Confused About Ph And Setting Up A New Tank

[kkcrd11]

Okay im pretty new to fishkeeping but i have a spare tank that my son wants for his bedroom its a 39L so quite small .

I have put some media from my 100L in a filter and popped it in the tank filled with water and im told this is now ready to go (is this correct) I've tested the water this is the results i got

PH 6
amonia 0
nitrites 0
nitrates 0

Is the PH to low i use an API liquid test kit and this is the lowest reading on the chart im quite confused how to know the exact PH . and why no nitrates i thought they should be around 20 like my other tank ??

my son wants to have a couple of corydoras in there and maybe some harlequins and he also likes apple snails . this is not what the final stocking will be these are just the fish he likes when we look around but no final decsions yet

So hypothetically would tese fish be compatible and in what numbers in this size tank ?? and whats about the water is it ready for fish or not ??

 

[CezzaXV]

Cories do best in groups of 6+, but the good news is your tank is easily big enough to support a group that size. The apple snails will be fine in that tank too, as will the harlequins

 

[kkcrd11]

Cories do best in groups of 6+, but the good news is your tank is easily big enough to support a group that size. The apple snails will be fine in that tank too, as will the harlequins

Oh thats great then Thankyou so do you think I am ok to start stocking tomorrow based on those results ? and in which order should I add them. im thinking harlequins first and corydoras last would that be about right ??

sorry for all the questions but i dont want to harm any new fish

 

[CezzaXV]

I'm assuming you haven't cycled the tank yet? If not, you're still a way from being ready for fish yet. Have a read up in the Beginner's Resource Centre at the top of this forum, it has everything you need to know. It can be quite complicated and difficult to get your head around when you're starting out, but it's easy once you know.

 

[kkcrd11]

No i havent cycled the tank but i was under the impression with old media i wouldnt need to .

Ive done this before when i rescued some fish on advice given here. Ive read the beginners section before but i still get confused and wary if i'm doing the right thing lol

 

[-Jo-]

I was told that with old media, you still need to cycle the tank - but fortunatly it is a lot quicker then cycling a tank with no old media.

 

[KISSfn]

Is the media you added 6 months + mature? 24 hours without a food source will probably make half your media go dormant. pH is okay for Cories or Harlequins. In my opinion your tank is not big enough for both. Both like to be in groups of 6+ and one group would be pushing the limits of your tank space. No problem with the snails. You're not reading any Nitrates because the API kit is famous for being inaccurate reading Nitrates unless you shake the #2 reagent bottle until your arm falls off. You could add fish as long as you test the water twice a day and do water changes as needed to keep Ammonia as low as possible as you would be in a Fish In Cycle. Or you could Fishless Cycle until your filter processes Ammonia and Nitrites to zero in 12 hours time. IMO.

 

[kkcrd11]

Thanks for that info .

I added some rasboras on the 29th . they are doing fine even look as though they are breeding today which I'm quite surprised about what with it being a new tank . A couple of pairs have been in the plants doing thier thing . Is this normal behavior for them in a new enviroment they have been twirling around each other in mid air then dissapearing into a plant and turning upside down rubbing against leaves (which are only plastic plants ). They have been doing this for well over half an hour .

my sons finding it all very fascinating and ive fallen in love with them they are so cute

 

[the_lock_man]

Okay im pretty new to fishkeeping but i have a spare tank that my son wants for his bedroom its a 39L so quite small .

I have put some media from my 100L in a filter and popped it in the tank filled with water and im told this is now ready to go (is this correct) I've tested the water this is the results i got

PH 6
amonia 0
nitrites 0
nitrates 0

Is the PH to low i use an API liquid test kit and this is the lowest reading on the chart im quite confused how to know the exact PH . and why no nitrates i thought they should be around 20 like my other tank ??

my son wants to have a couple of corydoras in there and maybe some harlequins and he also likes apple snails . this is not what the final stocking will be these are just the fish he likes when we look around but no final decsions yet

So hypothetically would tese fish be compatible and in what numbers in this size tank ?? and whats about the water is it ready for fish or not ??

Just to clarify the theory for you, if there was no ammonia source in the tank, there would be no ammonia being converted to nitrite to be converted into nitrate.

 

[raptorrex]

I was told that with old media, you still need to cycle the tank - but fortunatly it is a lot quicker then cycling a tank with no old media.

I'd still do at least a week of ammonia and no fish,. just to be sure.
you wont be fully stable, till the tank matures (about six months). but the media is mature after the cycle. it may increase or decrease in size (stocking dependent).
bacteria dont live for months and months. its more like days or weeks.

truth is we dont really even know what, exact, bacteria we have in our tanks.
or indeed if we all have the same type. lol, or even family.

if you are transporting media, air is far more important than food! but the general feeling here is around 10% die off per day, with no food or air. ie failed filter.

I'm unsure about the dormancy thing. especially the 50% per day. but if its dormant, it will reawaken when given food. so no loss then!
coz if it doesn't, it dead. init? and that happens, roughly, as i have stated. 10% per day. or so it seems.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

Almost nohing in the above post is factually correct.

It takes the bacteria some time to form a stable biofilm which they need to survive and live inside. So your bacteria is not fully established until it does so. And the bacteria can survive for months and months without food. They do become dormant and they do revive when a food source is again present.

The Bacteria does not need to be fed every day to survive.

The specific bacteria in tanks have been known for some time now. The only disagreement about this I have seen comes from two of the posters in this thread and they have never been able to supply any scientific evidence to support their claims.

It is an urban myth that 10% of the bacteria die off every day if not fed. There is actually no evidence of this anywhere you look. I have only ever seen it reported on this forum.

So I will once again quote the science to refute the unsubstantiated and totally incorrect claims of both raptorrex and Prime Ordeal. neither of whom have yet to respond to science with science in any of these discussions.

Nitrosomonas europaea cells starved for weeks, months or even almost a year of ammonium were able to regain their ammonia-oxidizing activity within minutes in batch and retentostat experiments (Wilhelm et al., 1998; Tappe et al., 1999; Laanbroek & Bär-Gilissen, 2002). However, these results contradicted the data reported by Batchelor et al. (1997), in which Nitrosomonas europaea cells that were starved of ammonium for 42 days exhibited a lag phase of 153 h prior to exponential nitrite production. This indicates that the recovery process of Nitrosomonas europaea is complex and might depend on external factors such as growth conditions and the physiological state of the cell prior to starvation (Wilhelm et al., 1998). One must, however, keep in mind that two different types of recovery after ammonia starvation can be considered: the recovery of a single cell and the recovery of a population. A single cell can recover within minutes to hours (see ‘Molecular response of AOB to shortage of ammonium’), depending on whether it has to activate already present enzymes or to synthesize new enzymes. Within a population, however, reactivation is coupled to cell growth of a few survivor cells, which might take days or even weeks (Van Loosdrecht & Henze, 1999).

Go read the entire study here http/onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1574-6941.2006.00170.x/full its from the Laboratory of Microbial Ecology and Technology, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium.

Let me summarize it this way- on one side there are univesities, PhDs, government and private industry sponsored research facilities and reams of studies which say one thing and on the other side are two anonoymous posters on this site who refuse to provide any independent, scientific support for what they claim.

 

[Aqua Tom]

Almost nohing in the above post is factually correct.

It takes the bacteria some time to form a stable biofilm which they need to survive and live inside. So your bacteria is not fully established until it does so. And the bacteria can survive for months and months without food. They do become dormant and they do revive when a food source is again present.

The Bacteria does not need to be fed every day to survive.

The specific bacteria in tanks have been known for some time now. The only disagreement about this I have seen comes from two of the posters in this thread and they have never been able to supply any scientific evidence to support their claims.

It is an urban myth that 10% of the bacteria die off every day if not fed. There is actually no evidence of this anywhere you look. I have only ever seen it reported on this forum.

So I will once again quote the science to refute the unsubstantiated and totally incorrect claims of both raptorrex and Prime Ordeal. neither of whom have yet to respond to science with science in any of these discussions.

Nitrosomonas europaea cells starved for weeks, months or even almost a year of ammonium were able to regain their ammonia-oxidizing activity within minutes in batch and retentostat experiments (Wilhelm et al., 1998; Tappe et al., 1999; Laanbroek & Bär-Gilissen, 2002). However, these results contradicted the data reported by Batchelor et al. (1997), in which Nitrosomonas europaea cells that were starved of ammonium for 42 days exhibited a lag phase of 153 h prior to exponential nitrite production. This indicates that the recovery process of Nitrosomonas europaea is complex and might depend on external factors such as growth conditions and the physiological state of the cell prior to starvation (Wilhelm et al., 1998). One must, however, keep in mind that two different types of recovery after ammonia starvation can be considered: the recovery of a single cell and the recovery of a population. A single cell can recover within minutes to hours (see ‘Molecular response of AOB to shortage of ammonium’), depending on whether it has to activate already present enzymes or to synthesize new enzymes. Within a population, however, reactivation is coupled to cell growth of a few survivor cells, which might take days or even weeks (Van Loosdrecht & Henze, 1999).

Go read the entire study here http/onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1574-6941.2006.00170.x/full its from the Laboratory of Microbial Ecology and Technology, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium.

Let me summarize it this way- on one side there are univesities, PhDs, government and private industry sponsored research facilities and reams of studies which say one thing and on the other side are two anonoymous posters on this site who refuse to provide any independent, scientific support for what they claim.

Nonesense.


Its all done by sorcery.

 

[raptorrex]

Almost nohing in the above post is factually correct.

It takes the bacteria some time to form a stable biofilm which they need to survive and live inside. So your bacteria is not fully established until it does so. And the bacteria can survive for months and months without food. They do become dormant and they do revive when a food source is again present.

The Bacteria does not need to be fed every day to survive.

The specific bacteria in tanks have been known for some time now. The only disagreement about this I have seen comes from two of the posters in this thread and they have never been able to supply any scientific evidence to support their claims.

It is an urban myth that 10% of the bacteria die off every day if not fed. There is actually no evidence of this anywhere you look. I have only ever seen it reported on this forum.

So I will once again quote the science to refute the unsubstantiated and totally incorrect claims of both raptorrex and Prime Ordeal. neither of whom have yet to respond to science with science in any of these discussions.

Nitrosomonas europaea cells starved for weeks, months or even almost a year of ammonium were able to regain their ammonia-oxidizing activity within minutes in batch and retentostat experiments (Wilhelm et al., 1998; Tappe et al., 1999; Laanbroek & Bär-Gilissen, 2002). However, these results contradicted the data reported by Batchelor et al. (1997), in which Nitrosomonas europaea cells that were starved of ammonium for 42 days exhibited a lag phase of 153 h prior to exponential nitrite production. This indicates that the recovery process of Nitrosomonas europaea is complex and might depend on external factors such as growth conditions and the physiological state of the cell prior to starvation (Wilhelm et al., 1998). One must, however, keep in mind that two different types of recovery after ammonia starvation can be considered: the recovery of a single cell and the recovery of a population. A single cell can recover within minutes to hours (see 'Molecular response of AOB to shortage of ammonium'), depending on whether it has to activate already present enzymes or to synthesize new enzymes. Within a population, however, reactivation is coupled to cell growth of a few survivor cells, which might take days or even weeks (Van Loosdrecht & Henze, 1999).

Go read the entire study here http/onlinelibrary...06.00170.x/full its from the Laboratory of Microbial Ecology and Technology, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium.

Let me summarize it this way- on one side there are univesities, PhDs, government and private industry sponsored research facilities and reams of studies which say one thing and on the other side are two anonoymous posters on this site who refuse to provide any independent, scientific support for what they claim.

seriously guy, your going to look a right fool, (look??) if you are not careful. you are taking small amounts of evidence, from a larger pool. and stating it as fact. even your DR H admits his bottled bacteria are nowhere to be seen after a short time in the tank. so test on the bugs you state, are far less meaningful then you give them credit for. I did give the link to DR H's comments,. oddly you ignored it.

there is no clear evidence of the bugs we have in our tank. its not even certain the same family is involved.

 

[fluttermoth]

just to throw this out there...

Aquarium Nitrification Revisited: Thaumarchaeota Are the Dominant Ammonia Oxidizers in Freshwater Aquarium Biofilters

Hope that link is allowed.

 

[OldMan47]

The link is allowed because it is specialized knowledge not found on our site, especially since it is of specific relevance to our hobby such as that one. I am still trying to digest what it might mean to the advice we give out. I do not intend to start telling newbies about that level of detail because I know our present methods work quite well and can be understood. Classic physics has also been proven wrong due to relativistic effects, but it still helps people understand the effects of things like gravity. All I am trying to figure out is whether it affects any of the key parameters we have always watched when helping people.