My girlfriend and I have been preparing a 75 gallon tank over the last week for freshwater fish. Ive been closely monitoring the water chemistry every few days before we actually add at fish. We had a bit of an ammonia problem initially as it used to be a turtle tank (I assumed remnants of solid turtle waste would do that).
I've been treating it and everything is now within normal levels. The water is still hard at about 150-200 GH but I'm not sure what I can do about that on this scale. We live in an apartment so a water softener isn't an option, but I'm wondering if I need to soften it much at all. I have a feeling I'm okay to start but might need to find a solution later given the fish we'd like...
To start we're looking at some hearty fish (Namely some rosy barbs and pictus catfish) but ultimately we'd love to have an iridescent shark (catfish) in there. I am aware of how large they get and how fragile they are which is why we want to get the water chemistry good long before we introduce one.
The tank is staying a nice toasty 78-80 F or so. Anyone able to weigh in on how hard water can be and still sustain an iridescent shark?
I've been treating it and everything is now within normal levels. The water is still hard at about 150-200 GH but I'm not sure what I can do about that on this scale. We live in an apartment so a water softener isn't an option, but I'm wondering if I need to soften it much at all. I have a feeling I'm okay to start but might need to find a solution later given the fish we'd like...
To start we're looking at some hearty fish (Namely some rosy barbs and pictus catfish) but ultimately we'd love to have an iridescent shark (catfish) in there. I am aware of how large they get and how fragile they are which is why we want to get the water chemistry good long before we introduce one.
The tank is staying a nice toasty 78-80 F or so. Anyone able to weigh in on how hard water can be and still sustain an iridescent shark?