Return My New Tank?

[FishCat_16]

I bought play sand for it.. I thought I had read it wouldn't affect the water parameters?  I'll have to research some more and do a test.  If I can get it planted and scaped this weekend that should be perfect as I am going out of town for two days next week which should give my plants a chance to grow without me getting too antsy about it... a watched pot never boils right?
 
When I stopped in the LFS the other day one of the women working there asked how my new tank was looking and running.  She seemed genuinely surprised that it was still empty...  Imagine how surprised she would have been if I had asked to return it.

 

[Akasha72]

I had play sand to begin with and my pH dropped with that too. I can't say it's the sand that causes the pH to drop 100% but it certainly seems to for me. It could be because my water in very very soft and has no natural gH or kH. It's hard to say for sure. I'd add the sand and test the tank for all three (pH,gH and kH), leave it three or four days and then test again. See what happens

 

[jag51186]

Nice thread! Everyone is taking good care of you! I just wanted to mention, I don't know that I would keep that cichlid with killifish if you decide to go that route. Killi's are pretty small and I would worry about them becoming a snack. Killi's are also notorious jumpers, so make sure you have a lid. 

 
And in case you haven't ruled out rainbows yet...here you go...
 

 
These beauties love hard water! =)
 
http/www.seriouslyfish.com/species/pseudomugil-furcatus/
 
There are tons of different rainbowfish that all love hard water, so you have loads of options.

 

[FishCat_16]

Everyone has really been awesome about relaxing my worry that all was lost simply because I have hard water.  Although, after cleaning 50# of sand this evening has made really think hard about those rock loving African cichlids!!
 
I worked on my tank four about four hours tonight.. I think all I'm missing are plants and fish; plants on my project for tomorrow and/or Sunday.  I also think I'm going to order one or two more spider wood sets.
 
I'm going to try to figure out how to attach an image of where I'm at for now..

 

[FishCat_16]

 

[Akasha72]

if you are going down the route of African cichlids - such as Mbuna cichlids you might want to re-consider the plants. I hear they are notorious for tearing plants apart. If your going for the ellioti though plants should be okay 

 

[FishCat_16]

No, no.  Just musing over fish and substrates.  The brief glimmer of thought that I was going to toss the sand and go for a rocky and plantless aquarium vanished as soon as I finished rinsing it and got it in the tank!
 
As long as we're talking about the elliotis again I do have another question that I've been trying to clarify....
 
Some of the websites where I have found pictures and writes ups about them are saying that Thorichthys ellioti is an older/outdate name and that they should be called Thorichthys maculipinnis.  I have not found, so far anyway, any ellioti being offered for sale.  I have however found maculipinnis.  Before I order any of those, once my tank is ready, I just want to be sure I'm ordering the same fish...  I'm pretty sure they are the same.

 

[Akasha72]

I can't help you there. Zante might be back and he might know

 

[FishCat_16]

The websites keep talking about "junior synonyms" from what I've puzzled out and long story short- initially a second genus was involved and slightly different geographic locations of discovery and different guys making their discoveries and giving them different names.  Long story even shorter, same fish.

 
On to more exciting news- I finished filling my tank this morning.  Hopefully the LFS will have some wood when I go down tomorrow or I will be back to the ebay guy.  I'm kind of disappointed that I seem to have discarded all of the tannin water last night after I boiled and soaked it all. Positive side?  Everything is staying put at the bottom of tank and not floating about.
 
I checked my tap pH with the API master kit after letting it sit out uncovered and I'm at about 8.2.  Still within the accepted range for the elliotis.  We'll see how it turns out once the wood soaks in there for a few days and after I order the catappa leaves... My biggest concern now will be if the wood and leaves lowers the pH  whether there will be a problematic fluctuation when I change the water?
 
I'm not liking the gravel I put in along one back corner, I thought it might look ok and help me with not over burying the rhizome plants and to give them something to grab on to...
 
I'm excited to watch how this tank develops... If I had realized how much science there was to keeping fish, I'd have gotten into it a long time ago.

 
It took me a bit, but I figured out how to hook up my filter.  Now, I'm not quite sure how to start it... the directions advise not to turn it on until the canister is filled with water... It's an Eheim 2215... do I need to suck the water through like starting a syphon or is there some sort of primer I'm missing?

 

[Zante]

To be honest I don't know what's going on with this fish's scientific name. When the dwarf gourami was moved from Colisa lalia to Trichogaster lalius the change was clear even if there still are some references to the old scientific name. Even wikipedia was quick to update the article.
 
With the ellioti, nobody seems to know for sure what's going on. This is one area where Wikipedia is quite reliable, yet for this case the page on the ellioti has disappeared and there is no mention on the Thorichthys page, while there is a mention of the maculipinnis on the Thorichthys page but no page for the species itself.
 
I'd say that if you buy maculipinnis you will be most likely buying what I was referring to as ellioti, and anyway the common name has now stuck and they will still be known as "ellioti cichlid" even if the scientific name has indeed become Thorichthys maculipinnis, in the same way that Pelvicachromis pulcher are still known as Kribensis.
 
In any case I doubt they really care what the label we give them is

 

[Akasha72]

same as my laetacara cuviceps cichlid. It used to be called the sheepshead Acara before they changed it to curviceps. I still see it referred to as the sheepshead 

 

[FishCat_16]

It doesn't matter much to me what the scientific name is so long as I know I can buy either one and death won't be awaiting the rest of my fish with nasty, big, pointy teeth...
 
I got my filter running with not too much trouble.  Ok, that's a lie.  I had my first disaster since realizing I had hard water.  One of the valves wasn't quite tight and when I tried to tighten it, I turned it the wrong way and disconnect the tube. 

   Luckily I planned ahead and had a towel handy!

 

[Akasha72]

lol! I always have towels handy even now. We can all get distracted and make silly mistake like that. I soaked my carpet and wall with water running over the electric socket once when I turned my filter on and forgot the outlet nozzle wasn't pointing into the tank ... distract me or make me rush and I'm a liability!

 

[Zante]

It doesn't matter much to me what the scientific name is so long as I know I can buy either one and death won't be awaiting the rest of my fish with nasty, big, pointy teeth...

 
You mean something like this?

 

[FishCat_16]

Exactly like that!