Chlo
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Posts posted by Chlo
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1 minute ago, Patrick_G said:
I’m not the best plant keeper either, but fishtube vids help the learning curve a lot! Two small things I would do if I were you are to make sure the root of your Anubias is above the gravel and then consider adding some root tabs to the stem plant.
I think these all in one tanks of 5+ gallons are perfect for a Betta. Yours is extra nice, but even a budget one would work.I heard anubias needs to have the rhizome above the substrate, but some of the roots of mine are also above the gravel. I've tried adding root tabs for the anacharis, but it kind of made a mess and disintegrated in the water. But maybe I'll try the easy green root tabs!
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4 minutes ago, Patrick_G said:
Holy cow! He’s a beautiful fish! The plants look great, I bet the Anacharis and floating plants will grow like crazy with the nice Fluval light. A+!
4 minutes ago, H.K.Luterman said:Captain Blueberry sounds like he's having a great time. The tank looks nice!
Thanks! Yeah the frogbit has been growing pretty fast! I'm still not the best at taking care of plants, but at least they are still alive! 😅 A few days ago I got a yellow mystery snail who I named Mr. Eggy (lol) to clean the algae, but unfortunately Blueberry was nipping him, so I moved him to my 20 gallon.
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Hi, I just wanted to share Captain Blueberry's finished tank. I got him shortly after getting my first ever pet fish (also a betta), and I've had him for a little over a month. At first he was really shy but now he is always exploring his tank! I think he has even grown a little since we got him! He has a Fluval Spec V 5 gallon and a fluval m heater. He originally had fake plants in his tank, but now he has anacharis, a floating moss ball (from Aquarium co-op), anubias, and frogbit. Blueberry's favorite hobbies are eating, attacking frozen bloodworms (even though they arent alive!! 😂), laying on whatever he can in the tank, and exploring his little cave. Me (and my parents) can't watch him without laughing, he is always doing super funny things!
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9 minutes ago, KBOzzie59 said:
Yes. How many depends on filtration, if you are doing live plants, and how much time you want to spend maintaining the tank.
I have an Aquaclear 30, and I am also doing live plants (but for now only anubias and java fern).
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I'm still setting up my 20 gallon tank, and I just bought three platies (2 females and one male). Right now they are in quarantine. I'm planning on getting 6 panda cories later, and I was wondering if I could fit more platies? I got the orange and yellow ones with black speckles (calico maybe?) and I would like to get a couple of the bluish variation, either only 2 females or 2 females and a male. I probably wouldn't keep many of the fry if they have babies. There would be no other fish (besides the corydoras).
Alsooo....My platies seem to always be pooping (even though I haven't fed them yet). I've also seen them eat their poop.....Is that normal??
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Hi, I'm thinking about getting indian almond leaves for my betta tanks, but I'm wondering how exactly you use them and how you would keep the pH stable. My pH is 8.0, and I have really hard water, so indian almond leaves would help lower the pH for my bettas. I also heard they can help reduce stress and risk of infections. The only thing is that if the leaves lower the pH, and I do a water change every week, wouldn't that result in a lot of pH swings? So I was wondering how you can use the leaves but keep the pH stable.
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Just now, KaitieG said:
If you get the platies, they'll probably breed and you'll have PLENTY in your tank soon! Livebearers are very fun. I'd personally recommend starting with 1 school of cories and the platies and then just wait and see what you want to do from there! I've been loving mystery snails lately myself--they have such fun colors and I have a couple that have gotten HUGE!
Yeah, that sounds good! The only thing I'm worried about is that platies are supposed to breed every month! I was thinking about getting a bigger group of them, but then I wouldn't be able to tell them apart and name them... LOL😂
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9 minutes ago, KaitieG said:
It looks like your tank's a 20 gallon...what else are you thinking of putting in there with them? I'd tend to stick with 1 school in a 20 gallon myself--whatever your favorites are--but that's not not an absolute. You'd just have lots of room to play with other things if you stick to 1 school of corys 🙂
I WAS going to have a school of neon tetras, but now I am probably going to do 2-3 mickey mouse platies. I just think they have more personality, are hardier, and I like that they can live in hard water. If I can do two platies I would do two females but I might do three and have two females and one male. If I can't fit two schools of corys, that would be okay. It would be cool to have two schools but then I probably wouldn't be able to add other fish besides the platies.
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1 hour ago, KaitieG said:
If you really love corydoras, I'd say GO FOR IT! 😃 Mine have even bred in my super hard water! They are fun fish and seen relatively hardy in my experience!
Yeah, I'm definitely going to be getting some! How many do you think I can fit in my tank? I'm planning on getting 6 panda corys, and if it is possible, I also want to get a school of julii or three stripe corydoras (Aqadvisor says I could, but I'm not sure).
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13 hours ago, KaitieG said:
I agree that you should be able to keep a lot of fish with your water parameters. I have PH 8.0-8.2, 300+Gh, and 200 Kh, and I've successfully kept a betta for well over a year and corydoras for 3 years with no losses. I've even kept neons, though they are sensitive if anything else gets whacky (like when I moved the tank--I had 2 losses from that experience). Any of the livebearers like platies, mollies, swordtails, guppies, etc. do well with hard water, and I have a fun mix in a tank right now.
Oh that's good to know that other people have had success keeping fish in hard water and high pH.
13 hours ago, KaitieG said:For plants, I've had good luck with anubias, val, swords (but yep to root tabs for those), hornwort, and crypts. I've had BAD luck with java fern and floaters in general. You may have a different experience, but maybe this will help since we have similar parameters. If you're in love with corydoras, I don't think there's anything really stopping you from giving them a try! They are some of my favorite fish to watch!
Right now I have anubias in my betta tanks and java fern in my 20 gallon. I'm not sure about the java fern because when it came it was already pretty brown and dying, but we'll see how it does. Yeah, I really love corydoras! I'm obsessed with them even though I haven't had any yet...
9 hours ago, Samanthabea said:Honestly chasing parameters is what got me in trouble when I was younger all I did was set the tank up and wait a bit and everything was fine and now that I'm older and got tests ive done more harm then good trying to follow exacts I found online with bettas though we always bought water(I think it was spring water but can't remember for sure been while sense I had bettas)
Yeah I've heard other people say that trying to change your water parameters could do more harm than good, and that most fish can adapt to your water.
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6 minutes ago, Isaac M said:
And well it depends on your tank setup really. And if you will be using a fertilizer like easy green or even root tabs.
Most hygrophilas are easy, pogostemon stellata octopus from the co-op is an easy one. The basic rotalas are pretty easy I find. If you want to do others that are not stems, crypts and amazon swords are generally easy. If you just want lots of plants (and no snails) to make the aquarium look nice, aponogetons are super easy and usually available in bulbs at petcos.
Thanks for the suggestions! Right now my tank has black sand, driftwood, and rocks (that won't raise the pH). I was thinking about getting swords, but I heard they need a LOT of root tabs.
10 minutes ago, Schwack said:I'd guess the fin tears are totally unrelated to hard water. Probably just caught on some decor in the tank. I've seen people add a small amount of salt (1tsp:gallon, if I recall correctly) to help speed healing and act as a mild anti-biotic. You're probably fine just monitoring her injuries and treating if you see anything specific.
Yeah I'm not sure what it is from. She had the rips even when we bought her from the pet store. She also has always had one spot where her scale(s) are white, but it's not ich.
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2 minutes ago, Isaac M said:
😂 I did not mean it to come out that way, I was just saying that a high gH is not the problem it once was. There are fish that are acclimated to those conditions now in your area most likely since you have fish stores there. I imagine it would be difficult to stay in business there if everyone that kept fish in your area needed RO water. I would just ask for the water parameters of the tanks at the store and discuss the high gH concern with them.
Haha that's good, I'll have to find sometime to convince my parents to bring me to Petco and our local fish store, lol. My mom is always saying, "Geez we are going to Petco every week!" 🤣
3 minutes ago, Isaac M said:As for stem plants, they typically prefer a water column fertilizer like an easy green. Root tabs are more for plants like crypts and swords that are heavy root feeders. You can actually float most stem plants and they will grow like that.
Oh ok, I'll definitely check them out! Any recommendations for easy ones that are hard to kill?? 😛
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3 minutes ago, Isaac M said:
I am with @Schwack, I do not understand the concern. If your pet store has similar water parameters, everything will be fine. Unless you are trying to keep and breed discus or fish similar to that, I think your fish will do great. The only thing I would add is that I would add a top to your aquarium to minimize evaporation so you do not need to top off which will increase the gH. But a heavily planted (lots of fast growing stem plants and floating plants) platy aquarium with corydoras does not sound impossible to me.
I guess that makes sense. Hopefully my local Petco uses tap water for their tanks so that I can get fish there. I'm not sure if I will get stem plants, I was only going to get java fern and anubias nana petite (to glue onto my driftwood). I'm not the best at keeping plants and I think stem plants need root tabs and seem harder to keep. But maybe I will get some floating plants.
9 minutes ago, Isaac M said:But a heavily planted (lots of fast growing stem plants and floating plants) platy aquarium with corydoras does not sound impossible to me.
Ahhhh doesn't sound impossible? I'm still a newbie so that sounds a little iffy 😂😅
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2 minutes ago, Schwack said:
I'm still a bit confused by your concern at the readings you're getting. Your fish is currently healthy and behaving normally, yeah? If I were in your shoes I'd keep going with the water you've got readily available. Your water parameters might prevent you from keeping extra-sensitive fish but it doesn't sound like you've got any plans for that at the moment. Keep things simple, add lots of plants to consume the high mineral content in your water and maybe seek local, tank-bred fish, rather than wild caught specimens.
Well, I'm not sure how the hard water is affecting my bettas. My female betta has always been kind of a nervous fish and a crazy swimmer, but her ripped pectoral fins and her scales haven't really healed (she is a dumbo betta), and I'm wondering if that is related to how hard the water is?? I'm not exactly sure how water hardness affects bettas, but because it is so high I guess I just freaked out. I guess if I get fish used to my tap water, it shouldn't be a problem, but I'm worried that the water hardness will rise really high in the tank like my betta's.
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I was also wondering.... If you do a half and half RO and tap water mix, will the KH be cut in half? I know the pH doesn't work like that but I don't know if KH does.
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1 hour ago, Patrick_G said:
So you’re wanting to set up a new 20 right? You’re worried about having a limited number of fish species to choose from in your hard water?
I’d go and get 5-10 gallons of RO water from the local fish shop. Make your initial tank water with a 50/50 mix. To avoid buying water very often you’ll aim for a lightly stocked tank with as many plants as you can get. When you do water changes (maybe once a month) keep the same 50/50 mix, but if needed you can use distilled water from the grocery store instead of the RO.Yeah, I might just buy RO water from my local fish store. I calculated the price per year, and it will probably be less than 20 dollars. I'll also try to lightly stock my tank.
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25 minutes ago, Mmiller2001 said:
I certainly understand. Before I went the RO system route, I bought food grade 5 gallon buckets from Walmart. I would do a weekly run down to the LFS and fill up. But at the age of 46, that was a killer on my body! Christmas is only 7 months away? And what parent wouldn't want pure water in their home, and push how much plastic they would keep from going into the environment!
Yeah, I'm planning on asking for money on my birthday and Christmas to buy lots of fish supplies😅 My family kind of thinks I'm crazy with all this fish stuff haha. When I literally had a meltdown when I found out how high my pH and gH was, my brother was like, "I didn't even know water hardness was a thing!"
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12 hours ago, Fish Folk said:
Well, if the Betta's happy, go with it!
Platys usually enjoy harder water I think. We've raised them on pretty soft water.
What's your water's pH?
My tap water pH is 8.2, and also my KH is 6. My betta tanks usually read 8.0, but during cycling the pH changed a lot, one of my betta tanks went down to 7.4 (or it might have just been because I read the color wrong). Also, I did a water change on my betta's tank, because in the API test kit it says that when water evaporates, the minerals are left behind, increasing the gH. The gH went from 21 dGH down to 19 dGH.
10 hours ago, Isaac M said:Hi @Chlo, I am from California also. My water has a fairly high pH and is in the hard range as well. I posted my test strip results from today here for you to see (from a platy tank). I have difficulty seeing the colors well but I would say my hardness is a purple color or in the hard tier but is not as hard as yours. I keep both platies and corydoras in my aquariums. And neon tetras and red cherry shrimp. I have never had an issue (sterbai corydoras have actually spawned as well). I think you would be able to keep both corydoras and platies in your water. I also think your betta will be fine. If you want to reduce your gH, live aquarium plants will do that over time as they grow.
I would imagine that your local fish store that sell and keep these fish have similar water parameters to yours as well.
Yeah, my tap water is around 300 ppm I think. A couple of my local fish stores use RO water for their tanks, but I'm not sure about my local Petco. I might ask them and if they use the same water, I might buy fish from them because they are used to the water
9 minutes ago, Mmiller2001 said:In situations like these, I have to just recommend an RO/DI unit. You can grab one of the best systems for 150 bucks and solves all your worries near instantly. You can "cut" your tap water or just build your water from scratch to match ideal parameters for your fish. The materials to build water are dirt cheap and a plethora of tools are available online on how to mineralize water. It's so easy, and if you are in for the long hall...is money well spent!
I thought about getting one..... The only thing is that I'm still in middle school so I don't exactly have $150 laying around... But my local fish store sells RO water for 5 cents per gallon. That's pretty cheap but I'd have to buy a lot.
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Yeah I was thinking about mixing RO water, but how would you make sure it is the right temperature? Also, my betta looks and has been acting really healthy, but 21 dGH is really high. I'm also not sure what could be making the water harder in his tank. It's also kind of weird because my friend has a betta who she keeps in a tiny, unfiltered fish bowl and she doesn't have a heater or use dechlorinator, but her betta has been alive for 2 years.... She has the same tap water as me so maybe my betta will be fine in it???? But then again it is really really high. Also..... I don't really like african cichlids (unfortunately) but would platies survive in that high gh?
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I just got a gh and kh test kit, and when I tested one of my betta tank's water, it read 21 dGH 😰!! I also tested my tap water and it read 17 dGH. I live in California and the water is supposed to be really hard, but that is still super high. When I used the test strips before, the water tested 180 ppm but that was the max reading on the testing. I'm really freaking out right now, and I'm also highly discouraged because I was really excited to get corydoras and other fish for my new 20 gallon but the gh is way too high I think😭😣. Does anyone know what I should do about my betta tanks and also know any fish for really hard water?? If there is a way I still want to get corydoras.
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23 minutes ago, Schwack said:
I wouldn't bother adjusting your pH for the fish you're planning to keep. Bettas are extremely adaptable and can do very well in 8.0 pH water. It's what all mine are kept in, and I've seen at least one breeder keep them in the same parameter water. I've also successfully kept corys in that pH. Stability is more important than chasing a number and having to mess with RO water for every change turns an easy job into something you need to plan for.
Oh ok, that's good news. It would be a lot of trouble to use RO and tap water for my tank.
25 minutes ago, Axle86 said:From my understanding CO2 present will drive the pH down, since plants will take in the CO2 it will raise the pH. So depending on how much CO2 and other dissolved gases that are present in your tap water will have an effect on the pH. I suppose you could put some tap water in a cup or bowl and let it sit overnight to get a clearer picture of what your water is like once it's gone into your tank.
All in all I think you'll be fine with panda corys. They do like it cooler (some keep theirs around 72) but if your tank is at 78 for your betta you should be fine. I think as long as you're not at 85 or something crazy probably won't have trouble from what I have observed with mine. I keep my 55 community tank around 75-76 F and everyone seems happy with it, both betta and panda corys.
I'll definitely try testing my tap water! Both of my betta tanks are also at 78 degrees.
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Just now, Axle86 said:
I don't think Fritz Zyme was the ammonia source, not saying it is 100% without a shadow of a doubt impossible but shouldn't cause ammonia.
Yeah, some reviews said it tested for ammonia because the bacteria died, but so far it seems to be helping my tanks cycle.
1 minute ago, Axle86 said:Yes, pH, GH & KH are a little high for bettas and panda corys but I don't know that it would prevent you from keeping them, so if someone more knowledgeable would chime in, I know both fish prefer softer, lower pH (7 and under). However, it is best to not try chasing the pH & hardness, that would likely prove more stressful for the fish than just keeping them in your water. The fluctuations in pH are also from the amount of CO2 & O2 in the water, so water changes shouldn't be a problem. That being said you can get RO (reverse osmosis water) which removes all the minerals that make the water hard but those setups can be outside of someone's budget.
As far as the test strips go it depends on the brand as to how easy it is to read, even the liquid tests can be hard to tell under certain light.
I heard that plants affect the ph because they take in carbon dioxide and release oxygen, so maybe that is why? I was also thinking of mixing RO water with my tap to get the right ph and everything, and at my lfs you can get a gallon of RO water for 5 cents. I'm not sure if I am going to do this because it sounds complicated with getting the right ratio, doing water changes and getting the water to the right temperature and everything, but if that is the only way I can keep panda corydoras I will do that.
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1 hour ago, Axle86 said:
So Ammonium itself is non-toxic (or less toxic) to fish. The catch about ammonium is that if the pH is above ~6.4 it becomes ammonia which is of course very toxic to fish.
In your case my thinking would be that the fish (or rather their poop) is the ammonia source. So adding the Fritz Zyme was a good thing and since you're not showing any ammonia you're mostly ok. I say mostly because nitrite is still toxic to fish, but not as bad as ammonia. Not sure the exact threshold of toxicity on nitrite but I would think less than 0.5 ppm is probably ok (take with a grain of salt as it might be less than that) but you may want to add something like Seachem Prime which will detoxify nitrite to be on the safe side. The instructions on their product say to dose 5x the normal amount for detoxifying nitrite, but doesn't indicate if you need to redose (perhaps someone can chime in on that as I myself have not used prime). Otherwise I would think you're probably on the home-stretch on getting the tank cycled.
The next thing to watch once the nitrite goes down is nitrate which as a general rule of thumb shouldn't exceed ~40 ppm, aim for about 10-20. Live plants will consume some of the nitrates and reduce how often you will need to change out water.
I think my ph is 8.0 which I know is not the best for bettas..... But before when I used the test strips instead of the liquid test kit my tank and tap water ph was 7.5, but now my tap water tests 8.2 and tank water is 7.6-8.0. I can't really tell the exact ph the test kit is showing because the color changes depending on the lighting. I hope it isn't because my ph is changing all the time. I have really high ph and gh (180) but kind of low kh (80-120)
The ammonia and nitrite got pretty high for both tanks but now they are both lowering. I also have some live plants, but they may have contributed to the ammonia in the tank because some of them died and there were a lot of dead leaves in the water. Oh and also I'm already seeing nitrate for both tanks, which is kind of weird but maybe it was because I added fertilizer which I heard might have nitrates to the tanks. That was a few weeks ago though.
Do you think I should use the fritz zyme for my new tank and quarantine tank? I am planning on getting panda corydoras and I heard they are sensitive to ammonia and nitrite. If fritz zyme really raised the ammonia I don't want to risk it.
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3 hours ago, Fish Folk said:
I’m not sure, but is it possible that it contains Ammonium (which will register as Ammonia on titration tests)?
I'm not sure, I don't know too much about ammonium.
2 hours ago, Axle86 said:In my experience using Fritz Zyme 7. I only tested positive for ammonia when there was an ammonia source like Dr. Tim's ammonium chloride. I don't recall ever reading ammonia present when using without something else with it.
As far as I know it is just the bacteria, but getting 4-8 ppm ammonia is pretty significant so I'm baffled by your experience. I do use the API master kit for ammonia and not sure if perhaps certain ammonia tests could somehow react to it?
Is this in a new tank that hasn't been cycled? Is there a possible other ammonia source, such as [previously] having fish in the tank?
Both of the tanks had the bettas in them already and were not cycled but had around 1 ppm ammonia. I'm new to the hobby so I made the mistake of getting my fish before setting up my tank. The first tank I messed up the cycling a lot and treated my fish with medicine a few times because I thought she was sick, but it only stressed her out more. For my second tank, a couple weeks ago I saw around .25 ammonia, then a little bit of nitrites but no nitrates. I was using prime everyday because it is supposed to detoxify the ammonia.
(Captain) Blueberry's Finished 5 Gallon Tank!
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I do have some small rocks and some superglue gel, maybe I'll glue it to that. Also I don't have much substrate so it gets uprooted a lot when I'm doing water changes.
Also some random pictures of Blueberry 😁