Is My Water Ready?

[jackrmee]

Hi, I've had fish before but I want to do it properly this time.

I've got a couple of tanks, but I want to start off small, so I'm just using a small corner tank at the moment, before setting up my bigger ones.

I'm going to start off simple and just get some cheap beginner fish.

I just tested the water with my API Master Test Kit. The readings are as follows:
PH: 7.8
Ammonia: 0.25ppm
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 10ppm

I can see the PH is a little high. How can I bring it down if needed?
What fish do you recommend I start with?

Thanks

 

[Ch4rlie]

First of all, you'll need to cycle the tank before you add any livestock.
 
Cycling is basically to get the filter and tank ready with the relevant bacterias to deal with ammonia and nitrite which the livestock produces every day. Ammonia and nitrite are toxic to fish, hence the need to to get bacterias to deal with that otherwise livestock will suffer and usually fatal if left alone.
 
I would strongly urge you to do a Fishless Cycle, this means no fish in tank while cycling, this way the fish will not suffer from any mistakes made.
 
Have a read of this excellent article, this should provide a lot of answers to any questions you may have regarding cycling.
 
Cycling Your First Freshwater Tank
 
And as for your query into what you can stock your tank with, a little more detail would be good, tank size and dimensions, water hardness (this can be obtained from going online and researching your local water authority).
 
And a pH of 7.8 is fine tbh, my pH is at about 7.8 too and there are a whole host of fish species thats suitable for this water
 
By the way, its much easier to find fish species that suits your water rather than getting your water adjusted to suit fish species as this requires a lot of work and research, usually not worth the trouble unless youre knowledgable and experienced in this sort of water adjustments in pH, gH and kH (can't change one parameter without affecting the others )

 

[Vethian]

To make things easier, work with the pH you have.  Cycle the tank before adding fish.  

what size tank is it?  What are the measurements? What do you envision?

 

[jackrmee]

First of all, you'll need to cycle the tank before you add any livestock.
 
Cycling is basically to get the filter and tank ready with the relevant bacterias to deal with ammonia and nitrite which the livestock produces every day. Ammonia and nitrite are toxic to fish, hence the need to to get bacterias to deal with that otherwise livestock will suffer and usually fatal if left alone.
 
I would strongly urge you to do a Fishless Cycle, this means no fish in tank while cycling, this way the fish will not suffer from any mistakes made.
 
Have a read of this excellent article, this should provide a lot of answers to any questions you may have regarding cycling.
 
Cycling Your First Freshwater Tank
 
And as for your query into what you can stock your tank with, a little more detail would be good, tank size and dimensions, water hardness (this can be obtained from going online and researching your local water authority).
 
And a pH of 7.8 is fine tbh, my pH is at about 7.8 too and there are a whole host of fish species thats suitable for this water

 
By the way, its much easier to find fish species that suits your water rather than getting your water adjusted to suit fish species as this requires a lot of work and research, usually not worth the trouble unless youre knowledgable and experienced in this sort of water adjustments in pH, gH and kH (can't change one parameter without affecting the others

)

OK cool. Can I get ammonia from Tesco or something? 
Thanks
ps. my water is apparently 52 (soft).

 

[Byron]

I suggest you test your tap water (on its own, no conditioner or anything added) for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate.  If the empty tank water is showing nitrate at 10 ppm, it may be in the tap water, and this is important to ascertain.
 
Re the pH, when testing tap water let a glass of tap water sit for 24 hours before testing pH.  This will allow any out-gas of CO2 to occur and the test reading will be more accurate.
 
The hardness number of 52 is presumably in ppm, so that is soft to very soft, equivalent to around 3 dGH.  Perfect for all soft water fish, so do not consider harder water fish like livebearers, rift lake cichlids, and some others.  This water will suit most any of the characins (tetra, pencilfish, hatchetfish), rasbora, danios, barbs, catfish, loaches, gourami, dwarf cichlids...quite a long list of possibles.  When we know the tank dimensions and volume we can narrow these down.
 
Do not consider "cheap beginner fish," as acquiring fish you don't really like or want is a source of trouble.  I am assuming you were considering these to get the tank started, but your read of the linked article will show why that is not at all a good idea.  Plus, these fish can introduce disease.

 

[jackrmee]

First of all, you'll need to cycle the tank before you add any livestock.
 
Cycling is basically to get the filter and tank ready with the relevant bacterias to deal with ammonia and nitrite which the livestock produces every day. Ammonia and nitrite are toxic to fish, hence the need to to get bacterias to deal with that otherwise livestock will suffer and usually fatal if left alone.
 
I would strongly urge you to do a Fishless Cycle, this means no fish in tank while cycling, this way the fish will not suffer from any mistakes made.
 
Have a read of this excellent article, this should provide a lot of answers to any questions you may have regarding cycling.
 
Cycling Your First Freshwater Tank
 
And as for your query into what you can stock your tank with, a little more detail would be good, tank size and dimensions, water hardness (this can be obtained from going online and researching your local water authority).
 
And a pH of 7.8 is fine tbh, my pH is at about 7.8 too and there are a whole host of fish species thats suitable for this water

 
By the way, its much easier to find fish species that suits your water rather than getting your water adjusted to suit fish species as this requires a lot of work and research, usually not worth the trouble unless youre knowledgable and experienced in this sort of water adjustments in pH, gH and kH (can't change one parameter without affecting the others

)

OK cool. Can I get ammonia from Tesco or something? 
Thanks
ps. my water is apparently 52 (soft).

To make things easier, work with the pH you have.  Cycle the tank before adding fish.  

what size tank is it?  What are the measurements? What do you envision?

Umm, its a small tank. I'll measure it now, although its like a hald hexagon shape so wont be easy haha.

I don't really envision anything yet. I'm using this as a starter tank. 
I have 4 others which I will get going gradually and they will then be set up nicely. I'll work out how as I go along.
 

 

[jackrmee]

I suggest you test your tap water (on its own, no conditioner or anything added) for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate.  If the empty tank water is showing nitrate at 10 ppm, it may be in the tap water, and this is important to ascertain.
 
Re the pH, when testing tap water let a glass of tap water sit for 24 hours before testing pH.  This will allow any out-gas of CO2 to occur and the test reading will be more accurate.
 
The hardness number of 52 is presumably in ppm, so that is soft to very soft, equivalent to around 3 dGH.  Perfect for all soft water fish, so do not consider harder water fish like livebearers, rift lake cichlids, and some others.  This water will suit most any of the characins (tetra, pencilfish, hatchetfish), rasbora, danios, barbs, catfish, loaches, gourami, dwarf cichlids...quite a long list of possibles.  When we know the tank dimensions and volume we can narrow these down.
 
Do not consider "cheap beginner fish," as acquiring fish you don't really like or want is a source of trouble.  I am assuming you were considering these to get the tank started, but your read of the linked article will show why that is not at all a good idea.  Plus, these fish can introduce disease.

OK, I'll test the tap water later. Although this water has been in the tank for around a month as I was going to start it before now. 

The Welsh Water Website shows 52 CaCO3 mg/l Water Hardness, and 21 Ca mg/l. 3.64 degrees Clarke. Is that any clearer?

OK, no cheap fish to get started
As I said, I want to do this properly this time. I'll research which fish I like for the soft water.

But what if I want hard water fish? Possibly in another of my tanks. Can I raise the hardness? Or is that too much headwork?

Thanks

 

[Ch4rlie]

Tesco do not sell ammonia.
 
More likely to get some ammonia from hardware store like Homebase, larger store.
 
But very easily obtained online and not partticularly expensive either.
 
This for example -
 
http/www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Concentrated-Aquarium-Ammonia-for-Fishless-Cycling-Fish-Tank-Use-High-Strength-/181130184497?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item2a2c334731
 
 
Do be aware of strentgh of ammonia and use the forum calculator to work out correct dosages. (bottom of page)
 
FishForumCalculator

 

[jackrmee]

OK, the tank is 55cm x 60cm x 30cm.

It's just got a small portion of the 2 front corners cut off, so it will be a little less than that but not much.

 

 

[jackrmee]

Just found this in the cupboard http/www.amazon.co.uk/Kleen-Off-500ml-Ammonia/dp/B00755MEMA

Is that what I need? It doesn't mention any additives or scents and it nearly burnt my beak off when I tried smelling it!!!!.

 

[Byron]

Tank size equates to a 26 gallon tall, approx 98 litres.
 
GH numbers are fine, it is 3 dGH so that is soft-very soft.  As for hard water fish, yes this can be done, easier than softening hard water actually.  Best and safest way is to use a calcareous substrate such as sand composed of crushed coral and aragonite.  Coral is of course calcium, and aragonite includes magnesium as well which is important for fish requiring hard water.  I have even softer tap water, and years ago had a nice tank for livebearers with such a substrate.  The calcareous material (sand, fine gravel) will continually dissolve very slowly, raising GH and corresponding KH and pH.
 
I will leave the ammonia queston for others, as I will never add any form of ammonia to a tank intended for fish.  Pure ammonia with no additives can work to cycle, but I prefer using plants.
 
Byron.

 

[Ch4rlie]

Yep, that Kleen Off ammonia will work, personally have not tried it but other members of his forum have and it did the trick for fishless cycling

 

[Vethian]

Cherry Barbs are playful and colorful.  So are Rummy-Nose Tetras.  I'm also partial to Black-Skirt Tetras.  If you do sand for your substrate...a school of cory cats would be fun too.  

 

[jackrmee]

OK, so I used the calculator and cut a few litres off because of the corners missing from the tank.
It says for a 92litre tank, I need to add 2.91ml of ammonia. How the heck can I measure that?

Thanks

 

[Ch4rlie]

Assuming ammonia strength is 9.5%, thats sounds correct, but you also need to deduct about 12% for substrate and plants that takes up some space in tank.
 
So really, you should put in about 81 litres on that calculator (92 - 12% = 80.96, rounded up to 81 litres), so that means you need about 2.56ml of ammonia to have 3ppm ammonia in your tank for cycling purposes.
 
There are a variety of things you can use to measure out that small amount, most popular method is a syringe that can be obtained cheaply from online or your nearest chemist/pharmacy, try to get one that goes up to 3ml or 5ml if your prefer. I have a variety of differnt sized syringes for this sort of this as well as useful for fish treatments / medications etc.
 
Like this for example -
 
3ml syringe eBay
 
Pippets are available as well, though i find there is room for mistakes using this as need to count drops accurately.
 
Medicational teaspoon or measuring spoons will also do the job.
 
If not then a normal teaspoon, which is usually 5ml, just need to add half a teaspoon though the risk of mismeasurment is greater.