass tube that submerges in the water and sticks to the glass with suction cups). My light is a 15w fluorescent in a 24" hood. My fish are as follows:

- 1 Clown loach
- 1 Black veil Angel
- 1 Rainbow Tetra
- 2 Lg Gold Gouramis (3.5" long)
- 1 Cat Shark
- 1 Pleco

I've always bought fish from the store where I bought my aquarium because they were really helpful in getting me started, and my only other option was a local Petsmart. For the most part, they've been pretty accurate about the fish they've sold me. After the initial Tiger Barb mistake, the only surprise issues I had were things like mollies that attack my angel, an angel that attacked my gouramis, and this wonderful fish called a Marbled Nandus that is the reason I now have 1 tetra instead of 3, and 0 pearl danios! Yeah...he went back to the store after a couple weeks... (that's what I get for not trusting my gut and listening to an employee who I already didn't trust)

At any rate, a coworker of mine mentioned he had a saltwater aquarium, so we got to talking about what kind of fish we've kept, our tank sizes, and where we shop. I was surprised to hear him mention a store in town that I'd never heard of before, so I went over one day to check it out. As soon as I walked through the doors, I knew that this place was my new Mecca. There were no reptiles, no tarantulas, no birds - just fish tanks, and by fish tanks, I mean the kind of things that make me doubt I'll use my membership to the Monterey Bay Aquarium again this year! HUGE tanks...saltwater, freshwater, planted, coral, more discus in one tank than I'd previously seen in my entire life - and that was just 1 tank - the list goes on!

As I walked around the store, jaw partially open, basking in the cool, blue glow of the actinic lights, I knew that I had to get serious about my tank if I *ever* wanted it to come close to looking like the setups they had there.

"Step 1," I thought? "Water testing kit."

How I've managed to go 2 years without owning my own test kit is beyond me. I had my water tested a few times (i.e., <5), and it always, "looked pretty good," to quote the other shop. I couldn't be that lucky...

I desperately wanted to bust out the credit card to buy new lighting, live plants, and a freaking *herd* of Discus for my tank, but I was able to resist the temptation and just leave the store with my new API kit. In addition to the general test kit, I also picked up a Phosphate and hardness test kits (GH & KH). My test results were as follows:

KH - 89.5ppm - right in the middle of the chart
GH - >215ppm - WAY more than 215, I fear, as the chart stopped at 12 drops and I was up to 20 before I decided to call it quits
Phosphate - 10ppm (!)
pH - 7.4-7.6
Ammonia - 0ppm
Nitrite - 0ppm
Nitrate - 40-80ppm (couldn't quite decide on an color match to the chart)

SO. After doing extensive (panic-laden) reading here on the forums, I've deduced that I need to get my phosphates down (how?), possibly my pH down, and depending on whether my nitrates are really 40ppm or 80ppm, maybe bring them down, too. I've also learned that I've got really, really hard water, but that my fish don't seem to mind *too* much.

The problem is that I want to get into Discus (lose the cat shark) and live plants. I think my water is too hard and the pH too high for the Discus, and with my already high phosphate levels, adding brighter lights to start into live plants will make my current algae growth "nuisance" (just spots on the glass and plants) turn into a full-blown epidemic.

I'm open to questions, criticisms of my components and/or fish, but most importantly, suggestions for how I can make my tank the best it can be! I know I'll need new lights if I want to do plants, and I've just read that I need not be adding carbon to my filter. Beyond that, it seems like I can get into trouble fairly quickly if I change too much, too fast, be it water quality, tank components, etc.

Thanks for reading this marathon-length intro, and I'll look forward to your comments!

Aaron

james481

08-26-2008, 10:09 PM

Hi, and welcome to the forums. I'm certainly no expert, but I'll give you my initial impressions. From your phosphate and nitrate levels, it seems like you might not be changing enough water in your tank. You can get filter media and / or reactors that will remove phosphate from the water (usually very slowly), but your best bet is to up the water changes to take care of the problem (unless of course your tap water has phosphates, which might be something you want to test). For a very pH sensitive fish like a discus, you'll need to use RODI water (reverse osmosis de-ionized) to get the hardness and pH where you would want them. You can get this either from a water supplier (drinking water bottle place) or you can purchase a home unit that can produce it from your tap water (for a couple of hundred bucks). Discus also demand very very clean water, so I'm guessing that you probably don't want more than one or two in a thirty gallon tank, and you're going to need to do frequent and large water changes. I've read that successful discus breeders generally do 90% water changes every other day! So, if you wanted to stick with that as a rule of thumb, you're looking at either preparing or buying 27 gallons of RODI water every two days. Think about if you really would like to spend that amount of time, effort, and money before you decide to go out and buy the fish.

CAllain

08-26-2008, 10:14 PM

Masala

08-26-2008, 10:32 PM

Personally, I wouldn't say your water's all that hard. My tap water comes out with pH 8, GH 340ppm. I can't remember the KH, but that should give you at least an idea. It might be too hard for certain fish (especially if planning on breeding) but I don't have so much experience there.

Nitrates even if 40 I would say are a little high. 40 is tolerable for fish, but it's really best to keep them below 20. I'd say step up the water changes... what's your water change schedule at the moment?

To be perfectly honest, it started out at 4 gallons/wk (2 years ago). As I got lazy, it decreased to 4 gal every 2 weeks. Then 6 gal every month - NOT good, I know!

The good news is my interest in the tank, after having visited the new store and being blown away by their setups, is reinvigorated. I've done 2 4-gal changes already this week, and I'm about to do another today.

I use a gravel vac to siphon water out of the tank into a bucket. It's *pretty* good at sucking up the nastiness out of the gravel, but there are certain places that are really tough to get to without moving my plastic barrel & rock (the loach and pleco love that barrel). Should I be moving them anyway? My reasoning behind NOT doing so is that it stirs so much crud up in the water, and I always assumed that to be a bad thing for the fish.

As an additional aside, I've started leaving my light off more than on the past couple days to see if that helps give me a leg up on the algae spots on my glass. I read something here when I first started lurking along the lines of, "The fish can do without the light - it's more for the person (unless you have plants, which is a different story)."

Masala

08-30-2008, 05:33 AM

Just thought I'd give a quick update:

My phosphates are down by half, and my KH has dropped by a degree, but the nitrates are still somewhere in the 40-80 range after a water change. It's tough to tell where they are based on the API reference card, but the water in the tube is a vibrant, "cherry" red. I'm going to do a big(ger) change tomorrow and see what happens.

country_boy454

08-30-2008, 02:20 PM

angelcakes

08-30-2008, 02:28 PM

hello and welcome:19: :19:

Masala

08-30-2008, 06:00 PM

Welcome to the forum!

I would get a bigger filter. Usually the rule of thumb is to get a filter that is rated for twice the size of the tank. Also I would do bigger water changes. I do one 50% water change every month and 2 25% water changes every other week. Soon to change to 50% water change once a week as I am looking into dosing dry ferts the ]EI ([Only Registered Users Can See Links.) way. This is on my 55g. My 40 hex I do 25% water changes about every other week. My nitrates are never over 10ppm.

Thanks for the advice! Coincidentally, I just bought an AquaClear 70 filter yesterday, and I'm currently running it side-by-side with my old Whisper 40 to build up the bacterial colony in the AC70. I'll probably do this for about 1 month, and then either remove the Whisper 40 altogether or keep it running with some sort of more affordable, reusable media like sponges.

As for doing bigger water changes, that's definitely my plan. I've been really interested in testing the water frequently since buying the API kit(s), so I can tell already that my water quality is going to improve. I'm starting to fixate on these numbers, and it's in my nature to get things as "perfect" as I can....

I appreciate your advice very much!

country_boy454

08-30-2008, 07:17 PM

Thanks for the advice! Coincidentally, I just bought an AquaClear 70 filter yesterday, and I'm currently running it side-by-side with my old Whisper 40 to build up the bacterial colony in the AC70. I'll probably do this for about 1 month, and then either remove the Whisper 40 altogether or keep it running with some sort of more affordable, reusable media like sponges.

As for doing bigger water changes, that's definitely my plan. I've been really interested in testing the water frequently since buying the API kit(s), so I can tell already that my water quality is going to improve. I'm starting to fixate on these numbers, and it's in my nature to get things as "perfect" as I can....

My fish are as follows:

- 1 Clown loach
- 1 Black veil Angel
- 1 Rainbow Tetra
- 2 Lg Gold Gouramis (3.5" long)
- 1 Cat Shark
- 1 Pleco

I appreciate your advice very much!

If you have the room run both filters. You can never have too much filtration!

Also your tank is too small for discus. They have a minimum of 55g. They like to be in groups. Your PH isn't bad either. One thing about PH is a stable PH is better than one that changes constantly. Less shock on the fish with it being stable.

Seeing as you already have one angel maybe look into getting another.

Your clown loach will need to be re-homed as they reach up to 16" in size and require a minimum of about 75g.

What type of pleco do you have? If it is the common kind they get big and need a tank in the 90g or bigger range. So that one will need to be re-homed if it is the common one. You could look into maybe getting some cory cats(corydoras catfish). There are several different species. I have the Peppered ones! Also there are Otocinclus. They are excellent tank cleaners! I have 4 in my 55g but will be getting more once $ is available.

Tetras are schooling fish and do best in a group of 5 or more.

If you want a cheap way to improve your lighting look into 24" shop lights. Yeah they don't look the best but for the money you can't go wrong! I have a 48" shop light on my 55g with two t-12 40w bulbs. Paid like $15 for the fixture and bulbs! That really made my tank nice a bright. The plants love it too!