Help me decipher my water test
- Thread starter Taktix1
- Start date
Kudos to you for testing your water c:
Everything looks like it's doing what it's supposed to do. Expect a rather sharp spike in your Ammonia in the upcoming days. What fish do you have in the tank? It helps us help you when we know what's in there!
You don't have to fret over the pH for one thing. Often fish have been bred in so many varieties of water that they can adapt and tolerate various pH levels very well. It actually tends to be more stressful on the fish when you attempt to alter the pH, as it causes fluctuation between the time when you add a buffer, new water, or both. I have found that the addition of aquarium driftwood helps lower my pH in a more natural way, though the tanins can be a pain to deal with! You best bet is keeping fish that prefer the higher pH conditions, though I've never had any significant problems keeping a variety of species in higher pH conditions.
Everything looks like it's doing what it's supposed to do. Expect a rather sharp spike in your Ammonia in the upcoming days. What fish do you have in the tank? It helps us help you when we know what's in there!
You don't have to fret over the pH for one thing. Often fish have been bred in so many varieties of water that they can adapt and tolerate various pH levels very well. It actually tends to be more stressful on the fish when you attempt to alter the pH, as it causes fluctuation between the time when you add a buffer, new water, or both. I have found that the addition of aquarium driftwood helps lower my pH in a more natural way, though the tanins can be a pain to deal with! You best bet is keeping fish that prefer the higher pH conditions, though I've never had any significant problems keeping a variety of species in higher pH conditions.
Thanks for the quick reply! I actually dont have any fish in the tank right now. All I have is substrate (black gravel). I only plan on having about 4 glo-fish. Is there anything else I can add without overcrowding? I'm looking for bright fish as my heart was set on a SW tank but figured I'd start with FW to learn the basics first.
If your just starting to cycle your tank you might think of trying the fishless cycle instead of cycling your tank with fish.
Here is a link: Fishless Cycle
Here is a link: Fishless Cycle
Hey, achase, Taktix is already doing a fishless cycle. But we all think a fishless cycle is a cool idea, so let's carry on, folks
Taktix, in case I didn't read earlier, what size of tank are you cycling?
Cheers,
Laura
Taktix, in case I didn't read earlier, what size of tank are you cycling?
Cheers,
Laura
Opps! My bad.....I obviously missed something. But good job Taktix1 for doing the fishless cycle! *BOUNCINGS
My bad.....I obviously missed something. But good job Taktix1 for doing the fishless cycle! *BOUNCINGS
BTW: PlecoCollector, from your sig, how do you fit so many fish in a 5 gallon tank???
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Um... well. It started as 4 guppies and 4 Cories, an appropriate stock for the tank (which has a larger filter than necessary). It is very well planted.
Soooo a few months in I suddenly had a LOT of guppies. I was hoping the parents would eat some of them... but no (my roommate feeding them 4 times a day didn't help). In the mean-time, I nabbed/rescued a small Bristlenose Pleco from Pet Supplies Plus. Enter Sushi, a very healthy Clown Loach I found at the PetSmart I work at. After eyeing him for a few weeks I decided to introduce him to do some potential fry clean up. Fail. He's a lazy bum. So was Sashimi, his partner in crime. Then we accidently got a shipment of baby Syno cats in under the name of another fish. So we HAD to sell them for cheap... so I got one. Then I got a small tank and found a Celestial Danio for it. After some problems with it (no filter/experimental tank), she ended up in the 5g. THEN we got some really pretty Clown Loaches in at work that I wanted for my 90g... thus the addition of two more. And last week a co-worker found two baby Auratus cichlids in one of the tanks. One didn't make it but the other is living happily amongst the baby guppies.
VERY long story short- fish were added very slowly over the course of seven months. None of them are large ATM and I keep up with the tank maintenence. The tank is also heavily planted. All will be moved to my 90g at the end of this semester.
As good as my luck has been, I do not recommend trying it!
The set-up has worked well for the short-term, but I am anxious to move my guys into a larger tank so they can be more comfortable.
Um... well. It started as 4 guppies and 4 Cories, an appropriate stock for the tank (which has a larger filter than necessary). It is very well planted.
Soooo a few months in I suddenly had a LOT of guppies. I was hoping the parents would eat some of them... but no (my roommate feeding them 4 times a day didn't help). In the mean-time, I nabbed/rescued a small Bristlenose Pleco from Pet Supplies Plus. Enter Sushi, a very healthy Clown Loach I found at the PetSmart I work at. After eyeing him for a few weeks I decided to introduce him to do some potential fry clean up. Fail. He's a lazy bum. So was Sashimi, his partner in crime. Then we accidently got a shipment of baby Syno cats in under the name of another fish. So we HAD to sell them for cheap... so I got one. Then I got a small tank and found a Celestial Danio for it. After some problems with it (no filter/experimental tank), she ended up in the 5g. THEN we got some really pretty Clown Loaches in at work that I wanted for my 90g... thus the addition of two more. And last week a co-worker found two baby Auratus cichlids in one of the tanks. One didn't make it but the other is living happily amongst the baby guppies.
VERY long story short- fish were added very slowly over the course of seven months. None of them are large ATM and I keep up with the tank maintenence. The tank is also heavily planted. All will be moved to my 90g at the end of this semester.
As good as my luck has been, I do not recommend trying it! The set-up has worked well for the short-term, but I am anxious to move my guys into a larger tank so they can be more comfortable.
Soooo a few months in I suddenly had a LOT of guppies. I was hoping the parents would eat some of them... but no (my roommate feeding them 4 times a day didn't help). In the mean-time, I nabbed/rescued a small Bristlenose Pleco from Pet Supplies Plus. Enter Sushi, a very healthy Clown Loach I found at the PetSmart I work at. After eyeing him for a few weeks I decided to introduce him to do some potential fry clean up. Fail. He's a lazy bum. So was Sashimi, his partner in crime. Then we accidently got a shipment of baby Syno cats in under the name of another fish. So we HAD to sell them for cheap... so I got one. Then I got a small tank and found a Celestial Danio for it. After some problems with it (no filter/experimental tank), she ended up in the 5g. THEN we got some really pretty Clown Loaches in at work that I wanted for my 90g... thus the addition of two more. And last week a co-worker found two baby Auratus cichlids in one of the tanks. One didn't make it but the other is living happily amongst the baby guppies.
VERY long story short- fish were added very slowly over the course of seven months. None of them are large ATM and I keep up with the tank maintenence. The tank is also heavily planted. All will be moved to my 90g at the end of this semester.
As good as my luck has been, I do not recommend trying it!
The set-up has worked well for the short-term, but I am anxious to move my guys into a larger tank so they can be more comfortable.
wow, that's pretty impressive. like I said above, I plan on getting 4 glo-fish to start. Is there anything else I can fit in my tank? Right now I have an AquaClear20 HOB power filter. It has the 3 stage filtration and a maximum output of 100 gph. Are there any other filters that are recomended or should I stay with the 3 stage filtration?
I can't comment about the filter, but you could do some pygmy cories, or kuhli loaches, or a couple of platies . . . just throwing out some ideas - what are you fond of, other than tetras? Of course don't add everything right away. Starting with the four day-glos when your tank is fully cycled is a good beginning.
I was thinking 4 glo-fish, 2 mollys, 2 live plants. Anything else I can add would be a plus, I'm just looking for bright fish. In terms of lighting, how long should I leave my aquarium lights on for? Also, I have a gravel cleaner that I use to siphon water from the tank. The instructions state to put the tube into the water and move the tube up and down rapidly to create suction. This method takes...FOREVER...to siphon water out. Is there an easier method to do water changes?
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Hmmm, if they aren't balloon mollies, I'd think they might get too big for the 6g. For colour in a 6g, platies would be better.
I'm really old-school in the way I do my water changes, even with my 39g. I don't use a python-thingy, just a regular old siphon tube and a bucket. Position your bucket below the tank, put the gravel cleaner end into the water, and give a quick suck on the other end of the tube to start the water flow and immediately position over your bucket. Alternately, you can dunk the entire tube in the tank, let fill with water, keep your thumb over the end you take out of the tank and then let your thumb go when that end of the tube is over your bucket and the water should flow. Does that make sense?
I'm really old-school in the way I do my water changes, even with my 39g. I don't use a python-thingy, just a regular old siphon tube and a bucket. Position your bucket below the tank, put the gravel cleaner end into the water, and give a quick suck on the other end of the tube to start the water flow and immediately position over your bucket. Alternately, you can dunk the entire tube in the tank, let fill with water, keep your thumb over the end you take out of the tank and then let your thumb go when that end of the tube is over your bucket and the water should flow. Does that make sense?
Aqua Clears are excellent filters. Consider this: you have 20 gallons of filtration on a 6 gallon tank- that's wonderful! =D I love Aqua Clears because you can "customize" what you put in them. I recommend ditching the carbon in favor of either double bio-max/one sponge or double sponges/one bio-max.
Just out of curiousity, are you dead-set on the Glofish? IMO and only in my opinion, Zebra Danio are very active and should have a tank that's at least two feet long to swim back and forth in. Anything smaller than a 20g or so would limit their ability to be their crazy selves. As lauraf suggested, Platies might be an excellent choice. They are less rapid swimmers and wouldn't mind not being able to dart around as much. A few fancy Guppies (maybe all males to avoid babies?) would also be beautiful!
For bottom feeders: Pygmy Cory are adorable, though a little more difficult to find. I never had luck with them, but then, I only ever tried to keep them once or twice. You could easily do a small school (maybe 3?) of regular Cory Cats or maybe consider a small crew of Algae eating shrimp?
Keep in mind that you can bend the rules a bit when stocking your tank if you're using small fish that exist in different levels of the water column. For example, Cory cats will always stay on the bottom of the tank. In addition, they have a labyrinth organ and breathe the air like we do, so they aren't competing with the other fish for the oxygen in the water or for much of the swimming space. If you had Glofish/Platies/Guppies they would reside in the upper part of the water column which would not interfer with the bottom feeders. They would get their oxygen from the water, which should be pretty full of it considering Aqua Clears tend to make a decent splash!
Just out of curiousity, are you dead-set on the Glofish? IMO and only in my opinion, Zebra Danio are very active and should have a tank that's at least two feet long to swim back and forth in. Anything smaller than a 20g or so would limit their ability to be their crazy selves. As lauraf suggested, Platies might be an excellent choice. They are less rapid swimmers and wouldn't mind not being able to dart around as much. A few fancy Guppies (maybe all males to avoid babies?) would also be beautiful!
For bottom feeders: Pygmy Cory are adorable, though a little more difficult to find. I never had luck with them, but then, I only ever tried to keep them once or twice. You could easily do a small school (maybe 3?) of regular Cory Cats or maybe consider a small crew of Algae eating shrimp?
Keep in mind that you can bend the rules a bit when stocking your tank if you're using small fish that exist in different levels of the water column. For example, Cory cats will always stay on the bottom of the tank. In addition, they have a labyrinth organ and breathe the air like we do, so they aren't competing with the other fish for the oxygen in the water or for much of the swimming space. If you had Glofish/Platies/Guppies they would reside in the upper part of the water column which would not interfer with the bottom feeders. They would get their oxygen from the water, which should be pretty full of it considering Aqua Clears tend to make a decent splash!
thanks for all the great tips! 3 quick things:
1) how long should i leave my aquarium light on for? is natural daylight enough during the day?
2) what is the best way to make the tank water more clear? water changes? if so, does the water need to be treated with something before I put it in the tank?
3) how often do you feed your fish? I read that only feed enough for them to consume within a few minutes but is every other day normal?
1) how long should i leave my aquarium light on for? is natural daylight enough during the day?
2) what is the best way to make the tank water more clear? water changes? if so, does the water need to be treated with something before I put it in the tank?
3) how often do you feed your fish? I read that only feed enough for them to consume within a few minutes but is every other day normal?
Unless you are growing plants, there is no need for light at all. The light in that case is for you to view/enjoy your fish.
How does the water look? If its cloudy and white, that is likely just a bacteria bloom which is a good thing while cycling. If its cloudy and green, it may be the start of an algae bloom. In that case, you need to reduce your lighting period.
Always treat your new water with a dechlorinator before adding it to the tank.
Some fish that I keep are fed 2 or 3x a day, some once a day, some every other day, others twice a week. It depends on the fish and its age, and if its being conditioned for breeding.
How does the water look? If its cloudy and white, that is likely just a bacteria bloom which is a good thing while cycling. If its cloudy and green, it may be the start of an algae bloom. In that case, you need to reduce your lighting period.
Always treat your new water with a dechlorinator before adding it to the tank.
Some fish that I keep are fed 2 or 3x a day, some once a day, some every other day, others twice a week. It depends on the fish and its age, and if its being conditioned for breeding.