I have a 28g with penguin 150, 150w Stealth Pro, Sand, Silk Plants, mopani wood(driftwood), 5 albino cory catfish, 1 female veiltail betta, and 1 apple 1 mystery snail. I just tested my water with a API liquid FW master, 0ammonia, 0nitrites, and 0nitrate.
1.I tested my hose water with normal ph after letting it site in a bucket for 48hours with an airstone, and it showed up dark navy blue, the instructions said that means you need to use high range, so i did and came up with 8.4. I repeated the process only with aquarium water since it had driftwood, it was the same. I knew my hose water was packed with calcium, but i expected my ph to be a lot lower, especially with a huge piece if driftwood that was still putting off tanins. Is this possible, if so should i be doing something about it? I know not to use chemicals, ive been told to leave it alone and last resort use peat moss.
2. As mentioned above, I have 5 albino cory catfish. I started with 3, and slowly added the rest one by one. Whenever i go to petco, their extremely acitve, even if 1 is byitself, or only 2 are in there. Whenever i bring some home, they just lay on the bottom, right out in the open, and act lethargic. The only time they move is if i drop hikari tropical sinking wafer in, they go crazy for it, after its gone they immediatly go inactive. They betta stays at the top and doesnt bother them, and it swims happily around and play in the filter, etc acts like normal, so do the snails. Ive compared my tank to the ones their kept in at petco and the only differences are, mines sand theres is gravel, they keep angelfish in with them, not betta and snails, they use different water conditioner, but the same ph and stats as me. There one differnce that stuck out to me, they feed them algae wafers, i feed mine hiakri which contains MSG, i did some research and multiple people claimed that they traced the smae symptoms my cories experienceing down to MSG, however that was with goldfish. All my other creatures are fine, and the corys are active at the store, whenever i bring them home and feed them, the symptoms begin
3.I've decided i want 1 more albino cory for sure, and if possible i want 1 male mickey mouse platy and 2-3 females. Should i get 2 or 3 females and would this be overstocking, even a little? Next question, lol sorry for all my questions, how should i add them, so that i dont have to go through a minicycle? Ive been told adding all of them at once shouldnt be too much, but to be safe add one per week. Other people have told me to add a cory and wait, then add all the platys at once, because if i only add one the betta would see the oppourtunity to attack, whereas adding all 3-4 would help with that. And others have told me add all the females first, then add the male, and im just confused on what to do.
4. (i promise this is the last one) Whenever i feed the cories a wafer, the betta comes and gets it, she doesnt get aggresive or anything, she just catches it on its way down before the cories know its there, and eventually she eats it when it gets soft, and gets a huge belly, so ive been netting her and putiing her in a 24oz cup for an hour, of the same temp, and tank water, i know how stressfull this is on her but ive been unable to find an alternative.
5. Sorry for the long boring questions i just wanted to make sure my current problems were solved before adding more fish, and make sure i wouldnt be overstocking. Thanks, i forgot to mention i keep my tank at 78-80, should it be kept at 76-78?
1.I tested my hose water with normal ph after letting it site in a bucket for 48hours with an airstone, and it showed up dark navy blue, the instructions said that means you need to use high range, so i did and came up with 8.4. I repeated the process only with aquarium water since it had driftwood, it was the same. I knew my hose water was packed with calcium, but i expected my ph to be a lot lower, especially with a huge piece if driftwood that was still putting off tanins. Is this possible, if so should i be doing something about it? I know not to use chemicals, ive been told to leave it alone and last resort use peat moss.
2. As mentioned above, I have 5 albino cory catfish. I started with 3, and slowly added the rest one by one. Whenever i go to petco, their extremely acitve, even if 1 is byitself, or only 2 are in there. Whenever i bring some home, they just lay on the bottom, right out in the open, and act lethargic. The only time they move is if i drop hikari tropical sinking wafer in, they go crazy for it, after its gone they immediatly go inactive. They betta stays at the top and doesnt bother them, and it swims happily around and play in the filter, etc acts like normal, so do the snails. Ive compared my tank to the ones their kept in at petco and the only differences are, mines sand theres is gravel, they keep angelfish in with them, not betta and snails, they use different water conditioner, but the same ph and stats as me. There one differnce that stuck out to me, they feed them algae wafers, i feed mine hiakri which contains MSG, i did some research and multiple people claimed that they traced the smae symptoms my cories experienceing down to MSG, however that was with goldfish. All my other creatures are fine, and the corys are active at the store, whenever i bring them home and feed them, the symptoms begin
3.I've decided i want 1 more albino cory for sure, and if possible i want 1 male mickey mouse platy and 2-3 females. Should i get 2 or 3 females and would this be overstocking, even a little? Next question, lol sorry for all my questions, how should i add them, so that i dont have to go through a minicycle? Ive been told adding all of them at once shouldnt be too much, but to be safe add one per week. Other people have told me to add a cory and wait, then add all the platys at once, because if i only add one the betta would see the oppourtunity to attack, whereas adding all 3-4 would help with that. And others have told me add all the females first, then add the male, and im just confused on what to do.
4. (i promise this is the last one) Whenever i feed the cories a wafer, the betta comes and gets it, she doesnt get aggresive or anything, she just catches it on its way down before the cories know its there, and eventually she eats it when it gets soft, and gets a huge belly, so ive been netting her and putiing her in a 24oz cup for an hour, of the same temp, and tank water, i know how stressfull this is on her but ive been unable to find an alternative.
5. Sorry for the long boring questions i just wanted to make sure my current problems were solved before adding more fish, and make sure i wouldnt be overstocking. Thanks, i forgot to mention i keep my tank at 78-80, should it be kept at 76-78?
