Newb, Water Questions For New Tank

[190MPH]

Hello all just joined but have been reading for a while. Plenty of great info here for a newbie like myself. I just bought a 36g bowfront for my son, to step up from his 8g bowl(down to a lone Danio ). I also purchased a SeaClear 50 filter, Visitherm 150w heater, small air pump w/1 small stone (will get another after the holidays), and the top with a flourescent light. Any plants(artificial for now), stone, and decorations will be bought then also so I can let my son choose. Anyway, my first question is about the water supply I will use to fill it. I have well water here and my thinking would be that it would be better than tap water because of the lack of chlorine. Please give me your opinions and/or options on this and its effect on getting the cycle started. This will be a peaceful community tank, thinking 2 or 3 small schools and a cleaner or 2. Thank You

 

[OldMan47]

Welcome to the forum 190. Well water is extremely variable in quality. The dechlorinating aspect is correct but if you have high levels of metals and other minerals you may still need the help of a dechlorinating product that is designed to help out with the metals. The direction you are headed means never needing to put up with algae, just turn on the tank lights when you are in the room to view the fish and leave them off the rest of the time. It would be good to get a reading on your well water, especially the pH and nitrate levels. The pH will be affected by the makeup of the aquifer and there will be little you can do to change it so you might as well know what we are dealing with. The nitrates can be affected by any surface water that gets into the aquifer because so many fertilizers contain nitrates.

 

[190MPH]

Well I bought a test kit tonight at petco, the API kit. Tested my well water @ the faucet and the pH was 7.6, Ammonia 0ppm. I will test the nitrates tomorrow. I then tested the water in my 8g orb which came up as 0ppm ammonia, 0ppm nitrite. But it came up as 10ppm nitrate. Does this indicate a major need for a water change? While I was out I also bought the python siphon system for cleaning and changes. I didn't find a bad review about it anywhere.

 

[toshapetriji]

10 ppm for Nitrate is absolutely fine nothing to worry about there.

 

[waterdrop]

Agree, 10ppm nitrate(NO3) in the small fishbowl is fine but you'll still want to measure it straight from the tap also. It sounds like the major tests (ammonia, pH, nitrite, nitrate) are going to turn up fine, and you could leave it at that. But you could also (not urgent or necessarily really needed) see whether there are city testing services that would give you a printout that includes the various metals etc., which might be handy documentation in the long run. (I don't know OM47, think that's overkill?)

What kinds of filter media are you going to go with in your SeaClear 50?

~~waterdrop~~

 

[OldMan47]

WD, we are working with unknown well water in this case. Around where I live, most wells deliver water so high in iron that they will leave a ring of rust around a bathtub. Dissolved metals can be a very real problem in untreated well water. Without knowing his water, I would err on the side of caution, that's all.

 

[190MPH]

Well I did a high range pH and nitrate test on my tap water and it came up as 7.4-7.6 and 0 ppm respectively. So as far as the 8g bowl goes, it looks like the pH hasn't really changed from tap to tank. Does that say anymore for the quality of my well water or is additional testing needed? I'm hoping that it is OK so that water changes are not a major issue.

WD, I was going to start with the media that came with it. Is there something else to consider?

 

[OldMan47]

Now that you know your tap pH, try putting a sample of the substrate that you are considering into a bucket with some more tap water and see if the tap pH is affected by the substrate. If not, it should be fine to use. The nitrate readings are encouraging since it will mean you can have fairly low nitrates in the tank once it is running with fish in it. Chances are that your KH is a bit on the high side like mine is from the tap. Have you ever had your well water tested for all the things that might be in it? In most places well water is very nice but around me it contains a lot of iron and a very high amount of methane. There is so much methane that people will sit a bottle of water in the refrigerator and can come back after the gasses come out of solution and actually light the gasses. People here that have wells start with whole house filters, then iron removal type softeners and if they keep fish they reconstitute RO water for the fish. I am happy to be on a municipal supply so I don't need to deal with all that.

 

[190MPH]

Now that you know your tap pH, try putting a sample of the substrate that you are considering into a bucket with some more tap water and see if the tap pH is affected by the substrate. If not, it should be fine to use. The nitrate readings are encouraging since it will mean you can have fairly low nitrates in the tank once it is running with fish in it. Chances are that your KH is a bit on the high side like mine is from the tap. Have you ever had your well water tested for all the things that might be in it? In most places well water is very nice but around me it contains a lot of iron and a very high amount of methane. There is so much methane that people will sit a bottle of water in the refrigerator and can come back after the gasses come out of solution and actually light the gasses. People here that have wells start with whole house filters, then iron removal type softeners and if they keep fish they reconstitute RO water for the fish. I am happy to be on a municipal supply so I don't need to deal with all that.

I have not had my water tested, but my neighbor has a well and he has and has been told everything is fine. I am at a slightly higher elevation than the rest of the neighborhood, so anything that may adversly affect things might be found in the wells down grade. Plus there really isn't any industry in my immediate area. My soil has alot of clay/shale which may act as a filter of sorts, not sure though. I have a whole house filter where it enters, and it seems to take alot of the sediment type of things out pretty well. Usually it has the red/brown shale color too. I change it every 6 months. I haven't bought any substrate yet because I was going to let my son pick it out (colors and such). Does the stone tend to change things alot?

 

[OldMan47]

If your aquifer were a rocky source of water you would likely have water that is very hard. The gravel that is sold for freshwater aquariums won't affect your water at all. If you choose to use sand or gravel that does not come pretested, a short test like the one I suggested can mean that the gravel is OK to use or that it will have a specific effect on your water. Depending on what that effect is, it could be desirable or not.
In your case it looks like your well water is a good source of water for typical tropical fish so you will not want a substrate that can change the pH.

 

[waterdrop]

No telling what your son will go for. If he goes one of the more natural looking types of gravel, then fine. Most of the fake looking colors are probably fine too although I remember a recent report here that some of the ones painted blue had flaked off and caused problems in tanks.

There is also the aesthetic issue of what types of substrates and background shades bring out the colors best in fish. Some feel that quite dark shades will show off the fish best and also not distract from whatever aquascape you work out with plants and possibly wood.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[onebto]

welcome to TFF 190MPH

 

[190MPH]

Thanks One.

Well I tested the water this morning for both GH and KH and here is what I came up with:

Tap: GH 160 mg/L KH 80 mg/L
8g bowl: GH 160-180 mg/L KH 70-80 mg/L

Are these results in a good range?

 

[OldMan47]

Those values will be fine for most fish. The 7.6 tap will be easy to maintain in your tank by changing water fairly often. I have a KH of about 250 mg/L so my pH is very stable. You will need to watch yours a bit closer because you are not as heavily buffered but you are in a very nice range. Your GH says you are medium in hardness, hard enough for most harder water fish and soft enough not to stress any but the most picky soft water types. The more I hear about your water the more I would like to trade it for mine.

 

[waterdrop]

Without looking at a chart I believe your 80 mg/l KH is about 4 degrees (german) hardness, which puts you just at the bottom of the "soft water" range, above the "very soft" range in most peoples generalizations.

As a practical matter, KH=4 is enough buffering (at the moment) that your pH won't swing wildly around, but cycling processes could easily eat up that buffering and take away your stability (cycling tends to use up carbonate hardness and drive pH downward.) The approach of choice to this situation is to monitor pH at all testing times and be ready to perform a water change (with ammonia recharge) (90% water change) if the pH drops below 6.3 or so. During fishless cycling, using baking soda to raise KH is only recommended if the above technique is failing for you.

~~waterdrop~~