Is my tank ok?

[John h]

What's the best method to vacuum the gravel? The syphon hose I have would drain the water out of the tank before I could do much. Maybe I need a smaller diameter hose?

 

[dkpate]

I would get a smaller hose, or just pinch the tube if it's going too fast. That's what I have to do on my new one. I preferred the 1/2 diameter tube one for the good cleaning though.

 

[Toxicfish]

If you find it's syphoning off too much in one go, and you cant get another hose/vac any time soon, put a peg on the ling halfway down after the syphoning starts to restrict the flow but allow you to work freely..

My gravel vac has a clip to hold the hose in the bucket and a clamp that can vary the syphoning rate, just like a peg would.. (spring action clothes peg).

 

[John h]

Well I gave the gravel a bit of a vacuum. I did about half the gravel. The filter was fairly clean, but I rinsed out one of the pads in tank water anyway. I also did a pwc of 60 liters.

That was yesterday, and today I got these readings

Ph 8.0
Amonia 0
Nitrites 0
Nitrates 5

 

[Crepe]

yes, get that ammonia down.
PH IS HIGH SHOULD BE REDUCED TO AROUND 6.8
MID RANGE OR BETWEEN 5.5-7.5 REDUCE PH SLOWLY

I really really really disagree with that. I've kept "soft water" fish in medium to high pH quite successfully. I mean 7.6-8.0 pH. Fish like neon tetras and ram cichlids and Otos.

To be honest my water now is around 7.0-7.4 due to CO2 addition in my tanks but pH isn't as imperative as we used to think it was. Most common aquarium fish are bred and kept in more neutral, neutral basic water out of convenience on the breeder's part. That's not saying pH isn't important. It's just not as important as it used to seem to be.

 

[John h]

My ph is 8.0 straight out of the tap, so if I need to bring it down then I will have to do it each water change

 

[dkpate]

I think your tank readings sound good John.

 

[Toxicfish]

If you do have to bring the ph down for whatever reason, if you need to resort to products that lower ph, look for a product that will not add phosphates to do it, increase in phosphates leads to algae, I learned this the hard way.. I adjusted my new tank with "ph down" while it was still fish less, not realizing that my phosphates went off the API test chart and not one week later I have algae, same applies to the swimming pool out back, if the phosphate is too high, I have to keep up more chlorine too stave off algae blooms..

 

[OhNeil1969]

I agree with Crepe about the pH. If your fish are thriving now then changing the pH level is the last thing you want to do. I'd rather see you keep the ammonia at 0.25 ppm than try and change the pH (a little bit of sarcasm there). The thing that kills fish is a DRASTIC pH change. Like dkpate said, most fish can adapt to different pH. They just can't handle a sudden change.

 

[John h]

The fish seem more than happy, so I'll leave the ph for now.

I only have one live plant in the tank ( the rest are plastic) should I add some more? My nitrate level doesn't seem high enough for live plants. Do I even need to have live plants?

 

[OhNeil1969]

The fish seem more than happy, so I'll leave the ph for now.

I only have one live plant in the tank ( the rest are plastic) should I add some more? My nitrate level doesn't seem high enough for live plants. Do I even need to have live plants?

Adding plants to your tank may not be that easy (I'm learning that myself). There are a lot of things to consider when adding plants. The first and probably the most important thing you need to consider is lighting. If you don't have enough lighting to support photosynthesis then your plants are probably going to die. Dying plants will create new ammonia problems as they decay. Check the planted tank forums for more info.

 

[dkpate]

I got this moss about a year ago, and it is going NUTS! I have had to separate it into 3 tanks, and I don't use ferts. The other plants I am able to keep alive without ferts is the little bulbs you can buy in the fish section at Walmart, my favorite is the lily, it gets big and maroon.

 

[John h]

I think I will just stick with getting a few more fish settled into the tank for now.

 

[Trout11B]

If you find it's syphoning off too much in one go, and you cant get another hose/vac any time soon, put a peg on the ling halfway down after the syphoning starts to restrict the flow but allow you to work freely..

My gravel vac has a clip to hold the hose in the bucket and a clamp that can vary the syphoning rate, just like a peg would.. (spring action clothes peg).

Toxic Fish, as I'm looking for a gravel vac, what kind is yours?

 

[Toxicfish]

Mine is an "easy clean". It's good as far as the clip on the bucket goes, I can also compress the clamp so that the flow will stop if i need it too, however as I have a four foot 'tall' tank, I have the really long vac, and I find the gravel guard restricts flow a bit too much and is not needed on an extra long vac such as mine (if it catches a floating leaf, it can get stuck in the gravel guard and then have to back-flush the vac).

I have read good reports on the "python" style vacs that connect to the nearest tap, I might get one, so i don't have to lug buckets around the house,, or just modify my existing one.

but at the end of the day, mine worksand the bucket clip is handy, so I don't make a mess in the lounge room where the tank is ( well, ,make less mess put it that way).

Sent from my iPad using Aquarium

 

[fort384]

Wanted to add my 2 cents... I think you made a good choice not messing with the pH... Yours is fine. Stable is better than "perfect". Adjusting pH is difficult, and lowering it is way harder than raising it. The end result is usually a giant pH crash.

Just acclimate your fish properly to your tank when you get them, and all will be fine imo.

 

[John h]

Yeah, the guy at my LFS said to leave the PH as well, as you will just end up crashing the tank