KentFishFanUK

Thanks! So do they need that natural light hitting the tank? I normally keep the blinds close and turn on the tank light in the morning.

I have fasted them before for at least a day maybe two (do it sporadically - don't have much of a schedule with feeding) and it's gone down I think but not enough that I can't still tell which ones the "fat ones" are. How would I know if it's eggs? If it is, is it a problem? I know they won't breed without the right pH and low light etc but could they still become 'egg bound'? (I've heard that phrase before regarding other fish and I'm assuming it means what I think it does)

Ok so apologies for the rubbish pics, I am not good at taking them and they didn't make it easy! I have a couple neon tetras who I'm worried about how bulging their bellies are, one in particular. The photos might not do it justice but tried to capture it. It definitely seems worse after feeding but might just be that's when I notice it? Fish are swimming and eating well, in fact the biggest one is probably the feistiest out of them all. Anyway here's the pics: Most of them are reasonably streamlined but a couple look really bloated, am I worrying over nothing? Thanks in advance!

"really happy!" - that would be a nice change of pace from how most of my plants are 😂 If it's easy to trim it's ok, does it send runners underneath the substrate? Not sure how easy that would be to trim without disturbing other plants. Otherwise I reckon it won't be an issue

Probably a long shot but how far down the pipe is the air stone hanging? The further down the pipe the more flow it generates (I think) so it needs to be near the bottom.

Ah thanks for the warning! I don't mind trimming it but I don't want it to spread too much and overtake other plants. Will have to look into it. It looks perfect otherwise!

Yep just googled and this is perfect for my needs and the space I want it to fill in my tank, thanks!

Do you think it's good for shrimplets and fry to hide in etc? I always imagined the leaves/gaps between them as being too big in the anubias.

I think anubias nana is the one I have already, or even anubias nana petite. I was thinking a bit more bushy, like guppy grass only planted in the substrate and won't grow real fast and take over.

Can anyone suggest a beginner/easy/low tech plant that is 'bushy' (like small leaves and good for small critters to hide in) and grows to around 6" ish please? Not anything too fast growing like hornwort or that spreads too much.

Oh cool didn't realise you had a channel, how do I find it? Same name as here? Edit: never mind, found it and subscribed!

Maybe I'm missing a joke 😅 but have you heard about aqadvisor? It's a website not an app but otherwise is basically exactly what you described, like in every way

Hope it's ok to recommend products that aren't from aquarium co-op? In the UK here so have to rely on other places! I'm planning on ordering the 'hobby artemia breeder' (that little black dish thing) and some salt and eggs on Amazon. Not as good as the proper set ups available from the coop but should be easy to hatch a small amount of baby brine shrimp for some fry until you get a proper set up one day. I'm assuming Aquarium Co-op don't sell them as I've never heard them mentioned but they are on Amazon prime for next day delivery here in the UK.

I've looked online and you can order them so some people must be buying them but they aren't common at all and would be considered pretty remarkable. Maybe they are in the houses of the rich and famous? I think we tend to have smaller tanks simply due to space, our houses are much smaller over here than yours tend to be. 5-20 gallon tanks are most common and anything bigger would be thought of as 'big' if that makes sense. 300 gallon above ground pond sounds awesome! Be sure to post pics once it's set up. First homes are an exciting time! Will be stressful at times but pretty special too, enjoy it!

Thanks! I will assume it's GH then. Shame about the specific chart but at least I should be able to work out where each tanks KH needs to be to keep everything steady at the parameters it needs. Will probably have to label each tank to remember haha! Thanks for your time answering every question! Hopefully it might even help others who come across it understand as well

@llmgtab this^^ Albino/diamond head/longfin (and probably other variations I don't know about) are the same species as the regular neon tetras. Just be aware that 'green' neon tetras and 'black' neon tetras are separate species altogether not just variations so won't mix the same (not that they can't be kept together as far as I'm aware, they just probably wouldn't school etc)

Welcome fellow Tom! You've come to the best place on the internet (Well best place unless you're some weirdo who isn't interested in fish!) 😄

To echo and add to what others had said - leave it be and continue to test your tank and also your tap water just so you know what you're dealing with. Only thing I would add is if after a week or more if nitrites are only going up it might be worth doing a partial water change - I only say because when I was getting my tank ready once the tank started processing the ammonia into nitrite it took forever to start processing nitrite into nitrate and the nitrites built up to quite high levels and I read somewhere it might be slowing things down so I did a water change (about 50% I think, maybe more) and almost overnight the nitrites started being processed into nitrates. Completely anecdotal of course and maybe something else was going on or it was just a coincidence and the water change didn't do anything but it seemed to work for me.

Thank you so much! So with some testing and number crunching I should be able to work out a water change schedule to target the KH and therefore pH that I want and if I have different tanks with slightly different requirements I could work out a schedule for each tank. Is there a trusted resource for KH value ranges to pH ranges? Would be handy to have a list or scale to refer to in case I need to work out schedules for different tanks. The only ones I can find a about levels of CO2. My planned breeding tanks will have inert substrates (though I will have plants and driftwood) but my community tank has Tropica aquasoil powder, which I'm assuming is not inert as it lowers pH considerably when first setting up your tank, would that affect it much? I'm actually not too concerned about the community tank but more out of interest. Edit: Also do you happen to know, on the serious fish website (my go to generally) when it quotes parameters the fish like it tends to list temperature, pH range and 'hardness' - is this likely to be KH or GH? It sometimes shows it as ppm and sometimes as °H.

Thanks for clearing that up! When you say KH maintains pH and higher KH means higher pH range - if you had neutral pH water and wanted it to stay there - would you want to increase KH? Is there a KH and GH value to aim at for keeping neutral and medium hardness? I haven't a clue what osmotic fluctuations are so I'll take your word for that part. If you are focusing on keeping KH steady instead of pH, how would you go about that? Although with your answer I feel like I understand GH and KH better, I feel like my understanding of how to manage them is even less! Say I was trying to breed a fish that prefers soft-medium and acidic to neutral water, and I was trying to keep it steady at those parameters but my tap water is hard with high pH, how would you go about it? I feel like I know what to do to bring it down (add organic material which is essentially adding acid right?) but then I get confused with how to keep it there long term without it either crashing or, if I add a bunch of KH buffer, increasing too much. Thanks for your reply, even though I'm getting confused I enjoy learning! I'll get my head round it eventually.

Is it possible to get a balance of enough buffer to keep KH up and pH steady with enough organics to keep the pH from getting too high? If so is there a rough guide on how to go about it?

Thanks! I think I understood that, I was close-ish haha. So it's unlikely you could use too much buffer as it would just slow down the rate of dissolution thus coming to equilibrium more quickly? If I used a buffer in my tank and kept it steady at 7.8 or whatever, what would happen when you do water changes with higher pH tap water? (most people I see talking about using buffers talk about low pH tap water not high like mine) The pH would be increased because of the new water, but would it slowly drop back down to 7.8 from the typical biological processes the same (albeit slightly slower I guess) as if you did not include a buffer? Or would it stay around the new pH as the buffer stops it decreasing? Is it possible to use a buffer to keep things steady at close to neutral? Like if you choose the right type of buffer? I like the idea of natural means to keep the parameters steady but most of the fish I plan to keep like it neutral to slightly acidic so I'd like to keep my water nice and steady at 7.0 ideally.

I have a very basic working understanding of pH, KH and GH. However there's something I don't understand so either I've misunderstood something or there's a gap in my knowledge. So as I understand: pH is the measure of how acidic or alkaline the water is. GH is the measure of how much dissolved minerals there are. KH is the measure of how much calcium there is specifically. As KH goes up so does pH and vice versa right? And as biological processes happen (bacteria and plant growth etc) calcium gets used up and therefore the pH and KH goes down right? So here is my confusion, it's often recommended to add sources of calcium such as crushed coral, aragonite sand, wonder shells etc to either the substrate or the filter or wherever. My understanding is this is to act as a buffer to stop the pH/KH getting too low and to make sure the plants and creatures that need calcium have it right? But what then stops this just making the pH too high? As far as I can tell people just add it in without worrying about dosing amounts etc, they just use for example crushed coral as the substrate right? Not weighing it out or anything. I have really hard tap water (like 8.4ish) but it seems to lower fairly rapidly in my tank (lots of plants, wood, algae, aquarium soil) and seems to settle to around 7.2 which I like as it's fairly neutral and most fish seem to do alright in this. I try and do small water changes to keep it stable but say I go away for a few weeks and I want to stop the pH crashing I would need to add a buffer right? But then wouldn't this just make my water too high a pH, at least until the plants etc bring it down again? Or is it like the calcium only dissolves into the water when the pH starts to drop thus keeping it from getting too high? Feel like there's a piece of the puzzle I'm missing here.

I recently got a pair of gold honey gouramis for my community tank and they spend most of the time in the top 25% of the tank - which is exactly what I wanted them for as that area was always empty! I have never had sparkling gouramis (though they are on my list for sure) but I think they spend more time amongst plants and stuff? I usually see them recommended for well planted tanks. So I guess my recommendation would depend upon what space you want them to take up in the tank?

Yeah I still want to support the cause and at least the monthly meetings with speakers are at the usual time I think? That's something at least.