Return My New Tank?

[FishCat_16]

Ok, so I read everything I could about tanks and sizes and volumes.  I understand short and wide is better than tall and skinny.  But, I still ended up with a column tank.  The only spot I could fit a tank would not fit anything wider than 30".  My tank is a 56 gallon, 30x18x25.  Kind of a pain but I thought that the added water volume than the shorter and shallower 40 gallon since this is my first tank.
 
The LFS only had dipstick tests for freshwater tanks when I was in the other day and I apparently had not gotten to the part yet where the drop tests are better so I brought home an API 5 in 1 strip test.  I have a well and I just checked my pH, NO2, NO3, KH, and GH.
 
NO2- 0
NO3- 0
pH- 7.5
KH- 180
GH- 180
 
I knew my water was hard, but I wasn't expecting it to be at the absolute end of the GH scale on these strips.  I don't know if it would have measured even harder had I used the drop test.
 
Now my dilemma.  I have been reading about species water requirements and have come to learn that the fish that seem to need the hard water are species I have do not want.  I don't want guppies, mollies, platy, or cichlids.  I've read a bit about rainbow fish but there seems to be two different ways of expressing general hardness and I can't figure out how to "translate."  So, now I am trying to decide if I should just pack everything back up and return the tank and the stand since I'd rather not keep fish I don't want to look at if the alternative means I would just be slowly (or not so slowly) killing them.

 
Oh, and "Hi!"  this is my first post but I've been reading everything I can on here and I'm really glad I did before I just filled the tank up and tossed in some tetras.
 
~d

 

[Akasha72]

Firstly hello and welcome to the forum.
 
I'm no expert with hard water species as my water is very soft so I keep soft water fish. I'm also hopeless when it comes to Gh and Kh and I can't get my head around the values nor convert it to work out what's best.
What I can do is say 'don't panic' there are ways around stuff. We have members who are keeping soft water fish even though they have hard water coming out of their taps - and visa versa too.
 
Firstly, those test strips you bought are really inaccurate so it may not be as bad as you think. The best way to tell if your water is very hard is to look at your kettle. Does it need replacing once a year because of limescale. If it does your water probably is quite hard. If it doesn't it's probably not that hard at all.
Secondly there are ways around this. There's things you can do to soften hard water. You can even buy water from the lfs that's already softened and purified (RO water) 
 
So, right now what I'd do is breathe and relax. This is supposed to be a relaxing hobby
 
Next, arm yourself with a liquid drop test kit. If you want one that will test everything includiing Gh and Kh I'd recommend the one I have by JBL. It's slightly more expensive than the API masterkit that we'd normally recommend but the API masterkit is very basic (pH, Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate) The JBL kit is around £40 (not sure what that is in US dollars, maybe you can convert) It's available on Amazon so you should be able to get it in the US. Alternately you could get the API masterkit and buy the kH and gH testers seperately.
The other alternative is to head to your water companies web-site and see if they can give you the readings you need.
 
Once we know what we are dealing with accurately we can move to the next step of recommending a list of fish that will live with what you've got or recommending ways to soften it. Either way, it's all fixable.

 

[FishCat_16]

Thank you for alleviating some of my worries!  I feel like a lot of what I have read is to work with whatever water parameters you have.  I have done forum searches for every combination I could think of for hard water or general hardness.  I didn't even occur to me then that there would be options for softening the water.  I will make another attempt today at finding the drop tests in the LFS or if I have to, Petsmart.  If not, I'll order from Amazon and try not to start panicking again in the meantime! 

 
I have seen limescale build up but nothing that wasn't readily removed.
~d

 

[Akasha72]

if limescale is minor then it's probably not that hard. I'd look at Amazon first for the kits, you might be able to save quite a bit of money by ordering online. I tend to do a price comparison now as everyone is always trying to under-cut the next store for your business which means win-win for you

 

[Munroco]

Have a look at some of the killifish. Many of these prefer hard water and are among the most spectacular of tropicals. they can also be very cheap as you can buy eggs and raise them yourself. Google nothobranchius species in particular.

 

[FishCat_16]

I have seen killiefish online before.. I think I looked at them years ago when I first started considering getting into fish keeping.  I think they are something I would likely have to order online.  I've scoped out the LFS selection and I don't recall seeing them in any of the tanks.  But wow, the nothobranchius are stunning!
 
And Akasha, I will have better measurement on my water's KH and GH by Monday evening.
 
Thanks for the replies and suggestions.  I'm definitely no longer on the verge of returning it anymore.  It is however still empty until I get a better sense of species options to choose my substrate and plants.

 

[Munroco]

You don't see many in the shops in my area either.
 
Killifish eggs, because of the way they breed, can be bought online and posted very cheaply. They are simplicity itself to hatch out. If you were to go down that route, you would need a small tank to bring them up until they were big enough to go in your main.

 

[FishCat_16]

You don't see many in the shops in my area either.
 
Killifish eggs, because of the way they breed, can be bought online and posted very cheaply. They are simplicity itself to hatch out. If you were to go down that route, you would need a small tank to bring them up until they were big enough to go in your main.

I read about hatching the eggs online too with the small tank.  Do all species require a simulated dry season as the nothobranchius do?  I suppose if they are easy enough to hatch that could make up for their short lives...  though perhaps not all species are so short lived?

 

[Munroco]

There are Killi's that live in places with water all year round who can be bred normally.
 
I think the annual species life span is longer in a tank which hopefully won't dry out.

 

[FishCat_16]

There are Killi's that live in places with water all year round who can be bred normally.
 
I think the annual species life span is longer in a tank which hopefully won't dry out.

I did see that too.. different species being non-annual.  I don't remember their genus names now.. I do have a lot to learn about fish in general too so I know what people are talking about when they refer to actual species names!
 
I sure hope my tank won't dry out... I'd have bigger problems on my hands than hard water! 

 

[Zante]

I'd be curious to know what scale those hardness readings are on, because if it's the german scale that is usually measured in these tests you'd be eating your water with a spoon. My reef has a Kh of about 8.5 and I'm actually shovelling in calcium and magnesium!
 
If it's in ppm (parts per million) then it's kind-of average, not too soft and not too hard (I have 330ppm on tap in London, for example), and asian species such as gouramis and rasboras should be fine in that kind of water, although you might want to bring the ph down a little bit. Leaf litter should be enough to do so, and if you get some bottom dwellers such as kuhli loaches or some shrimps they will LOVE the leaf litter.
 
You're right, the tank shape is not ideal, but 30 inches of width is nothing to sneeze at, and you can set up a very nice community tank with it. I'd see as the perfect opportunity of setting up a community of small fishes such as rasboras, some of the smaller gourami, kuhli loaches and cherry shrimps. Start small and slowly add upp untill you get the right amount of population to suit your taste. It's a lot easier to add fish than to remove them, and the fish I suggested aren't the territorial kind that will object to their numbers being increased, quite the opposite!

 

[FishCat_16]

I'd be curious to know what scale those hardness readings are on, because if it's the german scale that is usually measured in these tests you'd be eating your water with a spoon. My reef has a Kh of about 8.5 and I'm actually shovelling in calcium and magnesium!
 
If it's in ppm (parts per million) then it's kind-of average, not too soft and not too hard (I have 330ppm on tap in London, for example), and asian species such as gouramis and rasboras should be fine in that kind of water, although you might want to bring the ph down a little bit. Leaf litter should be enough to do so, and if you get some bottom dwellers such as kuhli loaches or some shrimps they will LOVE the leaf litter.
 
You're right, the tank shape is not ideal, but 30 inches of width is nothing to sneeze at, and you can set up a very nice community tank with it. I'd see as the perfect opportunity of setting up a community of small fishes such as rasboras, some of the smaller gourami, kuhli loaches and cherry shrimps. Start small and slowly add upp untill you get the right amount of population to suit your taste. It's a lot easier to add fish than to remove them, and the fish I suggested aren't the territorial kind that will object to their numbers being increased, quite the opposite!

I really do hope that once I get the drop tests for KH and GH will show it's not as hard as I think it is.  And yes, I believe it is measured at ppm. (divide by 17.9 for German scale yes?)  But, I'm not really sure how accurate the coloring matching I did was.
 
I've been holding off on getting anything yet until I can get a measure on those two.  I have planned to do a planted tank and include some nice pieces of driftwood.  I do really like the kuhli loaches as well as the celestial pearl danios but I don't want to get too hung up on species yet because I'm afraid my water parameters and tank width will end up making them impossible.
 
I can already see it's going to be a pain in the neck to plant!  But more water volume is better for a beginner right??

 

[Zante]

More water volume is better for everyone

 

[FishCat_16]

Ok, so I got my KH and GH test kits today but I am still waiting on the Master Kit.  I couldn't find the JBL, maybe I searched for it wrong, so I got the API version of both.
 
I'm pretty sure I've read the GH correctly because there was no question on color change for that one.  It took 11 drops to turn the water green.  According to my little chart here 11 drops equals 11 on the German degree scale equals 196.9ppm.
 
Now, with the KH I am a little less sure.  After 10 drops there was a distinct color change to yellow from blue.  However, the kit instructions stated "bright yellow" so in went one more drop for 11.  The eleventh drop got me bright bright yellow.  Again, according to the included chart, I'm looking at 11=11=196.9ppm.  If the first color change to yellow, after 10 drops, is used my KH is 10 or 179ppm.  But, I'm not sure which one is the correct one.
 
Then, when I refer back to the chart trying to explain to me "what the test results mean" I see that 11 (or 200ppm-- essentially the same as 196.9ppm I'd imagine) are at the upper end and a lower end of their recommendations for aquarium life... upper limit for "most tropical fish including swordtails, guppies, mollies, and gold fish" and the lower limit for "Rift Lake cichlids, goldfish, and brackish water fish.  Basically all of the fish mentioned by name are ones I do not care to watch (although, I have looked at some of the Rift Lake cichlids and have mixed feelings on them).
 
So, hopefully coming here I can get some less generic advice than what the paper insert on a test kit can give me on species.  I haven't even gotten a start on substrate or plants yet because I'm really afraid I won't be able to find any fish I actually want to keep.  I've looked at some of the rainbowfish too and I do like those, but much of what I have read states that despite the volume of the tank, they shouldn't be kept in anything less than four feet long.
 
I'd really appreciate any suggestions for where I can go from here or species suggestions.

 

[Zante]

In that tank you'd be able to easily keep a couple of pairs of ellioti cichlids (Thorichthys ellioti), and a colony of platies.
 
The elliotis would keep to the bottom of the tank, and the platies would add movement in the mid-top.
The platies would breed, but the ellioti will take care of that.
 
https/www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7uXMQjzCK8