Stocking a 38g

W

wtwest

Registered Member
May 15, 2013
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First time poster here. My girlfriend and I just bought a new house and I am finally going to have space/time to set up a fish tank. I kept Oscars in high school, but have since fallen out of the hobby.

I picked up a 38G on Craigslist with a nice stand for $50 and am ready to get back into things. I'm having a REALLY hard time deciding on what type of fish to target.

My tapwater is around ~8.2 PH. For a freshwater tank, that obviously limits me if I don't want to mess with the parameters.

These are a few of the options that I am considering:

African Cichlid Setup - Picking some combination out of Yellow Labs, Demasoni or Acei

Planted Tank - German Blue Rams and Cardinal Tetras

Saltwater Setup - TBD

Obviously, the planted tank is going to be difficult with my PH. The African tank presents it's own challenges with the 36" length of the tank and the aggression of the Africans.

Tentative Equipment List for Freshwater
Filter: Eheim 2215
Lights: Finnex Fugeray 36"
Heater: Eheim Jager 200w

Tentative Equipment List for Saltwater
Skimmer:AquaMaxx HOB-1 Hang-On-Back Protein Skimmer
Powerheads: TBD
Heater: Eheim Jager 200w
Lights: Finnex Fugeray 36"

Any suggestions for a good starting point?
 
You'd be surprised at how wide of a pH range fish can adapt to. My tap water is about 8.2, but my tank is about 7.6, thanks to some driftwood in there, I guess. I haven't done anything else to tweak it, that I'm aware of. As long as the pH is stable, the fish really don't seem to care. My planted tank has EBR (just a bluer GBR) and cardinal tetras, among others. Mopani driftwood, commonly used in freshwater tanks, will gradually lower the pH. I have 2 pieces (the ones on the left and toward the middle in my avatar) and a piece of manzanita in my 55.

I don't know about labidochromis or acei cichlids, but I know the 38 is ill suited for a demasoni. 50+ for a single, 125+ for more than one. 150+ for a harem of 1 male and 10 females. And larger if you want more than one male. Those tank sizes at least sound right, but I'm not going to say I'm 100% accurate on those, but I should at least be reasonably close. My wife saw a juvenile demasoni at a Petsmart 4 or 5 months ago, and wanted to take it home. She's now glad I said not until after I do some research, because she wanted to get all three that they had.

Why do you think the pH is going to impact your ability to have a planted tank? Thus far, my growth issues have been determined to be caused by lighting issues. Insufficient lighting doomed my swords. Too much direct lighting (after switching from worn out T8 fixtures to T5HO) seems to be making life difficult for my crypt, so I've put driftwood with java fern as well as some sprigs of bacopa near it to help shade it, and it seems to be improving. Thankfully, the java fern and bacopa I'm fond of are growing very well.
 
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+1 to what authmal says.

The vast majority of freshwater fish will acclimate to your tap water pH, hardness, etc, provided it stays consistent.

The worst thing you could do IMO is use chemical adds to *try* to maintain a different pH.

If it's a specific breeding project you're after, then yes, specific pH ranges usually need to be met.
 
As said ph isn't that big of a deal with the exception a few sensitive fish and even then they can usually be acclimated just unlikely to breed.

Setup is to small for africans unless you did some W. African dwarf types. Planted would work and with some driftwood you could naturally drop the ph a bit. Of course IMO salt is always best if you got the initial startup budget.
 
I'd go with the GBRs and cardinals...only if you can buy some planted substrate like ADA's or GLA's...you could mix two substrates...in my 112G the pH is 6.2 and I have all ADA substrate...the pH out of the tap for me is 7.8 so substrates should help...the fluval stratum works too but is a bit pricey...I think you could get away will one 9liter bag of ADA substrate and end up with a max pH of 6.8 or so
 
If you're really worried about your pH, there are many natural ways to lower it. Driftwood and peat moss filtration will both lower pH. But I don't think it's necessary since most fish will adapt well to many pH levels.
 
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