My Water, questions.

[chaseCharlotteNC]

Hello everyone, I'm new here and also generally to freshwater.  Feeling reinvigorated to do things right again and was hoping for some discussion.

 

In my living room I have a standard 4x2x2 120g aquarium.  Currently running 2x aquafilter 110s with sponge and ceramic media, an airstone, and a Fluval 3.0 light.  I believe the substrate is fluval stratum and some inert gravel but I don't recall exactly.  Some large spider wood makes up the majority of the aquascape.

It has been setup for a little over 2 years now.  When I first got the tank cycled I bought a ton of plants from the coop, basically 1 or more of everything they had in stock.  We then placed assorted fancy guppies, sterbai corys and a golden ram cichlid in the tank which I ran in the low 80s for temp.

Initially the guppies bred like crazy and I was getting worried about the numbers but then they all started dying despite my efforts at the time and I lost the entire colony over an approx. 2 month time frame.  I did everything I could think of at the time, even bought an electric meter to test for stray current.   The ram died during this time as well.  I spent a lot on meds to treat the 120g during all of this as my hospital tank didn't seem large enough for so many fish.  It should be said that no visible diseases were apparent to me.

Having lost a bit of my steam the tank languished a bit during this time, most of the plants died aside from the crypts, anubias and 2 lily bulbs.  But the corys actually bred, about doubling their number and this brought some excitement back to the tank for us.

The tank is now stocked with 16 sterbai corys, 12 pencilfish, 30 neons, 20 cherry barbs and 3 honey gourami.  Populations are relatively stable with no notable losses or apparent distress.

Having maintained the fish now for quite a while I grew tired of growing mostly algae.  The plants were growing very slowly and each leaf would be covered with algae not long after developing.  Everything looked ugly.  I bought and started running a co2 system for the tank last week.  I dose easy carbon everyday and easy green sparingly to keep nitrates in check.  I placed a few new plants and it's still too early to see if they'll prosper but the algae situation seems to have improved.  I would like to be successful with the plants before considering adding any new livestock.

I finally bought a decent set of water tests and tested out everything today.  I have also learned that my heaters keep the water 81 to 82 degrees no matter what I set them at so have purchased a temperature controller that arrives tomorrow.  I intend to slowly reduce temp to 76-78.

Values:

KH dKH
API test  is  <1

GH ppm
API is 3 drops = 53.7ppm

PH
API, no change, 6.0 or less

TDS
Digital Meter 67ppm

Nitrate
10-20 ppm

Co op Test Strips
Generally in agreement.

 

Anyways, I have an idea why I lost the guppies now.  I also suspect temp as the main culprit for my difficulty with plants?  I was considering adding a small amount of crushed coral to my filter just to get the PH to at least register at over 6.0?  Trying to learn and do my best here, this hobby hasn't been economical so far!  The tank is in my living room and I quite enjoy the fish and would like an attractive plant scape.  I know I don't have a lot of questions and I wrote quite an essay but I just wanted to introduce myself and be involved. 

Again, thank you. 

I've included some photos for interest.  I didn't do any particular maintenance so you could see a typical state.  A 50% water change was performed approx. 24 hours ago.

[FrostiesFishes]

When you were losing the guppies did you ever take the water in for testing? But I’d assume you didn’t see any visual signs on the fish , did they look then thin or act strange? 

[KaitieG]

Sounds like you have good water for the soft-water South American fish--I'm on the opposite end of the spectrum here in WI with super hard, high PH water 🙂   Adding calcium to the water--wonder shells and/or crushed coral sounds like a good plan to me, especially if you're going to try to keep livebearers or snails since they tend to need more of those minerals. 

Adding more plants would probably help with your algae issues since they can use up some of those nutrients--maybe try out some floaters if you can source any locally--they're nutrient hungry.  I've had luck finding them on marketplace/craigslist.  They don't ship very well at all (learned that the hard way), so it's really helpful if you can find someone local with them.

[chaseCharlotteNC]

That floating plant idea sounds solid, thank you!  I will go to the pet store tomorrow.

What do you think would be the target range with the crushed coral if I want a pretty planted tank compatible to most community fish?

 

As for the guppies, in retrospect, I think it was the crazy soft water.  I was doing some moderate testing then but I feel like I didn't properly understand the results.

[Patrick_G]

It sounds like you’re on the right track with algae control, but you might also adjust your light intensity or period. I’d then add some algae eating crew like Amano shrimp,  Otocinclus catfish or Siamese Algae Eaters. 

[Samanthabea]

Might be right about the water being to soft they like harder water and it could have caused to much stress (my mollies got better after I got the ph back up before that even the seemingly heathy ones died the others had ich)

[Betsy]

Hi Chase! 👋  Welcome to the forum!!  North Carolinians unite! 😜👍

Wonder Shells have worked...wonders, haha...for my GH - I'm registering at 300 ppm in my 20L, and I've just been using the little small ones until they dissolve.  They haven't done much for my KH, and have kept my PH around the mid 7's.  I've had success with crushed coral as well...although, it made a more low-key impact.

I plugged your livestock into the aqadvisor.com website (minus the guppies), and (for whatever it's worth) this is what it spit out:

I know plants like more acidic water...so I'd aim for a pH in the mid to high 6's!

I'd hate to make any drastic changes since your fish are happy!  But, it never hurts to add more plants!!!  @KaitieG's idea of the floating plants is really great! They can help remove an excess nutrients, so the algae can't take advantage of the situation as easily, and also reduce your lighting slightly.

Keep us updated on your progress!!!  We're rooting for you! 😆👍

[KaitieG]

1 hour ago, chaseCharlotteNC said:

That floating plant idea sounds solid, thank you!  I will go to the pet store tomorrow.

What do you think would be the target range with the crushed coral if I want a pretty planted tank compatible to most community fish?

 

As for the guppies, in retrospect, I think it was the crazy soft water.  I was doing some moderate testing then but I feel like I didn't properly understand the results.

I think your evaluation about the guppies is probably correct--they use a lot of calcium building all those baby fish 🙂  There are several people here who keep guppies with soft water (they amend it in different ways) so there's some good info out there if you're interested in setting up for livebearers.  I know Cory has been keeping guppies with soft water and uses crushed coral a lot. I have no idea how you "dose" it, since I'm always wanting to go the other way on hardness/ph.  If we could mix your water and my water, we'd be in business, LOL!

One other thing with guppies and other live bearers that I've noticed is that they are quite susceptible to internal parasites.  I was losing a couple males a month for a while and finally treated with paracleanse.  The deaths stopped and things turned around quickly.  Just something to keep in mind if you give them another try, though they're probably one of the more challenging options in your water.

The vast majority of community fish seem to prefer softer water, anyway (or at least it seems that way to me with my hard water!), but if you could buffer it somehow with the coral or wonder shells to get the Ph up to the higher 6s or around 7, you'd probably be able to keep the vast majority of community fish.

Let's see...what have I wanted to keep in soft water...discus, all the tetras, most of the rasboras--especially chili rasboras, angelfish...yep, those are the tops of my "what if" list 🙂 

[Anita]

3 hours ago, chaseCharlotteNC said:

In my living room I have a standard 4x2x2 120g aquarium.  Currently running 2x aquafilter 110s with sponge and ceramic media, an airstone, and a Fluval 3.0 light.  I believe the substrate is fluval stratum and some inert gravel but I don't recall exactly.  Some large spider wood makes up the majority of the aquascape.

[text deleted]

Trying to learn and do my best here, this hobby hasn't been economical so far!  The tank is in my living room and I quite enjoy the fish and would like an attractive plant scape.  I know I don't have a lot of questions and I wrote quite an essay but I just wanted to introduce myself and be involved. 

Welcome to the forum! I had to laugh at "a standard 4x2x2 120g aquarium," since MY standard is a 19 in (H) x 18 in (W) x 12 in (front-to-back) 10g half cylinder. To compensate for my small tank syndrome (STS), I have four. 😁

At any rate, a couple of stem plants that ship well, will thrive free-floating, and grow fast (to compete with the algae) are hornwort and water sprite. The following two photos show how much the water sprite grew in just under 2 weeks, in a low-tech (no CO2), low-light tank (30W LED floodlight):

  12FEB21

 24FEB21

I have also gotten good growth with American Frogbit (Limnobium spongia), a true floater that is usually used in ponds:

BTW, if you go with American Frogbit, do not be surprised if you receive a plant with leaf stems that top 6-8 inches long. I wish I had taken a photo of the original plant in my tiny, narrow tank, with half of the leaves hanging out over the edges. At any rate, the new leaves grew in successively smaller and smaller. Now, the leaves are roughly a centimeter in diameter. And as you can see, they fit in quite nicely. 😎