Hi All - Newbie Questions Alert Lol

[Detritus]

Hi All
Looks like a great forum to help getting started, no body told me about fish less cycle in the store I bought the tank from, just said leave it a week before putting fish in. lol. But i'm now on the right path. Ordered master testing kit, should be here tomorrow, got my ammonia ready.

I have a Fluval Edge tank. filled with tap water( questions later about this idea) and used a cap of Nutrafin Aqua Plus, and added 22.5ml of Nutrafin Cycle so far. I have also put 3 small plants, and leaving the lights on for about 6 hours a day?

Using some 5 in 1 testing strips I get max levels of GH(180ppm) and KH(240ppm) with a PH of 8. Does this mean I might have some very hard water problems?

Does anyone have any good water recommendations in the UK, where to buy cleaner water, i.e. distilled or cheap bottle water from a super market?

Any observations or recommendations are welcome.

Regards and thanks in advance for any help.

D ;¬))

 

[Wills]

Very hard water is not always an issue, you might just need to look for fish that prefer harder water. Most africans are hard water but in such a small tank not sure of what your options would be.

An alternative would be RO water, which could actually work in this situation as most small fish like micro rasbora or the tiny gourami types which need/like the low Ph that RO water will provide. You get RO water from most fish shops for about £1.99 - £2.50 for 25 liters so I mean thats like 4 or 5 weeks worth of water changes for you there.

Have you considered what fish you want? And it is utterly fantastic going for for the fishless cycle It is just so easy to set the tank up that way.

Wills

 

[Detritus]

Hi Wills
I was wanting to go for shrimp, guppies, etc, small colorful active things, I don't want lots of fish, just an nice little display tank, but I want to do it correctly. What PH does RO water have then?

Regards
D ;¬))

 

[Wills]

I think that RO works out at about 6.4 but its meant to be easier to buffer up than tap water. If your going for guppies go for endlers, similar fish but much smaller and better suited to life in the edge But if your going with these a high Ph isnt that bad for them really.

Where abouts are you from people might be able to help you out with what can go well with your tap water?

 

[Detritus]

I think that RO works out at about 6.4 but its meant to be easier to buffer up than tap water. If your going for guppies go for endlers, similar fish but much smaller and better suited to life in the edge But if your going with these a high Ph isnt that bad for them really.

Where abouts are you from people might be able to help you out with what can go well with your tap water?

Staines in Middlesex, but I dont mind doing extra work to be able to choose my fish, rather than having the water specs to define my choice, I've done a bit more googling about RO water and it looks like that may be the right way to go, so I know wonder if I would be better to go get some RO water today refill my tank, not use the decelor, and start my cycle with that in place as I havent really started my fishless cycle as I have not added my ammonia yet(waiting for master test kit to turn up) , Whats you thoughts?

Many thanks
D ;¬))

 

[Wills]

Yeah if you use RO water I believe you need to do a new cycle, but I believe that low Ph does something to the cycle not sure what it is.... if you start a thread called "fishless cycling with RO water" in the your new tank section there are some people that really know their stuff about the cycle.

 

[Detritus]

Yeah if you use RO water I believe you need to do a new cycle, but I believe that low Ph does something to the cycle not sure what it is.... if you start a thread called "fishless cycling with RO water" in the your new tank section there are some people that really know their stuff about the cycle.

Thank you Wills