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Hello from Wisconsin

Discussion in 'Introduce Yourself' started by Anonymous, Feb 7, 2009.

  1. Anonymous

    Anonymous Thread Starter Guest

    Top Poster Of Month

    Hello,

    I discovered this forum looking at some videos on Youtube- someone made a comment referring to this site so I thought I'd give it a look.

    I recently got back into the hobby after a rather long hiatus (10 yrs). I'm 3 weeks into the setup of my 38 gallon freshwater community aquarium- and everything is going really good to this point.

    I currently have 7 Red minor tetras, 3 American Flagfish, 5 Rummynose Tetras, and 1 comet goldfish. (I know, I shouldn't have that goldfish in that tank- but he was my daughter's fish that she kept in a bowl- and I decided to use him to get my tank cycled initially- I will eventually remove him, he'll be going to my brother's goldfish setup. He's actually doing quite well).

    As I said before, everything is going really well- but after doing some more research lately I'm somewhat surprised. Something that caught me a bit by surprise as of late is I have gotten into testing my water- and I discovered that it's a bit worse than I had anticipated with regards to hardness and alkalinity. The pH is at 8.4 with the KH and GH off the charts. The problem is my municipal water supply, but I really don't like the thought of having to get an RO system to fix this problem. So for now, I've decided to run peat through my Aquaclear 70 filter and see if I can slowly soften and acidify the water a bit. Of course at this point I want to slowly bring everything down as all of my fish, even the rummynose, are doing great.

    If anyone thinks I'm doing this all wrong, please let me know. Does anyone think it is absolutely necessary to have an RO supply- or will peat in my filter suffice?

    Anyhow, I should probably save the questions for the other topic areas- just wanted to introduce myself and say I look forward to talking to everyone on this forum.
     
    Anonymous, Feb 7, 2009
    #1
  2. Anthony

    Anthony Active Member

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    Welcome to the forum. Choosing to slowly decrease the pH, kH and gH is exactly what you should be doing. The only thing I would think about is what do you do when it comes time to do a water change ? You're right back into the same situation you're in now and adding that water to water that's been running through peat for a while will cause more problems to the fish than if the water were stable to begin with.
     
    Anthony, Feb 7, 2009
    #2
  3. LemonDiscus

    LemonDiscus Active Member

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    Welcome.

    In keeping Discus that like soft acidic water (mine from the city is soft and neutral) I previously was using a PH buffer called Proper PH 6.5. I did notice a problem with algae due to the high Phosphate levels in the buffer and recently quit using it.

    That leads me to the peat. I use it myself to set the acidity of the water. It comes with a few need-to-knows. First, it WILL turn your water brown. Second, it takes about a week to get the PH to move down 1 level. That is in my situation where I had it running in all 3 of my filters. I am now down to 2 filters running it. Last, when you add new water to your tank, that water is going to be tap-water PH. Meaning you are adding high PH water into low PH water. This means you will have to make smaller, more frequent water changes. Keep in mind my tank is over 3 times larger than yours so for me, a 10 gallon water change does not affect my PH levels hardly at all.

    Also with using peat you MUST check your PH often. I have been testing mine daily. The PH did not move far for me each day, but you need to keep an eye on it otherwise you may check it a few weeks later to find all of your fish dead and your PH at 5 or less.

    RO is expensive and wasteful. I choose not to use it for that reason, but that does not mean that you should not. I dont have the money to spend thousands of dollars to set the system up.

    The choices are yours. But I still feel and advocate, "If it isn't broken, dont try to fix it!" If you have not lost any fish, then where they are at now may be the best for them. I also keep Endlers and I keep them in soft water... they are supposed to be in hard water.... I really have not had a problem with them so far either. I make no effort to harden the water as it makes my water changes that more difficult and I only want to deal with one difficult tank, not all 4 of mine being hard to work.
     
    LemonDiscus, Feb 7, 2009
    #3
  4. YellowCichlid

    YellowCichlid New Member

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    Welcome grajmahal
     
    YellowCichlid, Feb 7, 2009
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  5. Anonymous

    Anonymous Thread Starter Guest

    Top Poster Of Month

    hey, and welcome glad you decided to check us out
     
    Anonymous, Feb 7, 2009
    #5
  6. Guidoman888

    Guidoman888 New Member

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    Welcome to the forum :)
     
    Guidoman888, Feb 8, 2009
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  7. jrow8162

    jrow8162 Member

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    Wisconsin huh? Packers fan??? I am a huge Green Bay fan.. Welcome to the forum!!! :)
     
    jrow8162, Feb 8, 2009
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  8. ira

    ira Member

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    Welcome,are you having trouble with the fish in from the tape.
     
    ira, Feb 12, 2009
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