I Have Some Fish Tank Questions

[level.eleven]

I'm a member over here - Cichlid-Forum.com - but don't cichlids anymore.

I have a lot of Texas hole rock if you want to buy it. Its just sitting in a tub in the garage at the moment.

I also don't use any dechlorinators. Leaving water to sit for ~72 with an air stone cycling will accomplish the same thing with no chemical side effects. But, this isn't for everyone due to time and space. I mainly do it because I grow live plants and am quite picky about water column chemistry. If you do go the additive route, I would recommend Amquel or Prime. They are recognized as the least harmful to bio filtration.

You can also cut out all the hassle and just buy some R.O. water. In Indy, The Reef sells it as well as a place up in Westfield. You just bring your jugs in and fill it up yourself. If you want to really get into the hobby, R.O. units aren't that expensive anymore and can serve some other purposes around the house.

Plecos also would greatly appreciate a piece of driftwood to gnaw on. Its actually part of their balanced diet. Cichlids will leave him alone. They don't occupy the same space in the water column, plus the pleco will be hiding most of the time. Cichlids will also eat many live plants. If you go with live plants, make sure they are leathery like a Java fern.

Cichlids will also need some additives to their water to thrive - ph and KH.

To echo another poster, aquariums break from other hobbies in that bigger is actually easier.

 

[Benny]

There's some great info in here guys, thanks!

As I said before, this tank was already in use, so a pleco should be fine...It also came with some algae tablets in case it lets low.

I think I'm going to go with chiliads and yes, I know they don't play well with other fishies.

It's good to know about that smaller tanks are harder to maintain, that way when I get the hang of this one I'll know I'll be ready when I upgrade.

Instead of wasting a test strip, I'm going to take some water with me to PetSmart and see if I'm ready for my real fish or if I need some disposable ones first to get the levels right.

What can I do about hard water?

Ima take little man with me and let him pick them out for me. He's pretty excited about it.


BTW, Relic, your av is weird.

 

[eldirector]

For $0.00 I think I got a pretty decent deal...I also think it'll look a bit better with some swimmers in it.

Nice little setup, and you can't beat free!

Some bottom-feeders should do fine with Cichlids. Those buggers can get aggressive, so don't over stock or under-feed. Regular cleanings and 10-20% water changes should keep the tank humming along nicely. A GOOD filter goes a long way towards maintaining a tank. Our 50 gallon gets a 10% water change and a cleaning every other month, and the filter gets cleaned on the alternating months. We usually use RO (we have a RO setup in the kitchen), but will use some tap (well water - no chlorine or chemicals) if we need a big change. Our water quality has been rock steady for several years. My wife has been into Angel fish for about 20-some years, and has this aquarium thing down pretty well.

 

[Benny]

Well, it was a no go on the fishies today thanks to Newburgh hard water.

I went to PetSmart first and talked with a lady that sounded like knew what she was talking about for about a half an hour. She told me I need a water softener pillow, so I ran over to Harpes and now it's installed.

I'll check the levels in about 24 hours and it should be good to go by then.

 

[djl02]

After a week or so trial period with my test dummies, I was thinking about some African Chiliads, so that's good to know.



I know they are aggressive, but can I have a pleco(suckerfish) or two with them? What about those tiger-striped bottom feeders?

I learnt this after some trial and error myself.Never lost a fish after converting to rain water.If you check PH of city water it'll run around 7.0 to7.5 in my area anyway. Tropicals like the lower PH.
You can get some driftwood out of the river,that has been soaked for years that will set you tank off and save some money too. One piece of driftwood at a fish or pet shop runs 25 bucks plus. Good luck and enjoy. I found a perfect piece at the Ohio river last week.I'll send you a pic later.

 

[djl02]

http://i917.photobucket.com/albums/ad20/donlone5/fish001-1.jpg
http://i917.photobucket.com/albums/ad20/donlone5/fish001.jpg
http://i917.photobucket.com/albums/ad20/donlone5/fish003.jpg

A piece I'm gonna use in a tank,

 

[Benny]

That's a pretty cool piece of drift wood! I'd need something substantially smaller for my tank though.

I live about 45 seconds away from a great place to find washed up drift wood, so I may go take a gander around here in a bit.

 

[djl02]

How bigs your tank? looks bigger than what I thought you said? Yall,I liked the way it was hollowed out,so they can hide in it.Some small live plants are a nice attraction as well. Food 4 thought.

 

[Benny]

How bigs your tank? looks bigger than what I thought you said? Yall,I liked the way it was hollowed out,so they can hide in it.Some small live plants are a nice attraction as well. Food 4 thought.

I believe it's a 20 long, but I could be mistaken.

Yeah, I hear live plants are good to eat up the nitrate(or nitrite) and replenish the oxygen, so I'll probably get a few small ones for the back corners.




Does anyone know how long a water softener pillow takes to work?

 

[Benny]

OK, I just read that water softener pillows don't really work at advertised.

I think I'm just going to pick up some PH down. It says that you shouldn't drop the PH level more than .5 in 24 hours...Does it matter if there aren't any fish in there?

My PH is at about 8.5 and it needs to be in the 6.5-7.0 range...Could I drop it 2 points all at once since the tank is empty?



Anyone know the PH in distilled water? I'm thinking about just doing a 25% water chance if I can find water with a low enough PH.

Better question, where can I find water with a super low PH?

 

[libertybear]

OK, I just read that water softener pillows don't really work at advertised.

I think I'm just going to pick up some PH down. It says that you shouldn't drop the PH level more than .5 in 24 hours...Does it matter if there aren't any fish in there?

My PH is at about 8.5 and it needs to be in the 6.5-7.0 range...Could I drop it 2 points all at once since the tank is empty?



Anyone know the PH in distilled water? I'm thinking about just doing a 25% water chance if I can find water with a low enough PH.

Better question, where can I find water with a super low PH?

I might be the odd man out on this but unless your going to keep angel fish or something delicate like that it is much easier to just acclimate the fish to your water supply and be done with it. I have a fish that is around 9-10 years old I almost killed it when I first got into this stuff playing around with the water chemistry trying to get the tank to the optimum recommend PH and what not. If you use the PH up or down I can tell you it is not permanent the PH will drift and change and if you are not going to monitor the PH with test strips all the time just forget about it. Not to mention going through that every time it's due a water change. Just not worth it most fish will be ok. Like I said Angel fish and some of the more delicate fishes you do need to worry more about PH but not with most cichlids.

 

[Benny]

I might be the odd man out on this but unless your going to keep angel fish or something delicate like that it is much easier to just acclimate the fish to your water supply and be done with it. I have a fish that is around 9-10 years old I almost killed it when I first got into this stuff playing around with the water chemistry trying to get the tank to the optimum recommend PH and what not. If you use the PH up or down I can tell you it is not permanent the PH will drift and change and if you are not going to monitor the PH with test strips all the time just forget about it. Not to mention going through that every time it's due a water change. Just not worth it most fish will be ok. Like I said Angel fish and some of the more delicate fishes you do need to worry more about PH but not with most cichlids.

I don't plan on owning anything delicate and I've already decided I'm going to go get some test dummies right now. Little man and I are packing up to go right now.

How to I "acclimate" fish to 8.5 PH? Dump them in and hope the live?

 

[gage]

Softening water is not always needed. Some types of cichlids do better in hard water. I used to have an tank for african cichlids and would add crush coral. Deciding on the type of fish you want first then optimizing the pH and mineral content etc. for those species is a good bet.

 

[Benny]

I picked up some PH down and a couple of cichlads. A bright yellow one and a black and blue one.

I'm going to try and drop the PH .5 and let the softener work for 48 hours and see where that gets me.

 

[libertybear]

I don't plan on owning anything delicate and I've already decided I'm going to go get some test dummies right now. Little man and I are packing up to go right now.

How to I "acclimate" fish to 8.5 PH? Dump them in and hope the live?

When you float them every once in a while open the bag and add water to the bag from the tank but just a little at a time. If the bag gets too full take a little bit out first and then and a little bit from the tank. If you do that don't add the water from the bag to the tank just throw it out.

 

[Benny]

When you float them every once in a while open the bag and add water to the bag from the tank but just a little at a time. If the bag gets too full take a little bit out first and then and a little bit from the tank. If you do that don't add the water from the bag to the tank just throw it out.

That's what I did.

I spent about 40 minutes doing that. The fish look great right now(healthy and swimming at least).

It won't be the end of the world if these two fishies die, but I'm really hoping these two work out, because I'm ready to get the tank going(3 more cichlids and a couple bottom feeders).

I'll try to snap a picture of Phineas and Ferb(guess who named them?).

 

[libertybear]

Cool, what exactly did you end up getting? Did the yellow look like this...

Your making me want more tanks grrrr. I am down to one 55 gallon right now. At one time I had 8 tanks all together not counting a ten gallon that I used a a breeder tank for feeder fish. I was doing 2 water changes a week to make 1 per month on each tank. It got to be more work than fun. But I would like more, the one tank I have just has one fish in it and she is so mean that's all that it will hold. She killed all the the plecostomus that I tried to put in there with her. The first one was a "gold nugget pleco" it was a $35 fish

The gold nugget looked like this...

This is the Red Devil the pic was taken right around the time I quit putting other fish in her tank...

 

[Benny]

That's yellow cichlid I bought.

You can't see it in this crappy cell phone pic, but the top and bottom fins both have black.

The dark one is really cool looking, just not in that picture...Same with the yellow one; very bright and vibrant.

I'm really excited to get back into this hobby. I've really been meaning to for awhile and all of a sudden this setup just fell into my lap...I'm already planning for a bigger tank and I don't even have this one running efficiently yet.



BTW, I want one of those plecos!

I'll probably settle for the $7.00 one first.

 

[Benny]

That fish just looks mean and nasty.

 

[libertybear]

That's yellow cichlid I bought.

You can't see it in this crappy cell phone pic, but the top and bottom fins both have black.

I'm really excited to get back into this hobby. I've really been meaning to for awhile and all of a sudden this setup just fell into my lap...I'm already planning for a bigger tank and I don't even have this one running efficiently yet.

It's addictive isn't it?

Yes that's an "electric yellow" or "yellow lab" which ever you want to call it I have heard them called "yellow prince" too. Both those fish are African Cichlids and both are aggressive. When they start fighting my money is on the Blue Johanni so long as he doesn't eat the yellow lab then maybe nobody wins. The yellow labs are poisonous when eaten. It shouldn't the Blue Johanni that I had would just roll the other fish over and chew out enough of the guts to where it was a fatal injury and then left them for dead.