Water Parameter Questions

[Shelby]

Hello again. This is gonna be a big one and I'm sure all this information is out there somewhere I just want to make sure I have it right.

I've looked up all my fish and come up with a spreadsheet of water parameters and this is what I have so far:

Fish Name----------------Temperature---- Water Hardness---PH---------------Average temp 76F/24C
Neon Blue Dwarf Gourami--72 - 82 F-------5 - 20 dh--------6.0 - 7.5--------Average PH 7.0 neutral
Fancy Guppy--------------66 - 84 F-------10 - 20 dh-------7.0 - 8.0--------Average DH 12
Neon Swordtail-----------72 - 82 F-------9 - 15 dh--------7.0 - 8.0
Dojo Loach---------------65 - 75 F-------5 - 12 dh--------6.0 - 7.5
Red Wag Platy------------65 - 78 F-------10 - 25 dh-------7.0 - 8.0
Black Neon Tetra---------72 - 80 F-------?--------5.5 - 7.0
Scissortail Rasbora------72 - 79 F-------5 - 15 dh--------6.0 - 8.0
Common Pleco-------------73 - 82 F-------5 - 19 dh--------6.5 - 7.5
Angelfish----------------75 - 82 F-------5 - 13 dh--------6.0 - 7.5
Mollies------------------70 - 82 F-------10 - 25 dh-------7.5 - 8.5

Is there any other parameters I need to know? How should I go about coming up with a good average. I am unsure what my parameters are right now other than temp which averages 76F/24C. I will be getting a liquid test kit tomorrow(hopefully) My tank has had fish for about a week and I did a water change today. Probably about 15% as I was vacumming gravel.

I'm pretty sure a PH of 7.0 is neutral? so that will be my balance?
My temperature is 76F/24C which seems to be a good average?
For water hardness above is listed as DH which is the german scale. I should probably convert that to ppm because it seems that is what most threads list is as?
The lowest high I have is 12dh for the loaches so I should proabably use 12dh as my average?
Nitrates should be 0 to 12.5 ppm?
Amonia should be 0 no more than 1ppm, 0 being the best?
Phosphates between 0 and 1ppm

Am I missing anything? I never knew there was so much to aquarium keeping but I'm having fun with it and watching all the fish is very rewarding.

 

[erk628]

I think your over thinking! For most fish that we keep what your tapwater is will be fine. I ph of 7 is just netural its a number that would be good for most fish but is not a must. As long as your tap water does not have a really high ph or a really low ph your fish will adjust to it and be fine. There are some fish that would be exceptions but none that you have listed. So a stable ph is much better then trying to adjusting it with chemicals. A temp of 76f woulod be a good temp for most fish including the ones you listed. Angles like a slightly higer temp but will be find at 76f

 

[Shelby]

What about general water hardness? Is that a concern?

So basically what you are saying is as long as I keep the amonia levels down things will be fine and I can do that by cleaning the gravel and water changes.

Boy that would sure make life simple and take a load off!

 

[erk628]

Tomorrow when you get your test kit post you results here and we can go from there. But yeah most of the time the hardness or softness of you water really doesn't matter for some fish it does but from your listing above it won't. As long as your ph isn't really high or really low then it will be fine. Once your tank is cycled there wont be any traces of ammonia or nitrites. With nitrates these will be kept in a safe zone when you do your weekly gravel vac/water change.

 

[waterdrop]

Hi Shelby!

Its very nice that you've bothered to do this work as it will be rather nice to see how the various specifics that you've dug up will blend into the broader generalizations that we'll all be giving you and that you're hearing from erk up above. Once you test your tap and tank water and post all that all up here, we'll probably see your "baseline" tending toward the softer more acid side or towards the harder, more alkaline/basic side of things, since its fairly rare to be sitting in the middle, although that too happens sometimes.

I definately don't think you should feel any stress over this, its all gonna work out and be much easier than you were perhaps thinking when you posted this. One thing easily seen by your list is the old truism that a livebearer tank (say with platties, guppies, swords and mollies, for instance) is a good choice with harder, higher pH water, whereas many other fish, especially those hailing from the Amazon, are going to flourish a little more in the softer, more acid baseline waters. But even those things, which are good to know, are somewhat less important than the fact that nearly all fish we get in the hobby will often accomodate to something other than ideal if we keep it stable, so that helps us not necessarily be totally locked out of certain types of fish by "the luck of the tap!"

Once we know your stats we may find that there'll be a wonderful set of fish that you like that will be quite happy with the type water you have.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Shelby]

Hi WD! I'm getting very frustrated. I have been to two lfs's and no liquid water test kits only strips

I do have two types of strip tests at the moment. According to the one Tetra brand 5 in 1:

ph is good at 7.2
nitrate is between 0 & 10
nitrite is 0
hardness is about 180ppm
alkalinity is very high color falls between 270 & 350

I am still searching for the liquid test kit I have no idea what my amonia is. I did a small water change yesterday vacumming gravel and will be doing another one tomorrow and probably every 3 days or so. Just to keep it clean and make sure amonia is down because we added so many fish at once. I know ebay but I currently don't have a way to use it right now. (ie: closed my checking account!) lol

 

[Tolak]

I wouldn't be too concerned about hardness & pH, all those species can acclimate fine to a wide range. My only concerns would be the dojo, they do best in cooler temperatures, angels do better in warmer, your posted average would be less than ideal for both.

Adjusting hardness & pH is tricky, and can't be reliably adjusted with most tap water. You can pretty much not worry about any adjustments, once you know what they are they generally stay very close to that with most tap water supplies. One less thing to worry about, as WD stated, less stress.

Only choice I can see is between the dojos & the angels. If you like the angels better keep the tank closer to 80F. If you prefer the dojos keep it closer to 70F. If you have to go with both opt for about 78F, the dojos will handle a bit warmer water better than the angels will handle cooler.

 

[Shelby]

I was rather concerned about everything as you can see from my starting post. I have had the dojos longer than the angels. I had them in a 10g originally (I know way too small). How this all got started was my kids and gift certificates so that is a long story.

My tank usually fluctuates between 76 & 78 degrees F. The dojos love it from what I can tell. Very active and seemingly happy.

The angels have been around for about a week and seem to be doing ok although I do have questions about angels and gouramis I just have to figure out where to post them

 

[Assaye]

The overthinking is awesome.

With ammonia and nitrites - if it gets to 1 ppm, you are in trouble. It should be zero at all times. "Spikes", which is when it shoots up, are very dangerous and long term exposure to low levels (even 0.1 ppm) can do serious long term damage. The toxicity does fluctuate with pH but to be safe, you are best keeping it at zero. The bacteria should do this for you but if the levels rise at all, do a big water change and keep an eye on the tank.

The species you have are actually pretty adaptable. Don't worry about your hardness and pH. If you mess around with it using chemicals and such to get the "perfect" tank, you could do more harm than good (both to the fish and your wallet). As long as you make sure the fish are properly acclimatised to your water and as long as your ph isn't really low or really high (so below 6 or above 8-8.5) then you should be OK.

Knowing your pH is more important than changing it, as if you know your pH you can buy new fish that are suited to it, and same with hardness.

Gotta ask though - how big is your tank? That might be something you need to worry about with monster fish like a common plec.

I remember thinking fishkeeping was so technical when I started. I had neon tetras and a betta in hard, high pH water and I started putting pH down and stuff in it to make it perfect . . . and I really didn't need to. The fish were fine (still are). The stuff you really need to understand, science wise, is the nitrogen cycle. That's your "ammonia - (bacteria) - nitrites - (bacteria) - nitrates" cycle. Understand that, make sure you don't have any fish that will outgrow your tank and make sure that you don't buy new fish that have special requirements you can't fulfil and you're golden.

 

[Shelby]

Ok I'm confused. which is the good one? The nitrate or nitrite?

my nitrites are 0
my nitrates are about 10/15

Just did a 25% water change with gravel vaccuming an hour ago.

The good news is all the fish are doing well and I am going to start another filter as I'm pretty sure (well positive) that even though all the fish are small I am over stocked.

I have a 29g high (US) (not sure what that is in litres)

My kids want to trade 2 mollies and 1 platy for 6 neon tetras so they will school. I realise that eventually the angels may try to eat them. Is that a reasonable trade bioload wise?

 

[Assaye]

Ok I'm confused. which is the good one? The nitrate or nitrite?

my nitrites are 0
my nitrates are about 10/15

Just did a 25% water change with gravel vaccuming an hour ago.

The good news is all the fish are doing well and I am going to start another filter as I'm pretty sure (well positive) that even though all the fish are small I am over stocked.

I have a 29g high (US) (not sure what that is in litres)

My kids want to trade 2 mollies and 1 platy for 6 neon tetras so they will school. I realise that eventually the angels may try to eat them. Is that a reasonable trade bioload wise?

How high is high? You really need upwards of 18" for angels. Also, there isn't much point getting neons if there is a risk of the angel eating them. What are you going to do with them if/when that happens?

Nitrites are the dangerous one that bacteria get rid of. Nitrates are the end product of the cycle and you remove those with plants and water changes. Nitrates can get pretty high before you need to worry about them but doing a weekly water change is still important for a whole host of other reasons.

The common plec needs about a 6 foot tank. Sorry. They grow to over 2 foot long - monster fish!

If you want to save space and provide excellent filtration, look into getting an external. They save space in the tank and mean you have more space for bacteria

Consider rehoming the common plec. What size is he now?

Are your shoaling fish in shoals of 6+? That would be the tetras and rasboras.

Sorry, kinda tired so I sound snappy. It's really cool that you're taking a very scientific interest in your fish and their needs. Just need to make sure your tank is suitable for all of them.

 

[Shelby]

I discovered alot "after the fact" of getting the fish.

Being a fish keeper really came as quite an accident and its a really long story and now I'm just hoping to keep them healthy. I have issues with everyone conspiring against me.. boyfriend, kids grandparents, etc... I have two boys which is why there is 2 of everything. I'll try to address some of these concerns.

The dimensions of the tank are 30x12x18 (106L)
1 fully mature Hagen Aquaclear 200 filter
2nd filter (same as 1st) to handle extra bioload due to overstocking started today
6 inch airstone in one end

The list of fish is as follows
2 angelfish (small - body is quartersized) They do not mess with any of the other fish and are very peaceful
2 neon blue dwarf gouramis
2 scissortail rasboras
2 swordtails (1 male 1 female)
2 dojo loaches (1 is 3 inches, 1 is 4 inches)
3 guppies (1 female, 2 males) yes I know this is wrong but this is what is left from the original batch)
1 platy (there were more the 2 females died a while back)
1 black neon tetra (free from lfs because it was scooped up by accident and dumped in the bag with the scissortails and now thinks he is a scissortail)
2 mollies
1 common pleco

My children, my ex (kids dad) ,my mother,and my boyfriend seem to think the more fish the better. I on the other hand am seriously trying to follow the advice I get from here.

I was asking if the mollies and the platy would be the same bioload as the little neon tetras because my kids are willing to either
A- get the tetras and trade the mollies and the platy
B- get the tetras and bring them home

Yes I know, the tank is severely overstocked. Yes I know the pleco will outgrow my tank. It is currently less than 3 inches long and perfectly content to hang out inside the castle. When he reaches 6 inches he will be rehomed and replaced with a smaller one. I am not even 100% positive he's a common...

Oh.. my filters are external