sparkypenguin
Fish Fanatic
Hi all,
I recently had a good discussion on here about the minimum number that should be kept of particular species and during that discussion discovered that my tank may have some fish that may well be unsuited to the tanks water conditions , hence this new post to try and establish which inhabitants can stay.
Thanks in advance for any help and apologies for the thread length but I have tried to pre-empt most questions by listing everything below that I believe may be relevant and I have added a couple of pictures.
If anyone spots a newbie(ish) error in anything I am doing then please let me know.
The Question
My main question, based on the fact that...
I do not "want" to get rid of any of my fish,
I want to ensure that they have a "good" life,
and I do not want to start trying to change my water conditions,
is, do I need to get rid of any of my inhabitants![Question mark :question: ❓](https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/2753.png)
The Inhabitants
2 x Apple Snails
5 x Panda Cories
9 x Black Phantom Tetras
5 x Adult Mollies (all female)
5 x Adult Platys (all female)
Approx. 15 young mollies of varying sizes (mainly female)
Approx. 15 young platys of varying sizes (mainly female)
Tank Hardware
My tank is a 340L / 90G fresh water tropical.
Dimensions LxHxD = 120 x 50 x 50cm / 48 x 19.5 x 19.5".
It has 2 heaters, 1 at either side of the tank and I run the tank at around 24-26°C / 75-79°F.
Filtration is by way of an internal fluval U3 (600L/hr) and an external fluval 303 (840L/hr) which returns via a full tank spray bar.
Filtration media comprises of sponge and ceramic and the 2 filters theoretically turn the water over approx. 4 times per hour.
It has a sand substrate with drift / bog wood, quite a few plastic plants and a few live plants and 2 air stones.
Routines
I change approx. 10 Ltrs per day which equates to approx. 20% per week and a treat the tap water with Prime, although I do tend to use more than stated as I believe it is ok to do so?
The water is usually very clear with the occasional cloudy day due to my plecs destroying a courgette.
I do not hoover the sand very often as I find I have to disturb all of the decor to do so and it stresses the fish, although I am working on a more fish friendly hoovering / waste clearing method.
I feed my fish a variety of foods, mainly dried, and they always seem to eat it all.
I use test tube API kits to monitor my water condition and I do not have any issues with NH3, NO2 or NO3.
My pH / hardness tank water parameters over the course of the last year are as follows
pH
Average Min Max
7.4 7 7.5
I have excluded 3 readings (7.8,7.8 and 8) which were recorded during 2 short periods of time when my water KH/GH mysteriously increased.
My LWA state a tap water of between 7 to 8.4 with an average of 7.8 but in my experience it has always been around 7.1.
This does leave me wondering why my tank would be running at around 7.4 as I do not believe I have anything in the tank that would increase the pH.
And as far as I know the LWA do not add anything to the water that would result in a pH increase post tap but it must be said that they have been very vague about this and have never called me back when they have promised to look into it further.
Am I correct that my tank pH would be classed as close to neutral![Question mark :question: ❓](https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/2753.png)
KH - °dH
Average Min Max
4.4 3 6
I have excluded 3 readings (8,8.5 and 9) which were recorded during 2 short periods of time when my water KH/GH mysteriously increased.
My LWA state a tap water of between 0.9 to 10.7 with an average of 4.3 but in my experience it appears to vary between 2 to 8 averaging around 5 which seems to be fairly close to my tank readings.
Should I be concerned that my KH drops to 3 at times![Question mark :question: ❓](https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/2753.png)
GH - °dH
Average Min Max
10 5 12
I have excluded 3 readings (8,8.5 and 9) which were recorded during 2 short periods of time when my water KH/GH mysteriously increased.
My LWA state a tap water of between 3.7 to 8.2 with an average of 5.9 but in my experience it appears to vary between 6 to 12 averaging around 10 which seems to be fairly close to my tank readings.
So depending on the information source I suspect my tank would be classed as a soft to medium![Question mark :question: ❓](https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/2753.png)
Thanks for taking the time to read my post and any help would be much appreciated.![thanks :thanks: :thanks:](/images/smilies/ipb/thanks.gif)
I recently had a good discussion on here about the minimum number that should be kept of particular species and during that discussion discovered that my tank may have some fish that may well be unsuited to the tanks water conditions , hence this new post to try and establish which inhabitants can stay.
Thanks in advance for any help and apologies for the thread length but I have tried to pre-empt most questions by listing everything below that I believe may be relevant and I have added a couple of pictures.
If anyone spots a newbie(ish) error in anything I am doing then please let me know.
The Question
My main question, based on the fact that...
I do not "want" to get rid of any of my fish,
I want to ensure that they have a "good" life,
and I do not want to start trying to change my water conditions,
is, do I need to get rid of any of my inhabitants
![Question mark :question: ❓](https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/2753.png)
The Inhabitants
2 x Apple Snails
5 x Panda Cories
9 x Black Phantom Tetras
5 x Adult Mollies (all female)
5 x Adult Platys (all female)
Approx. 15 young mollies of varying sizes (mainly female)
Approx. 15 young platys of varying sizes (mainly female)
Tank Hardware
My tank is a 340L / 90G fresh water tropical.
Dimensions LxHxD = 120 x 50 x 50cm / 48 x 19.5 x 19.5".
It has 2 heaters, 1 at either side of the tank and I run the tank at around 24-26°C / 75-79°F.
Filtration is by way of an internal fluval U3 (600L/hr) and an external fluval 303 (840L/hr) which returns via a full tank spray bar.
Filtration media comprises of sponge and ceramic and the 2 filters theoretically turn the water over approx. 4 times per hour.
It has a sand substrate with drift / bog wood, quite a few plastic plants and a few live plants and 2 air stones.
Routines
I change approx. 10 Ltrs per day which equates to approx. 20% per week and a treat the tap water with Prime, although I do tend to use more than stated as I believe it is ok to do so?
The water is usually very clear with the occasional cloudy day due to my plecs destroying a courgette.
I do not hoover the sand very often as I find I have to disturb all of the decor to do so and it stresses the fish, although I am working on a more fish friendly hoovering / waste clearing method.
I feed my fish a variety of foods, mainly dried, and they always seem to eat it all.
I use test tube API kits to monitor my water condition and I do not have any issues with NH3, NO2 or NO3.
My pH / hardness tank water parameters over the course of the last year are as follows
pH
Average Min Max
7.4 7 7.5
I have excluded 3 readings (7.8,7.8 and 8) which were recorded during 2 short periods of time when my water KH/GH mysteriously increased.
My LWA state a tap water of between 7 to 8.4 with an average of 7.8 but in my experience it has always been around 7.1.
This does leave me wondering why my tank would be running at around 7.4 as I do not believe I have anything in the tank that would increase the pH.
And as far as I know the LWA do not add anything to the water that would result in a pH increase post tap but it must be said that they have been very vague about this and have never called me back when they have promised to look into it further.
Am I correct that my tank pH would be classed as close to neutral
![Question mark :question: ❓](https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/2753.png)
KH - °dH
Average Min Max
4.4 3 6
I have excluded 3 readings (8,8.5 and 9) which were recorded during 2 short periods of time when my water KH/GH mysteriously increased.
My LWA state a tap water of between 0.9 to 10.7 with an average of 4.3 but in my experience it appears to vary between 2 to 8 averaging around 5 which seems to be fairly close to my tank readings.
Should I be concerned that my KH drops to 3 at times
![Question mark :question: ❓](https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/2753.png)
GH - °dH
Average Min Max
10 5 12
I have excluded 3 readings (8,8.5 and 9) which were recorded during 2 short periods of time when my water KH/GH mysteriously increased.
My LWA state a tap water of between 3.7 to 8.2 with an average of 5.9 but in my experience it appears to vary between 6 to 12 averaging around 10 which seems to be fairly close to my tank readings.
So depending on the information source I suspect my tank would be classed as a soft to medium
![Question mark :question: ❓](https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/2753.png)
Thanks for taking the time to read my post and any help would be much appreciated.
![thanks :thanks: :thanks:](/images/smilies/ipb/thanks.gif)
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