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JLawson90

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any recommendations for one of these? it would be for my 120L fluval tank and must be kind to the budget!
 
What sort of fish are you keeping and what are the tank dimensions (length x width x height)?
 
It's L:80cm x W:35cm x H:50cm .. give or take a cm here and there!

I'm not decided fully on what to stock it with yet, but I currently have a pair of albino corys in there (going to add a couple more in a few weeks)

I know I would also like a red tailed black shark (I believe my tank is only big enough for one?)

I also like the look of leopard guppies as a space filler, so a group of 6 or so of these?

will be some other things as well but unsure what exactly at the moment
 
Welcome to TFF. :hi:

To decide on the appropriate filter you need to first decide on the intended fish species. The filter is primarily the source of water movement. This is the more important aspect, as it affects fish. Some need stronger currents, others none at all. For example, in this sized tank with cories and tetras and rasboras, or gourami perhaps, a dual sponge filter would be sufficient. An external filter would be pretty much a waste. But if you stock the tank with fish from flowing streams, say white cloud minnows as an example, a small filter providing more current would be best.

While I'm here, on another issue...forget the Reed Tail Shark. First, it is not safe to house it with any substrate fish (like cories). Second, it needs a 4-foot long tank. Beyond this, individual fish often take an intense dislike to upper fish, and e4specially any with vertical stripe patterns.
 
There may be another issue with your intended stocking (sorry :)).
Do you know the hardness of your water? This is specified as GH and the info may be available on your water suppliers website. We need the number as well as the unit because there are several different scales in use.

The reason that this is important is that corys do much better in soft water. Guppies need hard water. So it is unlikely that your water could provide a suitable environment for both to thrive.
 
I'm happy to listen to advice on stocking.. as said I've already got corys and have been doing well for quite a while, so I'm guessing my water may be suited to them

I've checked the water hardness on a website for my postcode and it says .. "NE10 8RA is in a soft water area - The water supply to your property contains low levels of hard water minerals. Soft water is at or below 60ppm"

In regards to the filter, I've always read that you can't "over filter" water, and if the flow is too powerful in terms of water movement you can point it at a tank wall or decor etc to slow it down
 
can someone confirm/rule out this .. with my little group of corys, I will be ok to add a bristlenose plec and some shrimp?
 
That is perfect for corys. It is unsuitable for guppies or other livebearers though. The good news is many of the South American and Asian species thrive in soft water. Examples are most tetras, danios, rasbora etc.

If you see a species you think you may be interested in you can read up on its requirements at seriouslyfish.com, which will also tell you about temperement and other useful information. Hardness on the site is sometimes expressed a dGH (german degrees). 60ppm translates to about 3.4 dGH. Also 60ppm = 60mg/L
 
That is perfect for corys. It is unsuitable for guppies or other livebearers though. The good news is many of the South American and Asian species thrive in soft water. Examples are most tetras, danios, rasbora etc.

If you see a species you think you may be interested in you can read up on its requirements at seriouslyfish.com, which will also tell you about temperement and other useful information. Hardness on the site is sometimes expressed a dGH (german degrees). 60ppm translates to about 3.4 dGH. Also 60ppm = 60mg/L

thanks Sean, any idea on whether a bristlenose plec would be suitable to add? I've read it would be, but I also read other things would be which you guys have said isnt! So I'd rather take the advice from the knowledge on here
 
With that postcode you have the same water supplier as me, and I've just looked at their website only to find they've changed it within the last week and they no longer give the actual hardness, just vague words :eek: They say your postcode is "slightly hard" which is not much use. But they also say mine is "slightly hard" and mine is 5 dH which is not hard at all.

You could try emailing/phoning them to ask what your hardness is - you need a number and the unit as until they changed the website they used the unit mg/l calcium so you would need to convert that to one used in fishkeeping.
 
Yes, I live in Teesside.

The water quality report is not much help as it does not include hardness. All the water quality report incudes is the amount of several things from minerals to contaminants to biological organisms. The only useful thing in the report is the nitrate level as it should confirm your test kit reading on your tap water.
 
Ok so using your slightly dated table my figures are; GH = 8dH/143 ppm. KH = 95 dH/5.3 ppm .. granted they may have went up a small amount as yours has
 
Years ago, Northumbrian Water's website have the hardness levels for the whole area as a table in pdf format. Every time a new one was uploaded, I downloaded it. The figures in the post above are from the last table they uploaded, dated 2010.


My hardness in that table is 4 dH. Last time they gave the hardness on the website it was 5 dH. That could be as little as increasing from 4.9 to 5.1.
 

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