New to the forum

[jt325i]

Stumbled across this forum while doing a search on aquaria on the net. I just got an Eclipse System 6 tank and am in the process of cycling it now. I'm doing this with a few small fish & live plants. Here is a picture of the tank as it is now:

Fish:

3 barbs, probably .5" each (1 green, 1 tiger, 1 albino)

Plants:

1 Anubias Nana
2 Drawf Sagittarius
2 Lutea
2 Mondo Grass

Tank ran a couple days empty prior to starting by adding the plants. The fish were just introduced about 2 days ago. Took my first readings on the water today (treated tap water) They are as follows:

Freshwater pH 7.6
High Range pH 7.6
Ammonia ~.5ppm
Nitrite 0ppm
GH test 196.9ppm
KH test 53.7ppm

Water temp is about 78-80 degrees, light is being left on about 12-14 hours a day. I plan on testing the water again in a week & the following week likely doing a 25% water change. Any recommendations?

 

[~*LuvMyKribs*~]

Welcome!

Tank looks great! Is this your first?

I would reccommend doing tests everyday, or as often as you can, because your tank really just began to cycle if you only introduced the fish 2 days ago. Plants don't do much to cycle the tank, but they do help a bit I believe.

I would waterchange sooner, maybe in a few days, and again in a few days after that. Gotta keep those ammonia levels down!

It's a 6 gallon, so 20-25% should be good. But when you are cycling, in the first four weeks, do water changes quite often to keep the water non toxic.

Your ph also seems a little high, although i don't know what ph barbs like as i don't keep them myself. Usually the ph should be around neutral, 7.0-7.2 or so. To lower ph you could get some chemicals from your lfs, or add some wood to the tank which does a good job at neutralizing the ph. I'm sure others on the forum would have some other options to try.

The temp seems a bit high as well, i'd keep it down around 74-76F to be safe. Again, i don't know if barbs like the warmer water though.


-Diana

 

[jt325i]

Thanks Diana. I will check the water quality a bit more often while the tank it cycling. Better safe than sorry. Unfortunately the water is pretty hard here in Cincinnati. I declorinated it & used a little stress coat when the fish first went into the tank. I gave the plants a bit of fertilizer just to help them along since the water is new. I am hoping I can keep them up. While I have to watch the water more carefully, the small tank will be easy for me to clean. I have had a few tanks in the past.... a 20 gallon that was freshwater & a 75 gallon salt water. I had the 75 gallon up & running for about 4 years. Finally had to sell it though because of a move & didn't have time to set it back up. The 20 gallon I ended up giving away. I figured this tank will help me get back into aquaria again and eventually down the road I'll probably get a bigger tank once I master this one. I've had tiger barbs in the past & found them to be pretty hardy. I like the fact they are active. Since this is a small tank I am keeping the amount of fish down & figured a few barbs would be fun to watch. The temp might be a bit warm but that is with the light on. It cools down a bit at night. I'm also using a stick-on thermometer but I think it reads a bit high. (If you stick your finger in the water it feels slightly cooler than that) My main concerns are getting the pH down to as close to 7.0 as I can & also avoiding the build up of deposits from the hard water. The test kit manual recommends deionized water but I'm not sure about that. Since I only have to change 1.5-2 gallons I was considering store bought distilled water. Would that make much of a difference over tap? (both declorinated, not that I think distilled has any since it isn't for drinking) I think tomorrow I will go pick up some pH decreaser & try that in the short term to get it towards 7.0. I will aim to do this gradually so as not to shock the fish or plants.

 

[Dapple2]

That pH should be fine for the tiger barbs, they'll adapt. It's much easier to suit the fish to the water than the water to the fish, and less stressful for them.

Oh, and you might try taking the mondo grass back, it is not a true aquatic plant, and really shouldn't be sold as such.

 

[jt325i]

Dapple, the more I think about it I will give it some time before messing with the pH. The fish seem to be doing fine so far. I figure it will slowly drop as I do water changes. I have an Aqua Rain water filter (Ceramic filter elements, says it leaves minerals in the water though) so will get my gallon & a half of water through there & see how it goes next water change. Thanks for the info on the Mondo grass. They were only $1.49 each so no big loss if they don't make it. I won't buy anymore. I guess it was a wise move to limit myself to only 1 or 2 of a given plant until I see what goes & what doesn't. I expect to plant about 75% of the bottom once the tank has completely cycled.

 

[PumaWard]

jt, I wouldn't worry about your pH. I keep all my tank's at 7.8 because that's my tap water conditions. I have a 38g community with mainly soft, slightly-acidic water fishes (angelfish, neons, cory cats, kribs, lyretail killifish) and they all are doing great .

As long as the extremes are avoided (above 8 or below 6) most community fish will do just fine. They, in general, are very adaptive. Having clean water with undetecable amounts of ammonia and nitrite, and low amounts of nitrates is much more vital. So, I would leave your pH be, it is more stable that way and better for your fish.

 

[jt325i]

Thanks Puma. I'll keep an eye on it & see what happens next time I test the tank. I'm thinking about rotating between filtered tap & distilled to try to get the pH down a bit & regulate the GH & KH. When I get done cycling the tank I'm debating between leaving the barbs or finding a new home for them & doing cardinal or neon tetras since they are small. Course they like a lot lower pH than 7.6. Probably wouldn't be a bad idea if our house had a water softener as our faucets, shower heads, etc get tons of white build-up from the calcium deposits. No wonder I drink bottled stuff, or filtered to say the least.

 

[PumaWard]

Cardinals and neons will be fine in your water. If you really want to change it, filter over sphagnum peat dust, you can use an old coffee maker to do this (the same way you would make coffee except you put 100% garden sphagnum peat in place of the coffee). This will add a brown tint to your water, but that will bring out the cardinal's or neon's color.

I would advise strongly against using chemicals in your water (like pH Up/ pH Down, etc) as these will most likely cause your fish to go into pH shock if your pH is constantly jumping around.

Trust me though, you'll be saving yourself a lot of headaches if you leave it alone.

 

[jt325i]

Originally posted by PumaWard
Cardinals and neons will be fine in your water. If you really want to change it, filter over sphagnum peat dust, you can use an old coffee maker to do this (the same way you would make coffee except you put 100% garden sphagnum peat in place of the coffee). This will add a brown tint to your water, but that will bring out the cardinal's or neon's color.

I would advise strongly against using chemicals in your water (like pH Up/ pH Down, etc) as these will most likely cause your fish to go into pH shock if your pH is constantly jumping around.

Trust me though, you'll be saving yourself a lot of headaches if you leave it alone.

I'll take your advice & leave it alone. Should make my life easier anyways.

 

[JSchmidt]

Welcome to AC. I'll chime in and also recommend you don't mod the water if you don't have to (and the concensus seem to be that you don't!). Lowering pH, KH and/or GH is much harder than raising it, and anything that makes water changes more of a pain should be avoided.

Have fun, and test regularly until you cycle. It's a great way to develop a feel for what's going on in your tank.

Jim