33 gallon stocking.

FishForums.net Pet of the Month
🐶 POTM Poll is Open! 🦎 Click here to Vote! 🐰

GabParker232

Fish Fanatic
Joined
Aug 23, 2019
Messages
62
Reaction score
4
Hello. I'm new to this forum. Got my third tank, a fluval roma 125 litre tank. Its cycling now and wondering what to stock it with. Will be a planted community tank. Thinking harlequins, cherry barbs, male platys, honey gourami, black phantom tetra, sterbai Cory's and possibly lemon tetra. I'd quite like some cool interesting fish. Maybe a centerpiece maybe a schooling fish, not sure. Any suggestions are welcome.
 
Hi and welcome,
What is the pH, GH and KH of your water? This information will allow suitable suggestions.
 
You should be able to find your GH somewhere on your water provider's website. It will be called hardness. You need a number and the unit (there are several they could use). If you can't find it, tell us the name of the company and we'll see if we can find it.
Or take a sample of tap water to an LFS and ask them to test GH and KH - again you need numbers and the units.

Your water provider's website may or may not give KH. If they do, they will call it alkalinity.


You should have your own test kit so test the pH of tap water, both freshly run and some that has been allowed to stand for 24 hours. They'll probably be different.
 
Sorry not able to get the precise water GH and KH at the moment. My pH is between 7.2 and 7.5. Any fish that can be fine in such a high pH? I can go and get my water tested for the KH and GH to see if it's suitable for the fish, if you give me the required KH and GH.
 
Hardness is more important than pH, which can be slightly outside a species' normal range provided the GH is within it.

Look at http://www.seriouslyfish.com to find the hardness needed by any particular species.

If the LFS uses strips to test GH, be aware that those give a range rather than a number, and a lot of them don't give results for hard water as they don't go high enough. If they use liquid testers, they'll give an accurate reading.
 
We cannot make any suggestions without the hardness of your water, I'm afraid.
 
I have just noticed that almost all the fish in your list in the first post are soft water fish. The exception is platies. These are hard water fish and will suffer if kept in soft water. Of course if you have hard water, platies would be suitable but the other species would suffer especially in very hard water.

This is why you do need need to find out your hardness. Does your water company not give this information?
 
Just managed to check the water in my area and its classed as 'moderately soft'. Trying to find an exact number.
 
Screenshot_20191004_173529_com.android.chrome.jpg

Don't know whether this helps but it's the best I can find.
 
That water is too soft for platys. Everything else on your list should be fine (but that's from memory so please do double check using the link @essjay posted.)
 
Agree. "Moderately soft" being 3 to 5 dGH (51 to 100 ppm equivalent) will suit most fish from South America (cory catfish, tetras, hatchetfish, pencilfish, most pleco types) and SE Asia (rasboras, gourami). The next consideration is tank dimensions.

The site gives them as 50 x 80 x 35cm (presumably height, length, width, in that order going from the photo online). This will work for any of the soft water species you mentioned in post #1. The rasboras, barbs, tetras and cories all need a group as they are shoaling species. Numbers can vary, but it is always best to have more rather than fewer of a shoaling species, given the tank space. Cories for example would be better here with 12-15, all sterbai if you like, or a mix of species with a few of each.
 

Most reactions

trending

Staff online

Back
Top