A few random pictures from the past week or so

[anewbie]

 

[anewbie]

1/2 heart-ed picture of some new fishes.

 

[gwand]

What are the fish in the lower picture?

 

[anewbie]

What are the fish in the lower picture?

tucano tetra; my understanding is they require blackwater.

 

[gwand]

tucano tetra; my understanding is they require blackwater.

Lovely fish.

 

[anewbie]

 

[gwand]

tucano tetra; my understanding is they require blackwater.

How do you create your black water?

 

[anewbie]

How do you create your black water?

I just use pure ro water and add a few leaves. I use pool filter sand (hth brand) or caribsea crystal river substrate. For anything super delicate you want to wait a month or two for the tank to mature but for most fishes it is good to go - i use sponges from other aquariums as seed and for the first week i measure ammonia daily and if it spikes add a few drop of sachem prime and do 25% to 50% water change. I consider anything over 0.5 unacceptable. In the worse case i add another sponge filter.

Do be aware that the type of bacteria that forms in soft acidic water is different than harder water so moving a sponge from a harder water aquarium won't be as efficient.

I do not use any additive chemicals other than a bit of sachem prime on startup - after the first week things tend to be good to go - i do add a lot of leaves over time but it is more focus on providing dwarf ichcild hiding places and cat fishes food then water chemistry (though decaying leaves do help a lot with water chemistry).

 

[gwand]

I just use pure ro water and add a few leaves. I use pool filter sand (hth brand) or caribsea crystal river substrate. For anything super delicate you want to wait a month or two for the tank to mature but for most fishes it is good to go - i use sponges from other aquariums as seed and for the first week i measure ammonia daily and if it spikes add a few drop of sachem prime and do 25% to 50% water change. I consider anything over 0.5 unacceptable. In the worse case i add another sponge filter.

Do be aware that the type of bacteria that forms in soft acidic water is different than harder water so moving a sponge from a harder water aquarium won't be as efficient.

I do not use any additive chemicals other than a bit of sachem prime on startup - after the first week things tend to be good to go - i do add a lot of leaves over time but it is more focus on providing dwarf ichcild hiding places and cat fishes food then water chemistry (though decaying leaves do help a lot with water chemistry).

So RO and not RO/Di. You want some minerals.

 

[anewbie]

So RO and not RO/Di. You want some minerals.

The ec of the water with ro/di is 10 and the ec without di is 14 so not much difference. The reason i stopped using di is it only lasted about a week (3 20 inch containers); and i got tired of packing containers. Technically any ec below 30 is blackwater.

Now if your base water is harder than mine then the output from ro or even ro/di might be higher than mine.

What i am not saying is a lot of these fishes don't need strict blackwter that is an ec of 30 and ec of 40 are not a huge difference though purer is always better for the more sensitive species.

 

[gwand]

The ec of the water with ro/di is 10 and the ec without di is 14 so not much difference. The reason i stopped using di is it only lasted about a week (3 20 inch containers); and i got tired of packing containers. Technically any ec below 30 is blackwater.

Now if your base water is harder than mine then the output from ro or even ro/di might be higher than mine.

What i am not saying is a lot of these fishes don't need strict blackwter that is an ec of 30 and ec of 40 are not a huge difference though purer is always better for the more sensitive species.

What is the pH of your RO water?

 

[anewbie]

What is the pH of your RO water?

Of the two tanks i monitor one claims 4.9 the other 4.6. Of course I don't know the accuracy of the probes in use or if they are calibrated. However i believe the 4.9 is likely close to accurate.

 

[gwand]

Of the two tanks i monitor one claims 4.9 the other 4.6. Of course I don't know the accuracy of the probes in use or if they are calibrated. However i believe the 4.9 is likely close to accurate.

I read that pH in that range may inhibit nitrifying bacteria growth. Do you think there is any credibility to that song?

 

[anewbie]

I read that pH in that range may inhibit nitrifying bacteria growth. Do you think there is any credibility to that song?

Don't know don't care.

 

[anewbie]

I think this is the answer you want:

Presence of Acid-Tolerant Bacteria: While common aquarium nitrifying bacteria (like Nitrosomonas and Nitrobacter) are inhibited below a pH of 6.0, natural environments host diverse, specialized acid-tolerant nitrifying microorganisms (both bacteria and archaea) that can function efficiently even at a pH of 4.6 or lower.