hmmm choosing fish

[wxboilermaker]

Alright, just bought my first few fish for the 10 gal. I now have 4 cherry barbs happily residing in their new home. Did a water test last night at work and all my levels were normal, so I'll have to see on saturday what effect adding the fish did. They seem really happy. They absolutly love all the little places to swim through and hide in the tank, especially that hollow piece of cactus wood that's turning the water a lovley tea color.

I did find out from the water test that my water (and most water around here) is in fact very basic (pH around 8 ). My coworker told me that it shouldn't be a problem as all the fish have been living in it forever and are adapted to it.

Since my water is that tea color from the wood, can anyone suggest a fish (or color of fish) that will really stand out in color? The deep reds of the cherries are pretty well absorbed by the water.

 

[BrianNY]

Hi wxboilermaker. Hopefully, as the driftwood ages the color will stop leaching out into your tank. So I wouldn't worry about the color of the water and fish color. Ideally you want the water crystal clear.

 

[grimlock3000]

Work on cycling the tank before you get some more fish. If you add any more fish, you are risking all of the fish with ammonia and nitrites. It should take a few days for the cycle to start registering ammonia and nitrites on the test kits.

The tea color in the water will clear up with time and water changes. Carbon helps a lot too to clear the water.

Male Fancy Guppies go good with Barbs, and Dwarf Gouramis look nice too, but they can be moody. You need to be real careful with a 10g tank, you are already close to reaching a full load of fish.

 

[Fruitbat]

Actually...the tea-colored water won't be that much of a problem. The tannins that are leaching from the wood aren't harmful to the fish. In fact....neon tetras and cardinal tetras will thrive in water like that and if the light hits them right they will look magnificent! I used to have a 29 gallon that I deliberately developed the so-called 'black water' in (used uncured driftwood and peat filtering) and it housed a school of 35 cardinal tetras. It was one of the most beautiful tanks I've ever set up!

 

[wxboilermaker]

Yea, i don't mind the color so much, just want my fish to be visible. I'm not going to get any more fish for another week or so to let the tank cycle right, so i'm just deciding now what I want. Something interesting to note tho. When I first set the tank up, I added some cycle to it and let it sit for 24 hours before I brought a water sample to work to test it. Turns out there were low levels of ammonia and nitrites. Since the only thing in the water was some stress coat and the cycle, I'm assuming the cycle contains ammonia and bacteria, explaining the nitrites.

Oh yea, before I forget, when I add water I know I want it as close to tank temp as possible. Yet to do this, it needs to come almost straight from the tap to the tank, which doesn't give the stress coat much time to remove the chlorine. So is it better to just use room temp water that has been sitting to make sure the chlorine is neutralized? Also, what temp bulb do you recomend for my tank. Not sure exactly what bulb it is, but it is a aquarium "day light" bulb. Also, how long will carbon last filtering that much stuff out. I read somewhere that tannin discoloration will kill charcoal pretty fast.

 

[Allivymar]

Yep; tis very likely it was the Cycle causing "false" positives (not really false, but they shouldn't be there). I had tried Cycle once; I had nitrate readings off the chart. When I tested straight Cycle, I discovered it had over 100 ppm nitrates (I stopped bothering to check after 3 mins although it is a 5 min test). Its useless - it doesn't have the correct nitrifying bacteria anyway.

As for letting the tank cycle correctly, that can take up to 6 weeks; one week is no where near enough for the bacteria to colonise the tank, much less enough bacteria to support more fish. Be patient *grin* even tho its near impossible (speaking from experience).

I use a Python, which adds water directly to the tank from the tap. I match temps and turn it on. Most water treatments work immediately; not sure about stress coat but it prob does (read the container). If so, you can use the water straight from the tap as long as it doesn't contain anything nasty. And I wouldn't depend on just letting the water sit to remove chlorine. Most water companies add chloramine as well, which really doesn't go away if you let the water sit (and is just as dangerous to fish).

I would change the carbon every week; you're right in that the tannins will wipe out the charcoal quickly.