New 32G tank... planned stock advice

[Yaz]

Hi. New member here.

We have a 3.5G and a 10G tank. Now addicted and adding a 32G tank to our home. Just set it up today to start cycling.

We are planning to stock it with dwarf rainbows, dwarf gourami, (roseline) dennison barb.

My husband wants to add balloon ram or neon tetras.

Trying to figure out compatibility makes my head hurt. Does anyone have feedback on this? I’d appreciate all advice.

Thanks!

 

[Colin_T]

Hi and welcome to the forum

What are the tank dimensions (length x width x height)?

What is the GH (general hardness) and pH of the water?
You can usually get this information from your water supply company's website or by telephoning them.

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How long have the smaller tanks been set up for?
If they have been running for more than 2 months you can take some of the filter media from them and use it in the new tank so you don't have to cycle the new tank.

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Do not buy Dwarf gouramis (Trichogaster lalius) or any of their colour forms because they carry a couple of nasty diseases including the Iridovirus and Tuberculosis (TB), neither of which can be treated and remain in the tank until you clean and disinfect everything.

There are plenty of other species of small labyrinth (Bettas & gouramis) that are usually free of these diseases.

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Do not buy balloon rams or balloon mollies or any other balloon fish because they have more health issues due to having their bodies shortened by inbreeding.

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The following link has information about rainbowfish. They are generally good fish for aquariums but do best in water with a pH above 7.0 and a GH above 150ppm. they also require plant matter in their diet and Duckweed (a small floating plant) is regularly eaten by them.
http://rainbowfish.angfaqld.org.au/Melano.htm

 

[Yaz]

Hi! Thank you for your reply.

Tank size 32.5 w x 15.75 d x 15.35 h

Water hardness is difficult because the city provides a range of 205-291 ppm but most homes here have a water softener installed (as do we).

Other tanks have been setup and running for a couple of months with (1) betta and silver tips, second with betta and red eye tetras. The filter cartridges got replaced maybe 2 or 3 weeks ago. How do I move media to the new tank? They’re different types. New tank has foam block with chambers cutout for carbon pouch and biomax. And if this works, does that mean I don’t have to cycle the tank at all? How long before I can add fish?

Thanks for the help!

 

[Essjay]

Water from a water softener should not be used in a fish tank. They work by exchanging the hardness minerals for something else - and the something else could be sodium or hydrogen ions. Sodium does not occur in large amounts in any fresh water so fish have not evolved to cope with it. Hydrogen ions lower the pH. The only safe way to 'soften' hard tap water is by mixing it with pure water - RO, distilled or rain water.


To be honest, you already have problems with your other tanks. 3.5 gallons is only just big enough for a betta - though 5 gallons is better.
I don't know which of the tetras is in which tank, but silver tips need at least 24 inches swimming length while red eyes need at least 36 inches swimming length - the 3.5 gallon can be nowhere near 24 inches and I doubt the 10 gallon is either.
http://www.seriouslyfish.com/species/hasemania-nana/
http://www.seriouslyfish.com/species/moenkhausia-sanctaefilomenae/
Both tetras are active fish that will stress a betta and red eyes are known fin nippers in groups of less than 8.


As for the fish you mentioned in the first post, the new tank is not big enough for roseline barbs - they need a 48 inch long tank.
http://www.seriouslyfish.com/species/sahyadria-denisonii/

Before getting any different fish, you really need to move the silver tip and red eyes into the new tank and increase their numbers to at least 8 each if there are less than that now, then get fish compatible with them.

 

[Byron]

I completely agree with everything essjay posted, just for the record. I And I agree with Colin's information too.

 

[Yaz]

Thanks essjay.

For the water then, should I use the water from the garden hose outside (which does not come from the softener)? Is there a test kit for these other elements? If I mix that hard water with RO or distilled water, what ratio or % should I use?

Yes I guess I could move the tetras to the bigger tank after the cycling is complete. Or should I move them now and let them cycle the tank? (That makes me nervous, tbh).

What other colorful fish do you recommend to share the tank with them?

 

[Byron]

For the water then, should I use the water from the garden hose outside (which does not come from the softener)? Is there a test kit for these other elements?

There are two issues with this approach. First, you will obviously have harder water, so fish species will need to be selected that are suited to the parameters. On these, using the range of 205-291 ppm (equivalent to 11 to 16 dGH), if the water remains close to the lower end of this range you have more options, but at the higher end you are much more restricted. All of the fish being mentioned in this thread are soft water species, though some would manage at the lower end but less so higher up the range.

Second issue is temperature; outdoor faucets tend to be cold only, and warming cold water until it can be added to the tank is an involved process and makes water changes much more cumbersome.. Using the hot/cold taps is certainly easier, but if your softener affects all indoor taps including the cold water entering the water heater, this is not advisable. But with a relatively small volume tank this might not be such an issue to deal with. When I had a fish room with 8 tanks including a couple over 100 gallons, this would have been impossible!

 

[Yaz]

Second issue is temperature; outdoor faucets tend to be cold only, and warming cold water until it can be added to the tank is an involved process and makes water changes much more cumbersome..

If the outside water is hard and cold, can I add warmed up RO water to balance the temp and hardness?

 

[Essjay]

I use plain tap water but it is so cold at this time of year that I have to boil a kettle of water and add that to each bucket of new water when doing a water change [Because of the way our hot water system works I won't use hot tap water]. So if you run tap water from the cold outside tap into a bucket, then add very hot/boiling RO water to the bucket, that would do 2 things - warm the water in the bucket and reduce the hardness.
However, you would have to use exactly the same ratio of tap water and RO water at every water change or the change in hardness resulting from a different mixture would stress the fish. It would be advisable to purchase a GH tester so you know how much RO to mix in to get the hardness needed by your fish.

 

[Yaz]

I think I could do that consistently if I fill the kettle to the same amount per bucket - which would help the GH. However... the outside water temp changes in the summer and can get quite warm. Matching the temperature as well as the GH will be a pain.

 

[Essjay]

It might be easier to put the required amount of RO in a bucket and boil some tap water. Then just add hot and cold tap water to the mark to get the right temp. It doesn't have to be measured exactly with a thermometer; feel the new water and tank water with your hand and get them roughly the same. At the moment, with outside temperatures of only just above freezing in the middle of the day, even a kettleful of boiling water doesn't get my bucket as warm as the tank. But in summer I only need half to two thirds of a kettle of boiling water.

 

[Yaz]

Ok thanks.

Any ideas with regards to seeding the tank from the other tanks? How do I go about doing that?

Thanks!

 

[Essjay]

You can take some media from each of the other two tanks and place it in the new tank's filter.
If you intend leaving the tetras in their current tanks - either forever or until the new tank is cycled - the safest way is to take up to a third of the current tanks' media then use ammonia to do a fishless cycle following the method in the 'how to tips' at the top of the page.
But if you intend moving the tetras, you can move some media and the tetras at the same time. But monitor ammonia and nitrite in all three tanks, doing water changes if either show above zero.

Fill any spaces in the filters with new media.