Community tank with shellies

[Andy16]

It is a 20 long tank that is fully cycled. It is filtered by a penguin 170 and AC mini. I want shell dwellers and dont want my tank to be dull so i want some other active fish. I want soemthing small and colorful. Preferably two large schools of two different types of fish. I would also prefer them to be mid-topwater dwelling so they arent messing with my shellies. any suggestions? thanks in advance

[ChilDawg]

Some of the smaller Julidochromis spp. slender cichlids would go well. Remember, you have a small tank, so get a couple of Julies at most.
(Shellies aren't dull...how dare you???)

[Andy16]

i didnt mean shellies were dull, they just dont have that much color, they are mostly just white. i dont want julidiochromis for some reason, i want a schooling fish like tetras, i want neon tetras too.

[ChilDawg]

I would advise against Neons..that's a high pH for them. I'll have to consider schooling fish for your tank and mull it over for a while.

[Andy16]

how do i change the ph anyways without ricks? mine is around 7.6, but it might be higher( i accidently bought the wrong ph tester thingy)

[ChilDawg]

First, retest it and test your KH, and then we can tell you if it needs to be changed any. You'll probably want a higher-range pH test for your purposes anyway if you want to keep shellies.

[Andy16]

lol, this is great. what would you say if i told you i couldnt afford it?:D ill need to get a kh test kit, another ph test kit, and some sorta thing to change my ph. I better hope my dads in a good mood when i get all of this. well the ph will be higher like in the 8 range so thats what sorta water conditions my fish will have to live in. (o how i wish it was christmas)

[ChilDawg]

I'd believe you (I think I remember discussing something about a larger tank, and that thread brought this up?)...and tell you to make the LFS test your water for you.

[Andy16]

woohoo, good idea. never thought of that. :D by the way slow down my little 60 second post reply thing keeps on coming up. lol. what is kh anyways? i know there is dh to. im only familiar with ph.

[ChilDawg]

(Look at my "WWW" button...the glossary is there...)

By the by, the 60 s thing keeps me from posting, too! :)

[Andy16]

what should my kh be for the shellies anyways?( by the way im going to sleep now, thanks childawg!)

[ChilDawg]

That's a tough one. Carbonate hardness basically tells you if there is a good enough amount of buffering in the tank so that the pH stays high. I wouldn't mess with it all that much, but might get some crushed coral for the substrate (which I would get anyway for its buffering abilities).

np...Andy16, I'll pm you my E-mail b/c I won't be on AC for a week or so, and that way I can keep you up to speed if you need it...

[Andy16]

Thanks childawg once again. Im going to get my water tested sometime this weekend i hope. Im going to try to go tomorrow but im not sure. What schooling fish can tolerate that hard water?

[ChilDawg]

Some small rainbowfish should be able to do so.

Sorry about the lag time...I finally got into my summer sched this morning after a little over a week!

How'd your water test end up?

[Andy16]

I forgot about my stupid science finals so i couldnt go, but i will be able to anytime now. Im im no rush cuz i cant buy fish right now anyways. my ph level is good but i still dont know about my carbonate hardness is. Dont rainbow fish get like 6 inches long thoguh?

[Andy16]

well, i went to my lfs. best news ive heard in a long time, carbonate hardness is like 320 or 302( it was big numumber to remember, but the guy said it was good), and my pH level was 8.3. I was very happy, i aslo saw some dwarf rainbow fish so everything is going as planned. Thanks for all of your help chil;)