Questions about planted 6 gallon eclipse with Endler's

[nmathew]

While I know a larger tank would be prefered, I'll be moving in about 18 months, and I wanted to be able to break down and transport the tank the four hours to my future home.

I bought an Eclipse System 6, and I'm trying to do a fishless cycle right now. I have several questions, though, and I'd appreciate any help.

The local water here is very hard. kH is about 18, and gH is about 22. I know that's extremely high, but I have a degree in chemistry, and I'm nearly certain I'm performing the tests correctly. Current plan is to mix RO or DI water with the tap to get the hardness I want. A 50-50 mixture of pure and tap water gives a PH of about ~7.4 or so. I'm concerend about the gH however. From what I've read, plants tend to like a lower gH, but the gH is higher than the kH, meaning that it'll be high no matter what. From the elemental makeup of the tap, I think I'll still need to add some trace elements. Is there any way to easily lower gH while leaving kH?

Besides the algae growth, is the addition of a phosphate buffer to keep the pH near 7 harmful in some way?

I'm currently using some ammonium chloride to cycle the tank, and I've set the ammonia level to between 2-5 ppm. The heater is set to 79-80.

I bought a few plants, and I'm waiting on them to arrive. I've read that they shouldn't have a problem with a cycling tank. I plan on trying to remove any attached snails, as I don't know if I want them in the tank (which means I'll certainly get them, right?). I bought java ferns and some java moss, which I anticipate handling whatever kH and pH I'll eventually need.

My initial plan was to get a betta and possibly a few shrimp later. Now, I'm wondering if Endler's livebearers would be happy in that small tank. I'm trying to decide if that's a wise choice for my situation, or if I should just stick with the betta. I haven't kept fish outside of a goldfish bowl when I was a child, so I'm inexperienced. My major concern is that I tend to take 2 week vacations over Christmas, and my roomate would be gone for much of that time as well. While I could get someone to come over and top off the tank and feed them, I don't want to burden someone with trying to perform a water change or any heavy maintance. Furthermore, I don't exactly know what I would do with a growing livebearer population. I know one lfs has started carrying them. Is it reasonable to ask them if they would take any off of my hands?

How many Endler's would be happy in about 5 gallons of actual water (actual water volume after rocks, heater, filtration, apparent lie of tank value, etc)? I would want to keep the bio load low at first, so maybe I could beg a low and high end range from people? Would an initial all male population of Endler's get along, and would a later addition of 1 or 2 females cause serious issues with the males when introduced? I know guppies and the ilk are considered tame, but I don't know how nasty it could get come mating time.

Thank you.

[Rue]

Can't help you with Xmas Tank sitting...

...but I think you can have up to 5-6 Endlers...don't forget they also need 1 male to several females...

...or if you don't want babies...get only males...

[Chrona]

While I know a larger tank would be prefered, I'll be moving in about 18 months, and I wanted to be able to break down and transport the tank the four hours to my future home.

I bought an Eclipse System 6, and I'm trying to do a fishless cycle right now. I have several questions, though, and I'd appreciate any help.

The local water here is very hard. kH is about 18, and gH is about 22. I know that's extremely high, but I have a degree in chemistry, and I'm nearly certain I'm performing the tests correctly. Current plan is to mix RO or DI water with the tap to get the hardness I want. A 50-50 mixture of pure and tap water gives a PH of about ~7.4 or so. I'm concerend about the gH however. From what I've read, plants tend to like a lower gH, but the gH is higher than the kH, meaning that it'll be high no matter what. From the elemental makeup of the tap, I think I'll still need to add some trace elements. Is there any way to easily lower gH while leaving kH?

Don't worry about the gH or kH. Livebearers do fine in harder water (they like alkaline, hard water actually). Getting into RO, etc for a 6g tank is a bit overboard :) Most plants do like soft, acidic water, but that's at the roots, which is easy to achieve using a thin layer of peat moss (very thin, no more than 1 mm) at the bottom of the tank, before any other substrate. For a low growth tank, you will not need to supplement trace as long as you do regular water changes. You may need to supplement potassium and chelated iron depending on your substrate though.

Besides the algae growth, is the addition of a phosphate buffer to keep the pH near 7 harmful in some way?

Using chemicals to maintain pH is not worth it. It will fluctuate too much and cause the fish to stress out. Fish prefer a stable pH to a ideal but constantly changing one.

I'm currently using some ammonium chloride to cycle the tank, and I've set the ammonia level to between 2-5 ppm. The heater is set to 79-80.

I bought a few plants, and I'm waiting on them to arrive. I've read that they shouldn't have a problem with a cycling tank. I plan on trying to remove any attached snails, as I don't know if I want them in the tank (which means I'll certainly get them, right?). I bought java ferns and some java moss, which I anticipate handling whatever kH and pH I'll eventually need.

The java fern will be probably be fine with a diluted bleach dip, but I'm not sure if the moss will make it. Manually removing snails only works half the time, as they are very hard to spot, especially in java moss. People also use potassium permanganate for sensitive plants, but be sure to check if both of those can tolerate it.

My initial plan was to get a betta and possibly a few shrimp later. Now, I'm wondering if Endler's livebearers would be happy in that small tank. I'm trying to decide if that's a wise choice for my situation, or if I should just stick with the betta. I haven't kept fish outside of a goldfish bowl when I was a child, so I'm inexperienced. My major concern is that I tend to take 2 week vacations over Christmas, and my roomate would be gone for much of that time as well. While I could get someone to come over and top off the tank and feed them, I don't want to burden someone with trying to perform a water change or any heavy maintance. Furthermore, I don't exactly know what I would do with a growing livebearer population. I know one lfs has started carrying them. Is it reasonable to ask them if they would take any off of my hands?

You will have to ask the LFS. Some will do it. Also keep in mind that endlers (and almost all fish other than oto cats) will eat baby shrimp.

How many Endler's would be happy in about 5 gallons of actual water (actual water volume after rocks, heater, filtration, apparent lie of tank value, etc)? I would want to keep the bio load low at first, so maybe I could beg a low and high end range from people? Would an initial all male population of Endler's get along, and would a later addition of 1 or 2 females cause serious issues with the males when introduced? I know guppies and the ilk are considered tame, but I don't know how nasty it could get come mating time.

3-4 would be considered a low-med bioload, which is always better in a planted tank to avoid algae issues.

Thank you.

Hope that helps

[nmathew]

So, I would probably be best off getting all males, and then waiting until I could get a larger tank before introducing any females if I wanted to breed?