Setting up a new aquarium after 25 years out of the hobby

[Chu'Wuti]

Sounds good! You can now add it at a 45 degree angle.

DONE! D

 

[Chu'Wuti]

Unless there is some reason the tap water is not suitable for the intended fish, or fish in general, I wold think twice about mixing tap water with RO or whatever. Consider water changes...you want to be chaning at least half the tank volume, and preferably more, once every week. That means you would need a container in which to do the mix so you can add the fresh water having the same parameters as the tank water. You cannot do the mixing in the tank with fish present. This is a lot of work, and effort.

The GH was previously given as 150 ppm (= 8 dGH) which is moderately soft water. This is suited to almost all soft water fish species, which includes about 80% of the fish in the hobby. Livebearers and other fish requiring harder water will not work, but almost every species from South America and SE Asia will, as far as parameters are concerned.

Chlorine and/or chloramine are easily dealt with by using a good conditioner. Assuming you have no other issues, the best conditioner for your purpose is the API Tap Water Conditioner. It instantly detoxifies chlorine, chloramine and heavy metals. That is all you need, unless you have ammonia, nitrite or nitrate in the source (tap) water. Assuming you don't, use the API. It is more expensive, but long-term you save a lot of money because it is highly concentrated and one drop instantly treats 1 gallon (2 drops for chloramine).

THANK YOU!! This is great information!

The LFS sold me Seachem's "Neutral Regulator." I have already used some of that in the tank (we have enough plants in it now that we've got it about 3/4 full of water). I want to use whatever is best, so if I need to get the API and use it instead in the future, I will.

 

[Byron]

THANK YOU!! This is great information!

The LFS sold me Seachem's "Neutral Regulator." I have already used some of that in the tank (we have enough plants in it now that we've got it about 3/4 full of water). I want to use whatever is best, so if I need to get the API and use it instead in the future, I will.

Seachem's Neutral Regulator is much more than just a water conditioner, and that is where the trouble begins. All you need is a basic conditioner, and the API Tap Water Conditioner will deal with that for the future.

There are problems using Neutral Regulator...it claims to alter the pH to neutral, and it claims to soften water by precipitating calcium and magnesium. You have no need for any of this, and such products are injurious to fish. Never add substances to the tank water unless they are absolutely essential for the fish's survival. Plant additives is the exception, but these shoulod be kept minimal for the same reason...they do not help the fish, quite the opposite. And I don't know how this product may attempt to achieve its stated claims, but messing with water chemistry in a fish tank is a dangerous business.

The GH cited earlier is fine. The pH will settle as the tank matures and becomes established. Allowing these processes to work out according to the laws of the natural world is far safer because they will become stable. However, any intervention by the aquarist with products/additives impacts those natural processes, and there can often be repercussions and reactions. Plus the fact the chemistry is being changed (if it actually is) is in itself dangerous to fish.

If there are no fish in the tank yet, you do not need a conditioner so I would not use this product. The plants will be fine and help stabilize the system.

 

[seangee]

So how do you set the heating level and the cooling level on the Inkbird so that it will run each heater separately?

I have the one with two heater sockets. It cuts the power to both sockets when the temperature reaches the target I have set. It turns back on when it has dropped by the amount I set. Then I set each heater to go off slight;y higher than the controller - it should never reach that temp unless the controller fails. So the heaters are not controlled independently but if one fails I have another that still works.

 

[Chu'Wuti]

Seachem's Neutral Regulator is much more than just a water conditioner, and that is where the trouble begins. All you need is a basic conditioner, and the API Tap Water Conditioner will deal with that for the future.

There are problems using Neutral Regulator...it claims to alter the pH to neutral, and it claims to soften water by precipitating calcium and magnesium. You have no need for any of this, and such products are injurious to fish. Never add substances to the tank water unless they are absolutely essential for the fish's survival. Plant additives is the exception, but these shoulod be kept minimal for the same reason...they do not help the fish, quite the opposite. And I don't know how this product may attempt to achieve its stated claims, but messing with water chemistry in a fish tank is a dangerous business.

The GH cited earlier is fine. The pH will settle as the tank matures and becomes established. Allowing these processes to work out according to the laws of the natural world is far safer because they will become stable. However, any intervention by the aquarist with products/additives impacts those natural processes, and there can often be repercussions and reactions. Plus the fact the chemistry is being changed (if it actually is) is in itself dangerous to fish.

If there are no fish in the tank yet, you do not need a conditioner so I would not use this product. The plants will be fine and help stabilize the system.

Yes, we have no fish at this time. My plan was to let the tank cycle and stabilize with the plants for at least 6 weeks to two months, then get the fish.

Should we do a water change ASAP and use only tap water? At this time, we have 15 gallons of DI water and about 45 gallons of tap water.

 

[Byron]

Yes, we have no fish at this time. My plan was to let the tank cycle and stabilize with the plants for at least 6 weeks to two months, then get the fish.

Should we do a water change ASAP and use only tap water? At this time, we have 15 gallons of DI water and about 45 gallons of tap water.

If you intend fish suited to your source water, you can use just the source (tap) water. It would be better to do this from the start rather than mixing water initially (which will reduce the GH/KH/ph obviously) and then increasing it later.

I would not use the Neutral Regulator at all, for the reasons mentioned earlier. When I do water changes on tanks with plants but no fish (my quarantine tank for new fish acquisitions can go months without fish but I keep it running permanently) I do not use conditioner at all.

You want to get the plants established and growing. A comprehensive fertilizer would be worth it. Either a liquid or substrate tabs, depending upon the plant species and numbers. Once the plants are showing signs of growth, and again depending what they are, you could add the first fish. Fast growing plants are better for this, and nothing beats floating plants.

 

[Chu'Wuti]

If you intend fish suited to your source water, you can use just the source (tap) water. It would be better to do this from the start rather than mixing water initially (which will reduce the GH/KH/ph obviously) and then increasing it later.

I would not use the Neutral Regulator at all, for the reasons mentioned earlier. When I do water changes on tanks with plants but no fish (my quarantine tank for new fish acquisitions can go months without fish but I keep it running permanently) I do not use conditioner at all.

You want to get the plants established and growing. A comprehensive fertilizer would be worth it. Either a liquid or substrate tabs, depending upon the plant species and numbers. Once the plants are showing signs of growth, and again depending what they are, you could add the first fish. Fast growing plants are better for this, and nothing beats floating plants.

Okay! We'll just use tap water with no neutral regulator.

We deliberately planned in time for the plants--6 weeks is the minimum time, and adding fish will depend on how the plants are doing. I have seen the disasters that can occur when people rush.

We have planted some fast-growing and some slow-growing plants. I actually didn't get enough plants--I couldn't tell how many plants we'd need at first; it turns out there's quite a bit more planting space in a 75-gallon tank than there was in my 55-gallon years ago! So I have ordered floating plants as well as some additional fast-growing plants.

I tried to be very careful to get plants that require similar temps, water movement, water hardness (when I could find that info), and pH.

I used Seachem Flourish tabs in planting.

 

[Retired Viking]

Patience is very important in fish keeping. So is planing and research so it sounds like you have learned the art fish keeping. I also use flourish for my plants.

 

[Chu'Wuti]

New questions!

1. Plants are planted. I forgot something important . . . to wash the plants before putting them in the tank to remove invaders (snails). Suggestions for safe eradication?

2. Some sort of weird blue fungus is growing on one of the cut ends of the spider wood I put in . . . Is it a problem? Will it be toxic for fish? Suggestions for safe eradication?

3. What diameters do bottles/containers of fish food come in? While waiting for plants to grow, I am organizing the storage underneath. I'm thinking of putting a spice rack holder on the inside of one of the cabinet doors to store the dry fish foods. However, many spice rack organizers are only 2.5" deep, so if a container of fish food is over 2.5" in diameter, it won't fit.

 

[JuiceBox52]

You can buy a snail trap or just pick them out when you see them.

From what I've heard spider wood is prone to fungus but I dont have anything to offer other than that

 

[Retired Viking]

You can also use lettuce anchored to the bottom to capture them. That weird blue fungus I just wipe off when I see it. Containers come in all sizes and some come in resealable pouches

 

[Chu'Wuti]

Thanks, everyone! I wiped off the fungus as you suggested, Retired Viking. I also researched it, and apparently the fungal growth is something that occurs in the first few weeks as the wood is adapting to the aquatic environment and doesn't continue after a few weeks. I hope that's true!

We have plenty of lettuce, so I'll probably add a leaf to the tank tomorrow!

 

[Chu'Wuti]

We have plants! This is the initial planting, and I've already moved a couple; I'll upload those pics later. The banana plant has sent up a loooooong stem to the surface and opened a new leaf, which was cool to watch. The sword in the back right corner is not doing well; it was supposed to be replaced by Echinodorus Red Flame, but the shipper mixed up and sent the Oxelot Echinodorus instead. Still hoping for the Red Flame. Also, the baby tears aren't doing well; on the other hand, the tripartita is doing quite well. We'll see . . .

 

[Chu'Wuti]

So a quick update. The banana lily (Nymphoides aquSatica) is doing great! It has sent up two looooong shoots for surface leaves. It's quite amazing how fast they grow!

The baby tears continue to die; I'm hoping it will come back from the roots, but . . .

Leaves on some other plants are dying, but new foliage is coming up from the roots. I'm guessing, hoping!, that the change in water from where they were raised to my aquarium was hard on the old leaves but the new leaves will thrive? Or is that wishful thinking?

I'd say about 75% of the plants are doing really well. The tripartita is particularly interesting, as it's getting quite tall!

I should upload a photo of the entire tank. The spider wood and lava rock are on the left side, while the other wood is on the right side. I tried to follow the golden triangle instructions.

 

[Retired Viking]

You may want to start a new thread since it takes awhile for the page to load with all the nice older pictures on this one. You water sprite looks great, I just recieved my order of water sprite today. It took awhile to get it since they were having suppler problems due to C-19 at my LFS. I have had leaf melt on some of my new plants too but most grow back after awhile.