Returning Fishkeeper!

[StagnantSun]

Hey everyone!

Just wanted to take a quick second and introduce myself.

I've been a long time reader of TFF. I kept several kinds of fish before falling from the hobby for a few years.

Short list of what I've kept (not in the same tank of course):

-Various livebearers
-Bettas
-Several African Cichlids
-Knight Gobies
-Large and small Common Plecos
-Coldwaters
-Fire-Bellied Toads
-And your various Danios, Tetras, adorable schools.

So I decided to fire up (water down...?) one of my tanks again! So now my only active tank is a 38 gallon running an airpump, 40g Whisper filter with charcoal and bacteria mesh, and 150w heater. Sand substrate. Decorated with local Texas Holy Rock and various others, with a piece of secured driftwood. Aaaaand I'm gonna go ahead and call it planted 'cause there's some Java Moss on the driftwood that NEVER DIED after a year of being out of water (GEEZ that stuff is tough...).

OH! And yes, it's cycled due in large part to a colony gift from a fellow fishkeeper.

So that's that! It's currently housing a feisty group of 6 Zebra Danios. A little barren, but I know better than to dump 38 gallons worth of fish stock in there so soon.

Oh! My name's Sean

Be gentle, friendly fishy folks.

 

[dthoffsett]

Welcome back to the water depths Sean!!!

Sounds like an interesting setup so farm, zebra danios are great, what else are you thinking of adding?

Oh, and in case you didn't know, Texas Holey Rock is limestone, which will leach of calcium in your water and raise the PH and hardness. Now, that's not a problem if you have soft water, or if you are keeping hard water fish like African Cichlids. However, for your standard community fare, you'll want to keep a close eye on your PH and remove the rocks if necessary.

 

[StagnantSun]

Welcome back to the water depths Sean!!!

Sounds like an interesting setup so farm, zebra danios are great, what else are you thinking of adding?

Oh, and in case you didn't know, Texas Holey Rock is limestone, which will leach of calcium in your water and raise the PH and hardness. Now, that's not a problem if you have soft water, or if you are keeping hard water fish like African Cichlids. However, for your standard community fare, you'll want to keep a close eye on your PH and remove the rocks if necessary.

Good to know! I'll keep that in mind. Explains why it worked so well in my African Cichlid tank when I had it, hehe.

I'll keep my eyes on it.

Still not sure what else to add though...

 

[StagnantSun]

Out of curiosity, does the amount leached drop over time as the rock remains in water?

It was in the mentioned African Cichlid tank for at least two years.

 

[dthoffsett]

Out of curiosity, does the amount leached drop over time as the rock remains in water?

It was in the mentioned African Cichlid tank for at least two years.

I don't think so, the main component of limestone is calcium which is what causes your PH/KH to rise. So it will continue to do so until eventually the limestone rock completely dissolves, which would take a VERY long time.

As far as other fish, what are you interested in? Do you want several schools of small fish, or do you want a couple of larger fish to go with? You could add another group of 6-8 small tetras and then a pair of kribs, or rams would be pretty neat. I'm not great with stocking, but that sounds pretty cool.

 

[KnuckleHead]

Im like you, I took a hiatus from fishkeeping for awhile. I bred angels for quite awhile and kept other various New Worlds. I started back with something different the what I was acustomed to and thats Africans. Lake Tanganyika to be exact. With a tank of your size you could do a species tank with Brichardi or Neolamps. Very striking fish in my opinion.