New aquarium help

A

agjwatson

Registered Member
Dec 11, 2006
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Ok, I am setting up a new aquarium. Previously my wife and I kept a 20 gallon with various beginner fish (guppies, platies, swordtails).

We recently purchased a 90 gallon and here is our current setup.

Sand substrate with gravel on top, 2 pieces of driftwood and big round "river rock", granite I believe.

2 emperor 400 power filters, a couple of bubble stones, 300 watt heater running at about 80 deg, CF total 220 Watt 6700K.

We have planted it with some moss balls, java fern, annubius, wisteria, and various swords and stems. They were planted 2 days ago.

Here is the water chemistry information:
Hardness: about 150ppm
PH:somewhere between 7.8 and 8.4
Nitrites:0
Nitrates:0
Ammonia: Not yet tested

I am using some Jungle quick dip 5 in one test strips.
I ordered a more accurate PH test and an ammonia test from Big Al's but haven't gotten them yet.

I am worried about the PH. It seems really high for all the fish I was wanting to use. I know cichlids need the PH to be higher, but my wife didn't really want cichlids.

Here is what we were wanting to do, my question is, should I be concerned about the high PH or is it going to be a problem.

Gold Blue or Opaline Gouramis 6 (would it be ok to mix and match colors or should I stay with just one)

Dwarf Gouramis 4 (again can we mix the fire red and regular dwarf?)

Paradise Fish 4

Clown Loach 4

Bala Sharks 4

Giant Danios 6

Rainbow Fish 6

Another question I had was about the plants, how long should I give them to take root before I add the fish? the wisteria in particular is coming out of the sand even without fish in the tank. It was planted from cuttings so they have no root system.
 
You will hear this many times: A stable PH is better than you fussing over buffering to a different PH. Fish can easily adapt to your PH except the insanly sensative fish discus etc. All the fish you mentioned would be more than happy in your PH just make sure you acclimatise slowly when you buy them. My neon tetras who prefer a PH of 4-5 but have been living in my stable 7.5 tank happily.
 
If you could, post the same test results on your tap water, and when you do the pH, let it sit out in a shallow dish overnight before testing.

Definitely forego the balas. The clown loaches get big, but are slow growers, however you are looking at a 125 -180 for an upgrade for them.
 
I will do so when I get the new test in. When I was first setting up the tank I used the same test on the tap water and pretty much recieved the same results, although it is hard to tell when resolution on the test sucks so bad. Knowing that it is somewhere between 7.8 and 8.4 doesn't really give me a clear picture.
 
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