1 month. update w/ more questions!

[Chris24]

first and foremost id like to say thanks to all that've given me some advice and helped me out so far! :thumb: i dont remember everyones name (sorry) but props to cocoa pleco and lady hobbs for sure! yall are great. thumbs2:

to recap here is my setup:

10 gal tank. fluoresent lights in the hood, power filter, heater, red gravel, and black gravel with fluorescant bits...

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and the star of the show...
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ive been doing 20% water changes every 4-6 days. ammonia levels are finally starting to rise, so im going to start the water changes every 2-3 days for a while.

ph in my tank is high, like 8.5. i dont want to mess with chemicals, but i read somewhere that adding a peice of driftwood from a fish store can lower the ph without having to use more chemicals.

temperature is also high in my tank. about 82 to 84 degrees sometimes. i live in houston texas, and it gets HOT here. i have the heater in my tank off. it may be that heat from the nearby computer could be raising the tank temp, but i doubt it. i do keep the central A/C in my apt at about 75, even during the day (i also have puppys), and keep it at aboput 70 when im home... but it seems like its too warm in the aquarium.

should i invest in a chiller? im thinking so, because its going to get alot hotter here, and id rather not come home one day to a tankful of cooked rainbow shark soup.

last but not least, im thinking about a second fish, not yet, but after the cycle progresses a bit more and levels start to go down. so far im thinking about a red wag of some kind or another, i saw a cool pic of a red wag swordtail i liked, im just worried my shark is gonna think his fins are too tasty to leave alone? thoughts?

to recap:

- after 1 month, tank is as expected, fish doing ok
-ph may be high (8.5) add driftwood?
-temp may be high 82-84 degrees, add chiller?
-red wag (swordtail) ok tankmate for rainbow shark?

thats all. oh... p.s. my sharks whisker seems ok now, i guess he finally got done sucking on it. wow, i have one psycho fish...

[Drumachine09]

thats all. oh... p.s. my sharks whisker seems ok now, i guess he finally got done sucking on it. wow, i have one psycho fish...


I told you he would spit it out!

I guess its like them sucking their thumbs.

[Chris24]

ya, i noticed that whisker is more bent than the other, i guess its more likely to get sucked up by his mouth. im guess that when he is older the whiskers get bigger and that will stop happening....

..or else im going to have to get him a teddy bear....LOL!

[Incredulous_Ed]

I think danios would be a better tankmate than a swordtail. You could add driftwood if want; your rainbow shark would be better off with the drift wood. One thing you could do to lower the pH is invest in a RO filter.

[jessie]

From my experience, it is much harder to lower pH than to raise it. Never had rainbow sharks before, but he will get big and outgrow the tank fast. i have heard that they can be a bit aggressive, so as he grows, you may have problems if you add other fish. You may want to consider getting some fish that do well in higher pH (such as any livebearers-guppies, mollies, platies), and they would do much better in a tank that size than the shark. (you would have to probably trade that shark in to get other fish).

[Drumachine09]

Danios are the best by far, because they are extremely fast.


Your fish will addapt to the high pH. A constant pH is WAY better for a fish than a constaly flucuating pH while trying to keep it low. Its just not worth it.

If you want tankmates, you will need to put in atleast 1 cave for the shark (actually a member of the minnow family), and lots of other obsticals and decorations, so the shark isnt always seeing another fish.

[Chris24]

yes, i plan to get him a bigger tank in the future...

can anyone give some idea how long before he outgrows this tank? im moving into a new apartment in a couple months, i might build a large tank there after i move in.

[Drumachine09]

Some say they get 8", others 6" most 4". I had one for the better part of a year, and he nevr reached above 4", so i wouldnt be too worried. He would probobly enjoy more space, so a 30g-40g would be a good step up. Only one per tank though.

[gm72]

I like that tank. Makes me think of Pompeii, red stones being the lava?

[Incredulous_Ed]

Those sharks can live for 8 or more years, and theey grow at a slow pace so you would have to move to a bigger tank in a year or two.

[cocoa_pleco]

to me it looks like glowing orange with black like Halloween

[Chris24]

to me it looks like glowing orange with black like Halloween

now that would be a cool tank, with ghost shrimp and other ghostie fish with transparant bodies and visible skeletons. some creepy looking eels, too.

[cocoa_pleco]

yeah! a bunch of creepy houses, a blacklight bulb, 5 glass catfish, and ghost shrimp!

[Lady Hobbs]

Driftwood does help lower the pH but not all that much. Air stones and bubblers make the pH higher. I've been thinking of buying some of the Black Water Extract hoping it might help lower my pH some and I like the Amazon look to a tank. I think your pH might be stretching what you have in your tank, really. With 7 being ideal for most community fish, you are well over that. But as mentioned above, being consistent is better than messing with chemicals and having it jumping around. My pH remains and holds at 7.6. I wish it was a bit lower but have to put up with it.

Since your tank is small, you might want to use half tap and half bottled water. You can get bottles refilled at water stations for 25 cents a gallon or get your bottles filled at a friends house that might have water with a lower pH. Just a thought.

Another thought.......just buy some peat moss from any garden store but make sure it has no additives. Put a couple big handfuls in a pail of water and let it soak for a few days and use some of this water to help soften and lower pH. Or, add some peat to a filter bag and run it thru your filter. It will give a darker color, tho. You have to remove the carbon from the filter, as well, and use something else like floss.

[jessie]

I've tried both peat and driftwood....it only made a very insignificant change (lowered my hardness by one point) and hardly any change in pH. To me, it's more hassle than it's worth for such a minute change.

[Drumachine09]

I've tried both peat and driftwood....it only made a very insignificant change (lowered my hardness by one point) and hardly any change in pH. To me, it's more hassle than it's worth for such a minute change.



Yeah, its better to have them in constant, not so ideal conditions, than changing conditions.