Fish selection

[Prickly Magoo]

I am thinking about setting up a 40 breeder planted tank. My water parameters are ph 8.2 gh 1° kh 9°. I want a low maintenance planted tank and don't want to have to add additivea to my tap water. I want this tank so be as simple as possible. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[Guppysnail]

A bristlenose pleco and some nerites go a long way to reducing need for glass cleaning in my 40

Good luck, looking forward to seeing it all set up. 
 

[Prickly Magoo]

My question is what kind of plants and fish would be suitable for my tapwater cause i don't want to have to change my parameters. 

[Prickly Magoo]

Will vallisneria, crypts, anubius, and a betta be okay in my water parameters?

[nabokovfan87]

On 4/13/2023 at 5:06 PM, Prickly Magoo said:

My question is what kind of plants and fish would be suitable for my tapwater cause i don't want to have to change my parameters. 

The only thing that's kind of funky is the GH.

Your KH is fine, stable, and depending on the substrate you choose you could easily buffer that down without much hassle.

Long term, 8.0PH is cichlid territory and that would be Zenzo's territory. (Tazawa tanks on YouTube)

That would mean things like plants might not be there long term.  The real question is if you want plants or is there a specific African cichlid that you think catches your eye.

Based on stocking you'd want to have either:

Active substrate - buffer the KH down a little, use seiryu to buffer up your GH, then you have a good community tank setup.

African Cichlid Substrate - keep the tank with rocks and wood, little to no plants, and then bigger fish.

I would start by verifying your water. Even though PH starts at 8.0+ it may drop a little.

1. Test the tap water immediately

2. Aerate the tap water for 24 hours with an air stone and retest. (This is what you'd expect the tank to be)

On 4/13/2023 at 5:36 PM, Prickly Magoo said:

Will vallisneria, crypts, anubius, and a betta be okay in my water parameters?

It's a very big tank for a Betta. Flow for them isn't a good thing and can cause stress.

When I get some time I'll check stuff out and grab some more detailed notes.

[Prickly Magoo]

ok so i have kept fish for years mostly african cichlids with big tank and canister filters and all that. i had to use cichlid salt to buffer my gh up to keep african cichlids and i got burnt out and took a break but i dont want to quit completely. so i just wanted to set up my 40 breeder as a planted tank and just have a betta fish. something that is really low maintenance. I know how to grow plants and cycle a tank and all that. I'm looking for which fish and plants would fit my tap water parameters cause i dont want to do all that extra stuff. if i have to use all those additives then i'd rather just not have an aquarium at all.

[nabokovfan87]

On 4/13/2023 at 5:48 PM, Prickly Magoo said:

I know how to grow plants and cycle a tank and all that. I'm looking for which fish and plants would fit my tap water parameters cause i dont want to do all that extra stuff. if i have to use all those additives then i'd rather just not have an aquarium at all.

I understand that.  Do you want to have plants in the tank? Maybe something like Anubias that is low demand?  The reason why I ask is because if you want to have plants, then you could easily buffer the tank down.  Knowing the results of the PH after off-gas testing as well would be key to giving quality advice as well.

Livebearers can enjoy PH of 7.5+

This video would be a great place to start.

 

[Lennie]

If you want something low maintenance, understocking is the key to be honest.

My water parameters are the same but I dose gh with equilibrium. Generally fish and inverts that like higher ph, want higher gh too. That's the part that is a lil bit problematic. Dosing equilibrium is just super duper easy tho. Highly recommended