Scott Stevenson

so what do you do long term about replenishing nutrients? I suppose that's were the fish come in, but I can see a heavily planted tank out pacing mulm and such, with what seems the usual light fish load that seems to go along with having a walstad tank.

Eventually I would like to have a African Cichlid tank. I was thinking Blue Zebras, Demasoni and White Socolofi in a probably 75g tank. If it were you, what would be your set up? At what numbers would you stock the tank? What would be your substrate, hardscape and filtration? Would I get away with adding Hoplo catfish or sometype of tough Pleco?

I was just looking into Walstad tanks last night. I have no advice for you but will for sure follow this conversation.

Yes for sure and that will make things much easier when I do add platys, but keep in mind the original question was always about the plants and how they would react to parameter changes, if I had needed to do so. I guess my ultimate conclusion is; if I had to change the parameters on a tank with established plants, I would do so at a gradual pace. From what Odd Duck said, the plants I have probably wouldn't be overly affected, but I would still probably gradually work to alter one parameter at a time, in this hypothetical situation. Maybe temp. first and then add crushed coral. As you pointed out the pH will only go so high anyway and the coral will only leach into the water as needed to a certain point. Then maybe bump up the gH. This would all be more applicable if and when I added something like Mollys to the mix...or at least that is my current understanding. Anyway this thread has been enlightening and adding a water test kit is in my future...at some point.

@Odd Duck @Torrey Ok I have at least found out my towns water is 7.3 pH and 15 gH. based on this I may not have to do anything but raise the temp in the tank in order to add some platys...at least according to what I've read I of course would also get a water test kit before getting the new fish. What do you think?

Hey folks, once again, great info. thanks for sharing your knowledge! I'll update you when I get my water parameters checked.

Lol @Torrey @Odd Duck well now I will have to give you my introduction to fishkeeping backstory to embarrassingly explain why I don't specifically know the parameters of my tap water and indeed my current tanks. My wife got a position as a elementary school librarian and in doing so became the default owner of the fish tank there. My wife is not the put your hands in a fish tank and deal with fish waste and algae type. She asked me if I would "help" her with it. The tank already had goldfish and a pleco when my wife got the gig. It was very clear from the amount of algae in the tank that it was well seasoned. It was also clear that the only water maintenance the tank was getting was tap water and Wal-mart level water conditioner. I got my hands on a 30g tank (the fish were not that big yet) and brought it home so that the fish could "over summer" at our house (the school aquarium was not in our town). I cycled the new tank by using gravel and stones from my wife's tank. I knew that the goldfish and pleco did not need warm water and that they also didn't need high pH or hardness. The fish thrived in my tank. The fish went back to the school tank this new school year and did very well with just conditioned tap water and high quality food that I brought in. After her fish went back in the fall, I replaced them in my 30g with fish that I knew would like the same parameters; albino BN plecos, Julli cory and dwarf chain loaches. So why do I tell you all this? Because I don't know exactly what my tap water parameters are but I understand them to be generally low pH and low hardness. I have to be pretty frugal in what I spend on buying for my tanks. Even though I have testing strips on my wish list and know they are important, there has always been other things higher on the priority list. I have thus far opted to maintain my tanks by insuring a very good water cycle, using live plants to keep things stable and using high quality food along with good filtration. So currently, I want to add some new fish to my other tank that only has plants (that much you already know). Mostly to make the cycle more robust. I'm not worried about my parameters per se. but in eventually adding the platys, I'll have to change parameters of pH and hardness somewhat. Platys as I understand from what I've read are still pretty forgiving on pH but may need some hardness to stabilize the pH. I am not currently ready to add the fish, as we have already discussed and would not do so until I did test the water but I was just more wanting to understand what elevating the pH and hardness along with the temp increase would do to my plants, how i should spread it out and how to go about it sensibly. Odd Duck gave me great advice on the temp and how to start ramping up the BB again and I was just wondering what the thoughts on how to raise ph and hardness for the best benefit to the plants would be. longer term I will probably want to add a few more pH sensitive fish that could still be tank mates with the platys. Lol I know that this doesn't give you all the info you need to be specific but there you go😄

I sincerely mean it when I say; all the info you gave me was exactly the kind of info that I was looking for. The knowledge that you so graciously shared would have taken me months and probably years of trial and error to accumulate as a newer fishkeeper. The only other thing I could hope for, would have been for you to touch on how adding pH (crushed coral) and hardness (Seachem, Equilibrium) would effect the plants. Would you recommend slowly adding over time or is it okay to do it, more or less, all at once?

@Odd DuckThanks so much for this info, it is clear and specific, great stuff!

I have a 20g tank that previously held cold water, low pH, soft water fish. The tank was fully cycled and might still be, in a low key way. I have some pest snails in it right now and I also have started ghost feeding the tank tiny amounts of Hikari freeze dried daphnia. Currently I have Pogostemon, Pothos and a small amount of regrowth Jave fern being kept under the previously mentioned parameters. I add ferts on a weekly basis and there are signs of some brown algae growth. I want to start preparing the tank for Platys, meaning I will start heating the tank and bumping up the pH and the hardness. I want to leave the plants in place as they are starting to look good. Am I correct in assuming, that I will have to gradually change the water parameters in order to not shock the plants too much? I'm not too worried about the Pothos, it's pretty hardy, but I worry that I will lose the headway that I'm starting to see on the other plants.

That sucks, sorry about ur tank, thanks for the explanation. That makes more sense now. I'll have to keep a heads up for anything like that here. I live in a small town and they always monkey with the water in the spring/summer.

Please understand that this is not meant to be adversarial, just a good old fashion, ignorant question, but why would u go through the bother of "gassing off" ? I have always just added water straight from my tap and then added water conditioner and have never had a issue.(Granted I have only kept hardy fish).

I would also worry that covering over the established substrate might possibly cause problems with the tanks water cycle..

I once tried adding "islands of sand on top of gravel. I added the sand in small cupfuls. The sand was pretty fine and the gravel, was pea gravel. In my case the sand eventually just sifted below the gravel.

I prefer to ditch the carbon replaceable filter, and use sponge filter material or ceramics. sounds like ur starting right and asking good questions. take ur time dont b too anxious to add fish yet. learn as much as possible about the water cycling, make sure ur tank is for sure cycled before adding fish. have fun.

Based on this thread, it seems to be at least somewhat common

@PineSongOk wow thanks for the info. That's actually really helpful

I just realized that I should have put this on the disease thread...sorry

Ok first the backstory; My wife got a position at a local elementary school, in doing so she "inherited" the care of a tank of goldfish. Fishkeeping is not my wifes idea of a good time, so I became the De facto caregiver for the tank. This is how I started getting into the hobby. I've been doing so for about a year now. Anyway, everything was cool and then I noticed this one goldfish had something on it.I could not figure out what it was. I assumed it was a fungus, or bacteria at first.(it was much smaller then). No one could tell me what it was. I medicated all the fish with the standard Aquarium Co op "trio". Nothing worked. The issue has gotten much bigger and at this point, unless someone can authoratativly tell me otherwise, I now assume it is a tumor (now it seems obvious). So my question is; If this is a tumor, what are peoples suggestions, about how to proceed. Here is a pic, the fish eats, eliminates, swims and keeps up with the rest of the fish just fine.

@Mydonkeyfish Oh yeah 100 percent for sure, I would never try to put gourami in anything small, especially with the numbers that @laritheloudwas suggesting.

Out of monetary necessity and desire to do things right, it takes me a long time to really put a tank together. A 60g breeder with Gourami, Platys and probably dalmatian Mollys, will not be happening anytime soon. I have four tanks right now and only two of those tanks actually have fish, another is a newly set up 10g quarantine tank and another is a 20g "plant dump". I have a 40g that is currently housing a few goldfish and a pleco that belong to a larger aquarium at the school were my wife works, so that some work can be done on the larger tank. My main tank is a 30g which has albino BN plecos, Julli corys and dwarf chain loaches. All the tanks that I currently have, I've managed to get my hands on for free. A 60g with warm water fish will be a real departure for me and longer term project. @laritheloudadvice about having a few more gourami than I was originally thinking, to help lower the aggression will be very helpful when I get to that point. For now I'm thinking of adding a heater to the 20g plant dump, bumping up the ph and hardness and getting a small group of mickey mouse and or wag tail blue platys.

@John ZoidbergI know from my limited experience that its easy to kinda pull back when something goes wrong in a tank. Fish keeping can lose it's luster for a little bit. Just keep at it and keep learning.

I agree with @Vanish I dig Julli cory and they are best kept in bigger groups, 6 at least.

@laritheloudAwesome thank you.!

Sorry about your fish. I'm a rookie fish keeper, but I have seen fish "bully" other fish that are already sick, I know it's too late now but I think the bullying may have been a sign of an already existing problem rather than the cause of the fatality. Again, however I am very new to fishkeeping and could be completely wrong.