Hi All
I have a new 120L tank just finished cycling (yes, it was fish-in, but heavily planted first) and is ready to stock. It is very heavily planted at the moment with a few more on the way later this week including some echinodorus tenellus which I am hoping will eventually carpet the bottom of the aquarium. I am using soil and pea-gravel as substrate and I will eventually have a community of small fish in the middle layer with perhaps a few feature fish like pearl gourami. At the moment, there are 6 assorted danio and a couple of Amano shrimp.
The problem is, we live in a very hard water area and the PH is often slightly above 7.4 (API isnt all that accurate in this test - could be 7.8). I prefer my biotopes to be as much in balance as possible so dont want to use chemicals.
Beside the Amano shrimps of which there will be another 4 at the end of the week (making 6) I want a few algae eaters. I know about Otocinclus but unfortunately, there are from the Amazon basin and require acidic water. Does anyone have any suggestions as to other goods algae eaters that will remain around 1-2 inches (plecs are out) that will work in hard/alkaline water and are likely to be available in the UK.
P.S anyone have any idea of potential 'feature fish' which would work in there too? Rams are acidic and ciclids are territorial, angels get too big and wrong PH....
I have a new 120L tank just finished cycling (yes, it was fish-in, but heavily planted first) and is ready to stock. It is very heavily planted at the moment with a few more on the way later this week including some echinodorus tenellus which I am hoping will eventually carpet the bottom of the aquarium. I am using soil and pea-gravel as substrate and I will eventually have a community of small fish in the middle layer with perhaps a few feature fish like pearl gourami. At the moment, there are 6 assorted danio and a couple of Amano shrimp.
The problem is, we live in a very hard water area and the PH is often slightly above 7.4 (API isnt all that accurate in this test - could be 7.8). I prefer my biotopes to be as much in balance as possible so dont want to use chemicals.
Beside the Amano shrimps of which there will be another 4 at the end of the week (making 6) I want a few algae eaters. I know about Otocinclus but unfortunately, there are from the Amazon basin and require acidic water. Does anyone have any suggestions as to other goods algae eaters that will remain around 1-2 inches (plecs are out) that will work in hard/alkaline water and are likely to be available in the UK.
P.S anyone have any idea of potential 'feature fish' which would work in there too? Rams are acidic and ciclids are territorial, angels get too big and wrong PH....
