New Tank.

[Myrkk]

Had a little tank emergency yesterday when my 90 litre sprang a leak. Silver lining... I now own a new 200litre tank yippee. Only way I was going to get a bigger tank tbh as hubbie was not keen on the idea.

I've put as much old filter media as I could and swapped the old plants, dec's etc in and got some bio cycle stuff to help cycle it faster but is there anything else I should be doing?

It's a new external filter with 50/50old and new noodles, and some old carbon.matting in one of the trays. The tank is cloudy currently and I'm unsure whether to do daily water changes or just a weekly one currently.

Has 2 adult bristle nose plecs with 8 2wks old fry
3 black Venezuelan corys
1 moth catfish
8 phantom tetras
2 synodontis
1 chilli rasbora - inherited,
1 female guppy - from an ill considered guppy foray

Ideally I'd like to aquascape the tank and have a school of 20 to 30 rasbora or some small natural looking fish (that won't be eaten by the synodontis) in it.

Any experience gratefully received

While I'm on the subject of synodontis... my 2 are female and very fat presumably with eggs. Should I find a male? I believe synodontis are hard to breed...

 

[Colin_T]

Just do daily water changes until it clears. Then monitor the water for ammonia & nitrite and do a 75% water change if you get any reading above 0ppm. But chances are you won't if you kept the old filter and media.

What species of Synodontis catfish do you have?

 

[Myrkk]

Fab. TY

Petricola

 

[Colin_T]

What is the GH (general hardness), KH (carbonate hardness) and pH of your water supply?
This information can usually be obtained from your water supply company's website or by telephoning them. If they can't help you, take a glass full of tap water to the local pet shop and get them to test it for you. Write the results down (in numbers) when they do the tests. And ask them what the results are in (eg: ppm, dGH, or something else).

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Synodontis petricola come from Lake Tanganyika, which has a pH around 8.5-9.0 and a GH above 350ppm (up to 450ppm). If you want to breed these fish, you need to get a group of at least 6 (preferably 10 or more) and put them in hard water with a high pH to replicate their natural environment.

Guppies do best in water with a GH around 200ppm and a pH above 7.0

Most of the other fishes you have come from soft water with a pH below 7.0 and a GH below 150ppm.

 

[Myrkk]

It's a little hard to say at the moment as we had a power cut this am. On top of just setting up a new tank I'm surprised to say I still have all my fish and lost just one amano shrimp! All fish were up at the top of the water when I came upstairs this am, so rapid water changing done and all fish now down from the top of the water and behaving normally.

I did a quick water check and water is showing as 2 for softness ( I have just added a new piece of bog wood and if memory serves that will soften the water?), nitrites were in serious danger territory and I stopped at that point and concentrated on swapping tank water.

Will check it again either tonight or tomorrow. I'll do another water swap tomorrow. I had added Microbe Lift into the filter and am wondering about giving another dose tomorrow evening or Tuesday am

I'm happy to be rid of the guppies, anyone after a single virgin female feel free to get in touch. I shall not be getting any more! I gave away around 140 of them as I could not stop them breeding. Lovely to look at but deadly to own if you value your tank being anything other than guppy central. Although having said that a friend was gobsmacked as they could not get their guppies to breed for love nor money.

The synodontis were my hubbies, and he loves them. They were got when I first got my initial tank and he was adamant that it was my tank and he wanted nothing to do with it, except, oh look we could get those (synodontis) and the corys... it was a rookie error. I'm not about to set up another tank and he's not keen on me getting rid so... 2 females it is. They seem happy enough, one has just munched a snail off the glass.

I'm researching biotopes at the moment and like the idea of an amazonian blackwater tank. From research so far, soft water is good for those.